Automatic plugin update from Github

[BabelhalSupport]

Since WordPress 5.8 there is a plugin header: Update URI
Using it the developer can use the WordPress automatic plugin update feature without using the WordPress repo.

Example:
qtranslate.php

/**
 * Plugin Name: qTranslate-XT
 * Plugin URI: https://github.com/qtranslate/qtranslate-xt/
 * [...]
 * Update URI: https://github.com/qtranslate/qtranslate-xt/update.json
 */

update.json

{
   "qtranslate-xt/qtranslate.php": {
   	"version": "3.15.3",
   	"last_updated": "2025-03-29",
   	"package": "https://github.com/qtranslate/qtranslate-xt/versions/3.15.3.zip",
   	"url": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/qtranslate/qtranslate-xt/refs/heads/master/CHANGELOG.md",
   	"requires_php": 7.1
   }
}

Do you want to implement it?

[BabelhalSupport]

documentation:
https://make.wordpress.org/core/2021/06/29/introducing-update-uri-plugin-header-in-wordpress-5-8/

example:
https://gist.github.com/CruelDrool/4cc70b819a33793396456c5ddb81781d

[herrvigg]

Thank you for the notice!
But where can we find the format of the JSON file and the description of all the keys? The example you show is not as the example in the link you gave. For example why do you put a qtranslate-xt/qtranslate.php key?

[BabelhalSupport]

For example why do you put a qtranslate-xt/qtranslate.php key?

The key is the plugin directory and and plugin main file (which contains the "Plugin Name:", "Version:", ... headers in PHP comment).
I did not find the reference, where I found this earlier.

WordPress gathering plugin update information
file: https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/6.7/src/wp-includes/update.php
function: wp_update_plugins( ... )
hook: $update = apply_filters( "update_plugins_{$hostname}", false, $plugin_data, $plugin_file, $locales );
hook documentation: https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/update_plugins_hostname/

[herrvigg]

It is something you have implemented for other plugins?
The format you describe is the regular plugin header
https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/plugin-basics/header-requirements/

I don't see in the WP6.8 code where the URI (possibly JSON) is extracted.
https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/6.8/src/wp-includes/update.php

They say:

If the value of this new field matches any URI other than https://wordpress.org/plugins/{$slug}/ or w.org/plugin/{$slug}, WordPress will not attempt to update it.

But I don't see where this check is done in their code.
It could be all should be done by the plugin itself with the new hook. So the format is completely custom?
But even there the hook documentation is quite confusing, there's a $update parameter that can be false or array with a lot of fields, but in the WP code they only call it with false. Looks very confusing and unclear...

[BabelhalSupport]

WordPress plugin update summary:
• If a plugin header does not have "Update URI:" then the WordPress repo is used for updates.
• If a plugin header does have "Update URI: https://{hostname}/..." then actually any plugin can hand over the update information for that plugin to WordPress by using the 'update_plugins_{hostname}' hook.

I have implemented the automatic update for severeal own plugins this way.
I have a main plugin that handles the update of all our plugins.
It uses hook update_plugins_{hostname}' (in out case babelhal.hu).
Each of our plugins has the header: "https://babelhal.hu/...".
When the hook is called, our function reads a json file on our server, which stores the update info for our plugins and returns the apripriate part.

function update_plugins( $update, $plugin_data, $plugin_file ) {
	[...]
	$response = wp_remote_get( "https://babelhal.hu/{path}/version-info.json" );
	if ( is_array( $response ) && ! empty( $response['body'] ) ) {
		$custom_plugins_data = json_decode( $response['body'], true );
		if ( ! empty( $custom_plugins_data[$plugin_file] ) ) {
			$update = $custom_plugins_data[$plugin_file];
		}
	}
	return $update;
}
add_filter( 'update_plugins_babelhal.hu', 'update_plugins', 10, 3 );

[BabelhalSupport]

What do you think?
Will you make the plugin autoupdate working this way?