Display instance version in settings UI if possible

[opusforlife2]

Would it be possible to programmatically obtain the version code for every instance URL at the time of fetching the instance list (or when the extension's main data source is updated)?

The idea is that instead of having to manually open each instance and check the version, the user could easily glance at the instance list for that service and see which instances are on old versions, and thus likely unmaintained or neglected.

The instance version could be displayed as a label next to the URL.

[ManeraKai]

This requires each frontend to have an API like https://instance.xyz/_version so I can fetch them.

[opusforlife2]

Got the idea from frontends like Piped and Invidious, which themselves have instance list/health pages. I hope all such APIs are publicly accessible.

[IkelAtomig]

Maybe only for them as of now ?

But in that case, we need to also apply a logic. That fetches, the latest version from the releases of the project and match it so find if it's latest or not.

It's a lot of pinging.

@ManeraKai - I think we should have features that require pinging to be disabled by default.

[opusforlife2]

Maybe only for them as of now ?

Sure. Having an instance API is a best practice that devs should be following anyway.