Indicate a plugin has a new version to install

[EmilyRagan]

Goal

Right now, users must go check for new versions of plugins by going to the Store and comparing the current listed version of a plugin to the version that is installed in their COSMOS instance. This information should be presented to them, rather than a slog to find one by one.

Details

• A button at the top of "Installed Plugins" to "Check for updates"
• Clicking this button queries for new versions of all plugins installed from the Store by their ids
• Any plugin with a version available newer than installed should have a visual indicator that a newer version is available
  • this could be on the horizontal dots menu icon itself or something next to that menu button, but needs to be more than just a color change

[crawlchat]

Summary

This looks like a duplicate/extension of an existing request — #2939 already asked for "new version available" indicators on installed Store plugins, and a maintainer confirmed the triple-dots (mdi-dots-horizontal) menu is the right place for it .

The underlying data model already supports this: PluginModel stores store_plugin_id and store_version_id per installed plugin , and the backend PluginsController already has logic to look up a store plugin's current_version_id and compare it against the installed store_version_id (see plugins_controller.rb lines ~88–103, where it finds store_plugin['current_version_id'] vs. the installed store_version_id). So a "check for updates" feature can largely reuse existing plumbing rather than build new APIs.

Proposed implementation approach

Backend

• Add/reuse an endpoint (e.g. GET /openc3-api/plugins/store_updates) that, for every installed plugin with a store_plugin_id, fetches the store plugin via OpenC3::PluginStoreModel.get_by_id and returns whether current_version_id != store_version_id (plus the newer version string).

Frontend (PluginsTab.vue / PluginList.vue)

• Add a v-btn "Check for Updates" next to the "Installed Plugins" header (PluginsTab.vue line ~116), which calls the endpoint above and stores a map of pluginName -> updateAvailable in PluginsTab.vue data.
• Pass that map down as a prop to plugin-list.
• In the plugin list item, next to/around the mdi-dots-horizontal menu button, conditionally render a badge/icon (e.g. mdi-arrow-up-bold-circle in a distinct color, or a Vuetify v-badge wrapping the menu icon) when updateAvailable is true for that plugin.

I did not get far enough into PluginList.vue/PluginCard.vue (menu icon markup) before hitting my tool call limit, so I can't confirm exact prop names/structure for the badge placement — an engineer should verify those files before merging a PR.

Could you confirm whether this should be a fresh implementation or if it should build directly on top of the discussion/plan already started in #2939? That will help avoid duplicate work.