Implement auto-discovery of plugins

[cburgdorf]

What is wrong?

We currently hard list plugins. It would be nice to auto discover plugins. The end game should be that plugins can be just installed through pip and probably a config file manages them (enable/disable etc).

Config file doesn't need to be part of step one.

How can it be fixed

#996 (comment)

I might tackle this at some point but at the same time I think it's a great issue for anyone else interested. I'm happy to provide support.

[parthpankajtiwary]

Hi @cburgdorf,

I am interested in tackling this problem, however, I will need your guidance on how I can go about doing this. I read #996 comment and both the resources mentioned in the comment, I do understand what needs to be done but I don't understand where exactly :)

[cburgdorf]

Hey @parthpankajtiwary,

great to have you looking into this. Have a look at this place.

py-evm/trinity/main.py

Line 388 in fd5c5d4

plugin_manager.register(ENABLED_PLUGINS)

It should basically be a replacement for that API call. I guess we can even keep it a manual method invocation at this code place. It should just be something like plugin_manager.discover_plugins() instead of passing a fixed list of plugins.

Does that give you the right pointer to explore further?

[parthpankajtiwary]

Hi @cburgdorf,

Thank you so much for your response!

Yes, I am on it and for now, this looks like enough information for further exploration. I will reach out to you with further questions if any :)

[cburgdorf]

@parthpankajtiwary Not trying to push but do you have any updates to share yet?

As #1212 is nearing completeness I aim to shoot for a plugin guide soon (#1103). It would be super cool if that guide could show the user how to build and run a plugin without touching the Trinity code itself which depends on this issue.

[parthpankajtiwary]

Hi @cburgdorf,

Thank you so much for reaching out! :)

Is it okay if I can finally update you on this issue by Sunday? Just a couple of things got along in the way this week. I will give you a final update on Sunday, either with a pull request or with the issues I am facing. I hope this is not too late, please do let me know if it needs to be done earlier and I will try my best to conclude on this sooner, if possible.

[cburgdorf]

@parthpankajtiwary sounds great. Very happy to have you looking into this!

[ankitchiplunkar]

If this issue is not being looked into I can give it a try.

[cburgdorf]

@ankitchiplunkar haven't heard from @parthpankajtiwary so far. Feel free to give it a shot.