Return $update = true for plugins with empty slugs

[ecairol]

If we have a plugin with an empty slug, should our autoupdate-filter return true for it, so it moves from the Disabled bucket to the Enabled one?

See for instance here, on Hey Shayla Dev (https://hey-shayla-launch-planning.mystagingwebsite.com/):

8 plugins mysteriously have updates disabled

Once you debug you realize that they are all empty slugs:

If returning true has other undesired consequences, perhaps adding a notice somewhere would be a nice UX/UI feature.

[NickGreen]

Many thoughts here, none conclusive yet:

• I didn't think that Plugin Autoupdate Filter affected which ones show up as individually having "Autoupdates Enabled".. would have to test that.
• We should probably define slugs for our internal plugins, even though it's not technically required or enforced by WordPress.. would adding Text Domain: my-plugin to the plugin headers accomplish that?
• It would be smart to not require slug in Plugin Autoupdate Filter if it's not required by WordPress. Maybe if no slug, we could find an alternate way to track the plugin.

[ecairol]

Thanks @NickGreen, I'm pretty much aligned with your thoughts.

Maybe if no slug, we could find an alternate way to track the plugin.

If I remember correctly, the empty-slugs plugins are already gracefully handled using their file-name.php. However, as a user I would think they are not being updated because they are in the Disabled bucket (even though they are being kept up to date).

I'm 99% sure the above is true, but a little bit of testing wouldn't hurt. In fact our plugins Safety Net and Plugin Auto Update filter have empty slugs and yet they are always kept up to date.

So if they are being updated as expected, to avoid confusion, the filter should return true for these empty slugs. That way they aren't placed in the Disabled tab.