Changelog on addons updates

javidominguez commented 1 year ago

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Often when addon developers make changes in an update, many users are not even aware of it. Users usually read the documentation when they install a new addon but not every time they update it. Also, it would be tedious to read the entire documentation every time. Change information may be available on Github, on the addons website or on the mailing lists but not all users access it, maybe because they update via addonUpdater.

Describe the solution you'd like

Developers could include a changelog.md file in the doc folder of the addon.
set a button in the addon manager, next to the "addon help" button, to show the changelog file.
Set a button in the addon install dialog, when you are informed that there is already a version installed,to view the change log before updating it.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Any other way you can think of to display the change log in an easily accessible way for the user.

Additional context

seanbudd commented 1 year ago

Blocked by #13985

javidominguez commented 7 months ago

I have created this global plugin as an approach to solve this issue. It modify addonHandler.installAddonBundle to display a changelog.txt file when an addon is updated. Addon developers only have to provide this file.

It can still be improved. As addon it can be tested and receive feedback. Any opinions and contributions are welcome. Perhaps in the future it can be integrated into NVDA.

https://github.com/javidominguez/displayAddonsChangelog

Cleversn commented 6 months ago

I want this feature too. Each time I receive an add-on update warning, I'm forced to go look for the changes, usually at the add-ons discussion group to see if a thread was opened detailing the changes made.

nvaccess / nvda