get module version info from drupal.org

In issue # we are looking at a simple but effective means for drupal installs to check for available update information.

Under this approach, an install would query a central server (e.g., drupal.org) for the latest available version of a particular module/;theme.

To respond to this request, the project module would return a simple text file in php_ini format, e.g.:

md5:93284729238747
url:http://www.drupal.org/project
version:4.7.3

Needed:

* a menu item
* a brief callback function that reads get requests and returns the text file.

This proposal comes from the Drupal Vancouver conference, and was the consensus suggestion of: Neil Drumm, Jeremy Andrews, Chris Cook, Nedjo, Omar.

Please, consider using RSS format so that will help, I believe, to deal with future extensions where more complex information could be put in place. We already know how to parse RSS feeds, so there would no need to code another parser.

maybe this is something for you http://drupal.org/node/48602/

this module allows you to view infos about your drupal installation and system environment, to save and export it, rss format, to compare with others drupal installations, and to compare the module files with drupal.org if new versions are available.

i started it 2 weeks ago and i wanted to public it in 2 or 3 weeks.
but your issue afore so i will public it soon.

ralf

This issue is for the client-side, that is, the site which wants to learn the most recent version for a module or all modules. The client-side code will likely live in the system module and will query the server-side (drupal.org, typically) via a GET.

See also issue #48580, which is the server-side piece of this.

Minor correction: that should be Chris Johnson (me), not Chris Cook.

Behold the update module, nee update_status module. :-)