I know it's getting hard to keep track of if you have the latest version of modules.  I have played with and tryed the current module update tool (forget who wrote that module), and would really like to see something more useful and standardized.  

What I am thinking is that each author who wanted could maintain a version.txt file in their download area or somwhere attainable via http.....

The files then could be accessed by a module version notification module.  (did you get all that... no... read it again  )

This would take an extra line in the module that would contain the version.txt url.....

the version.txt would contain the current version info for each of an author's modules.  

An admin could then hit their check for module updated link in the grotto... and the module would grab and read all of the version.txt urls that it found and read the versions for the files that are installed on the server and simple offer download links that are read from the modules themselves.  The module would only check when an admin ran the check, thus no real added load on the server.....

Anyway is this an idea that anyone would be interested in participating in??  Either in helping to set a standard for the version.txt, to implement support in their modules, or even help develop this module?

Anyway I will leave this at the idea stage until I get further input.

I'm with Sneak..

And I would really like to see something like this at some point.

So far it seems like this is a favorable idea.  I would imagine the first step is going to be figuring out the version.txt format (what info it will hold and how if will be formated).  The next will be getting the version check module to read an include it from remote domains.  The rest will be very simple.  

so... for version.txt I would suggest a simple format
modulename
current version

like this


very simple very small....

then it would be the matter of reading the files from the location specified in the modules and checking against the stored version numbers.  

I do however forsee some problems getting the info from remote servers however.

I think there are a couple issues to consider from the connecting to other servers perspective.

First, as Enderwiggin observed, slow servers causing problems on your end are a concern - the more diverse your mod collection, and the servers you are 'calling', the greater the potential for issues to occur - especially when a download source changes or goes offline permanently.

Secondly, how often would you be conducted this check?  I would suggest using newday_runonce as the main hook, and further set it to run the check every 2 or 3 real days.  This would reduce the risk of aggravating slowdowns, reduce the load on participating sites and stagger the requests over a period of days instead of all coming in within several hours of each other.

I think the concept sounds good, the trick is to make it a viable tool which doesn't become a resource hog.  DragonPrime will participate in any workable solution that is developed.

I anticipate that once the new portal code is released (in the next month or two), I will be writing a proper upload system which logs all the other things we're after - download counter, descriptions, etc.  I don't imagine it would be a far stretch to incorporate a system to read the file and generate the version.txt type file automatically.

What's wrong with just updating the first post in the thread for the module here?

You may have noticed that some of the 'regulars' have stickied "Module Status" threads in the completed module section.  Until something better comes along, this method is available, but depends on the individual authors to update their threads.

I would suggest they update the first post as their primary point.

I must have missed something. How did the old module updater work. *runs to find the code*

Which certainly WOULDN'T cause a heavy load, unless everyone checks at once ;p

I like this idea and would certainly use a module for it.

-Bandon