Enforce that plugin names in the plugins store are the same as when they're installed

Feature requests
1

Most users probably haven’t come across inconsistent naming like that before, however there is one I’ve seen: There’s a plugin whose name in the plugin store and GH repo is “Find Unliked Files”: GitHub - Vinzent03/find-unlinked-files: Find files, which are nowhere linked, so they are maybe lost in your vault..

But when I install it, it shows up as “Find orphaned files and broken links” in the plugins list, which is annoying. Another thing, I looked through the guy’s list of repos and thought it was different plugin, after having installed it a while ago!

Could Obsidian add a rule, perhaps programmatically check that the name in the manifest.json file matches the repo name and or the name that shows up in the plugins store, or at least close enough?

1 Like
2

We are not gonna do it because there may be legitimate reasons to change the name and/description (such as picking a more descriptive one).

3

Can you elaborate? Can you provide examples? Is the downside of possible confusion from users outweighed by the potential benefits of having different names?

4

the example is the one you provided.

5

@WhiteNoise But is there anything else you can describe? This is literally the only plugin I’ve seen that does this.

As far as I can tell, this is bad UX. If I see a name for a plugin in the store and install it, I expect it to have the same name. Like how you install plugins in other apps, or install apps from the App Store, Google Play, or from a website. Users learn about what about the plugin or app does generally before installing it, by reading the app or plugin page, and whatever the brief description is below the title. Obsidian plugins have those in the store, like the one I brought up:

Find Unlinked files

Find files that are not linked anywhere and would otherwise be lost in your vault

It makes no sense to make the name longer, a brief description after the fact.

1 Like
6

Open an issue in the plugin repository and ask them to open a PR and update the name upstream.

7

I got a better understanding of the issue and reinstated your feature request.

We are not going to act on repo name/url. However, I agree with you that the name of plugin the the directory and once installed should remain the same.

8

Alright, but can you elaborate on what you said about “legitimate reasons to change the name and/description”

9

Yeah that make more sense. I think Obsidian should show the name specified in manifest.json in both the plugin store and plugins list, and the repo name can be whatever the plugin dev(s) want it to be. The repo name can be shown below the repo url in the plugin store.