Last year, it was stated that you wanted to “double down” on the Server side and with the removal of 3rd party agents on the Shield, that there will be an alternative to the python-based metadata agents.
What is the state or progression on that? Will there be a grace period of some time to give developers the ability to bridge the two systems so that we are not caught off-guard because there was no announcement of the final removal on other server platforms as well?
Answer:
The first part of this answer was already addressed here, so please start there to cover the state and upcoming plans.
To add to that - it will not be a hard cutover right as it is released. We recognize that an overlap period is warranted here and we want to give developers time to work on switching things over before we fully remove the mentioned python support.
There was an additional question here that I can address:
So the question still is: What is the future of 3rd party agents? Is the goal to let developers create their own applications that need to run separately from Plex or is the Plan to have them in some way integrated in the Plex infrastructure, like they were before?
Years ago we had plugins as part of the PMS system. While those added some amazing functionality, they also created some challenges that led to the decision to stop that approach. Today, a lot of server owners already run companion and third party processes alongside their PMS instance. This is our intended way forward here. With platforms like Docker that allow for a consistent experience for apps to run on their own and in conjunction with the PMS API this creates a big opportunity for some amazing new functionality and we are excited to see what the community can build here.
