Admin Help Update

I was there in #wordpress-sfd this morning, but no one else was. Last week I was unable to make the meeting but @trishasalas was able to step in in my stead to keep the band playing. There were a few things I wanted to talk about this week, so I’ll post them for discussion here. I should be at or around my desk for most of the day and/or week, so feel free to hit me on IRC or you can email or GTalk me at chris at jazzsequence dot com.

WordPress 3.8 is closer than you think

I’ve been monitoring the #wordpress-dev chatter and 3.8 is only a couple weeks away. Barring any horrible blockers, it will drop on the ~~18th~~ 12th meaning that 3.9 feature plugins need to be presentable immediately following the 3.8 release because they will start to be integrated into coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. at that point.

**If we want this to be included in WordPress 3.9, we need to have something to present.**

Not only presentable, it needs to be tested. There are some things — like accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) or internationalization or backwards-compatibility concerns that wouldn’t necessarily be blockers for integrating into core, but we need to have our stuff together. Which means, if the ~~18th~~ 12th is when 3.8 drops, that should be our deadline for having the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party done, ready to go and be tested by actual humans. If we can’t make that deadline this time around, we can continue to work on this for 4.0 (or whatever the release following 3.9 will be), but since developer resources have been our main weak point up to now, we’re going to need to do some serious recruiting.

So where are we?

I would like to start merging the stuff that @ninnypants has been working on into my repo so there’s a single repository that we’re using and go from there. Since I haven’t looked at his changes, or tested any of that stuff, I’d like for someone to let me know what the latest is on that front and whether we can start building on that. Also, I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to spare on that this week, so anyone’s help in this process and/or pull requests would be greatly appreciated.

Code name

Having a code name is something that was proposed over here that we haven’t ever had and thus far the meetings and p2 posts have been tagged with “admin help”. This is somewhat boring. @ubermaut suggested Lifebuoy. Help² is another idea I just came up with (see, it’s squared — because some of our ideas came from how Squarespace handles help/documentation — and it can also be read as Help 2 — as in the second version of help…). Any other ideas are welcome. It seems a little late to be figuring this out now, but then, if we’re gearing for a 4.0 release, maybe having a code name will make us more distinctive and noticeable.

Last call for 3.9

If this week goes by with no real progress on the plugin, we should again expect this to be punted and focus on getting something ready for the next release of WordPress. It can be done if we are all able to make sprint to get it to happen, but if feature plugins are being merged into core as soon as 3.8 hits the virtual shelves, we’ll already have missed the boat.

If there are any other folks out there interested in helping make this feature a part of core, meetupMeetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/. A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. organizers, folks who just want to start contributing to WordPress core, please hit me up and let me know in what way(s) you are able to help & I can get you up to speed. This could be done in a matter of hours at a hack day or some such thing if someone was inclined to start one up.

Thanks to everyone who has helped to get us this far. We’ll get there.

#admin-help

Drew Jaynes 6:27 pm on December 2, 2013

Hi Chris,

I don’t really consider myself part of this initiative, though I have been monitoring it in the periphery.

It sounds like maybe this would be a great candidate for the 4.0 release. There are certainly a lot of things left to consider and I think taking the extra time to do extensive testing and handle internationalization and run it through the paces for back-compat, etc. would be super beneficial.
J.D. Grimes 9:54 pm on December 2, 2013

I’ve been keeping an eye on this feature-as-a-pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party, and I’ve been wishing I could participate, but I really don’t know if I can spare the time. I’ll see if I can catch up with the code, and maybe I’ll jump in in a few weeks.

I agree with Drew, I think that you should aim for 4.0. I think there is the potential here to build a very robust admin help, and that isn’t going to happen by rushing.
Sam Sidler 10:23 pm on December 2, 2013

I wouldn’t worry about having a codename. If one materializes, that’s fine, but codenames cease to exist when a feature pluginFeature Plugin A plugin that was created with the intention of eventually being proposed for inclusion in WordPress Core. See Features as Plugins. gets merged into coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress..

Note that WordPress 3.8 should ship on December 12, not 18.

I’ve seen a lot of status updates, but not much in the way of exactly what you (collectively) have now and which parts of your (collective) vision have been realized in the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party thus far. It’d be great to see an overview (with screenshots!) of your current status and where you are in your vision. Previous groups have used a spreadsheet to give a better overview of what’s done and what needs to be done. I’m happy to help create one, if it would help.

Outside of that, get the plugin in the plugin repository to increase visibility. That means merging from GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ and perhaps a regular release schedule (once a week for both?).

This is one of the few teams that’s been consistently meeting and posting updates, which is great. Looking forward to see it finished and ready for inclusion. 🙂
- Chris Reynolds 11:58 pm on December 2, 2013
  
  That’s weird. Not sure why I had the 18th in my head.
  
  The biggest thing in the way of getting the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party in the repo is that we haven’t had anything really testable (yet). I think that’s changing, and when it does, I plan on getting it into the plugin repo. I’m also thinking of establishing some deadlines to help motivate people as a team.
  
  If you can point me to an example of a spreadsheet other folks have been using/have used, I’d be interested in taking a peep.
Matt van Andel 9:23 pm on December 4, 2013

I think I’m in the same camp as J.D. I’m very much interested in contributing, but this time of year is absolute chaos – professionally and personally; every waking minute is booked solid through January. :-/
- Chris Reynolds 10:22 pm on December 4, 2013
  
  That’s fair. I am planning on cooking up a post with my thoughts re: plan and future development in the next week. I think shooting for 4.0 makes a lot of sense, but I’d like to have as much as we can done early so we can spend that extra time testing and figuring out a11yAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) and/or l10n stuff (fwiw, I don’t anticipate any issues with l10n — I’m pretty familiar with that stuff.)

Want to get involved?

Weekly meetings

Admin Help Update

WordPress 3.8 is closer than you think

So where are we?

Code name

Last call for 3.9

Want to get involved?

Weekly meetings

WordPress 3.8 is closer than you think

So where are we?

Code name

Last call for 3.9

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