How to create a Plugin Installer

[nevetS]

Hopefully this can turn into a useful thread for everyone, or someone can point me to the already existing thread which covers this topic.

I've created a plugin, and now I want to create an installer to share with others.

My mod has two plugins, which I've downloaded into a single xml file and also requires a minor update to a template. The data in the xml file can change per installation since one of the lines indicates the location of a file on the server.

So what should I do about an installer. I'm thinking a simple web page that asks for a little bit of user input and then imports the xml file into vbulletin, and then spells out some information about how to update the postbit template (rather than try to update it automatically).

Is there an example of a page that automatically install plugins out there? Where do installers typically get uploaded to?

[Andreas]

Well, there are many different ways to create an Installer.
What should this Installer do?

[nevetS]

Sorry that I wasn't more clear:

1) get input from user about 3 things:
carp install location
carp cache location
cache refresh time period
2) dynamically update the xml for the plugin based on these variables.
(this part I can do pretty easily with php code)
3) upload the plugin xml files automatically. (so the user doesn't have to do it in a separate step)
4) display additional configuration information and an installation success/error message.

[Andreas]

Hmm, why not make those variables vBulletin Settings?

[nevetS]

not a bad idea... but I'm a newbie. I'll do a little bit of research and see if I can't figure it out.