RFC: Plugin Manager Plugin Configuration

To all the plugin developers out there, I would like to get some feedback on what I am currently planning on implementing for the Plugin Manager with regards to plugin configuration options.

So, to start with, here is some sample code that might appear in remote post:

my $blog_id = 1;
my $author_id = 1;

eval "use MT::Plugins::Config;";
if (!defined $@) {
    require MT::Blog;
    require MT::Author;
    MT::Plugins::Config->add_variable ( Blog_ID => {
        plugin          => 'remote post',
        var             => \$blog_id,
        desc            => "Destination blog for all remote post pings",
        allowed_values  => { map { $_->name => $_->id } MT::Blog->load },
        use_hash_values => 1,
    });
    MT::Plugins::Config->add_variable ( Author_ID => {
        plugin          => 'remote post',
        var             => \$author_id,
        desc            => 'Author as whom to post remote post pings',
        allowed_values  => { map { $_->name => $_->id } MT::Author->load },
        use_hash_values => 1,
    });
}

Basically, the idea is that this plugin can operate with or without the Plugin Manager installed. If it is not, the user just changes the values in the initial declaration. Otherwise, the Plugin Manager can handle the validation and storing of the values.

So, let me go into a little more detail about all the hash keys I plan to include:

• plugin: Plugin name
• var: Reference to the variable that should hold the configured value (if you don't understand exactly what a Perl reference is, think of it like a pointer).
• desc: Description of the variable
• allowed_values: Hash containing possible values for the variable
• use_hash_values: If set to a true value (i.e. 1), the Plugin Manager will display the hash keys to the user for choosing, but will store/assign the hash value of that key. Otherwise, it will only use the hash keys.
• regexp: While allowed_values explicitly sets the possible values, regexp gives you a little more flexibility. Just set it to a regular expression that the value of the variable must match (e.g. '\d{1,3}' for a 1-3 digit number).

In the future, I would like to expand this to include dynamic lists of values. To use remote post as an example, I would use it to define a list of remote post id's that a site administrator could use to designate different author-blog-category combinations.

Any thoughts? Concerns?