Ian Dunn 5:04 pm on September 8, 2013
Tags: meta ( 33 ), open source, plugin directory ( 44 )

Open Sourcing Meta Plugins

TL;DR: I’m proposing that some of the new plugins we write for WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ live in the official 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 repo, rather than the MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. repo.

I’m working on #meta187 and part of it is a modification to P2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/. to allow assigning a categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. to a new post. I created a plugin for it, and initially I was just planning on putting it in the Meta SVNSVN Apache Subversion (often abbreviated SVN, after its command name svn) is a software versioning and revision control system. Software developers use Subversion to maintain current and historical versions of files such as source code, web pages, and documentation. Its goal is to be a mostly compatible successor to the widely used Concurrent Versions System (CVS). WordPress core and the wordpress.org released code are all centrally managed through SVN. https://subversion.apache.org/. repo, but since this is generic functionality — rather than something specific to WordPress.org — I started thinking about where the best place for it to live would be.

One of our goals it to open-source as much of WordPress.org as possible, and putting the plugin in the Meta repo would achieve that, but probably not in the most effective way. 99% of WP users and plugin developers aren’t aware that the Meta repo exists, so the code isn’t very visible. And if they wanted to get updates, they’d have to set it up as an svn:external, rather than just using the regular plugin update system.

So for the most part, the only people who would benefit from using it outside WordPress.org, or contribute back to it, would be other developers on the Meta team.

So instead, I’m thinking we should put it — and other plugins like it, in the future — into the regular WordPress.org plugin repository. That would give it much more exposure and would make it easy for others to use the plugin. The extra exposure would lead to more feedback from users and more contributions from developers.

We could add the wordpressdotorg user as a contributor to the plugin, to ensure the Meta team still has commit access to it if the original developer isn’t available.

What does everyone think about that?

#meta, #open-source, #plugin-directory

Ian Dunn 5:13 pm on September 8, 2013

One potential problem would be providing support for the plugins. We obviously don’t have the resources to do that for other users, which could lead to frustration on both sides.

I think if we could mitigate that problem by putting a note 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 description on the repo, though, letting users know up front that we’ll only support bug fixes and security issues, but won’t provide any support for helping them use or customize the plugin.
David Laietta 5:42 pm on September 8, 2013

I think that it’s a great idea to put it somewhere public and usable. While leaving a note about support might also be a good idea, you’re probably still going to end up with some users expecting it. Hopefully the niche needs of 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 will make this less likely to happen.
- Ian Dunn 7:10 pm on September 8, 2013
  
  Yeah, I think you’re right that we’d still get some people expecting it. As long we do our part to manage expectations up front, though, I don’t think I’ll feel bad about ignoring the requests. It’s also possible that other forum users will be able to help them out, too.
Ulrich 5:59 pm on September 8, 2013

Has 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/ been thought about? That would make it easier for other developers to provide improvements.
- Ian Dunn 7:14 pm on September 8, 2013
  
  There have been a lot of discussions about 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/ vs the WPORG repo in the larger community, and I think the general consensus is that we’d rather use and improve our own tools, rather than rely on a third party. The WPORG platform includes parallels for a lot of GitHub’s features, although I agree that they’re not as nice as GitHub’s right now. We can always use both, too, but then that involves extra work to keep them in sync and manage multiple forums, bug trackers, etc.
Erlend Sogge Heggen 6:00 pm on September 8, 2013

Would love to have easier access to the various MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. customizations. Love the idea!
Andrew Nacin 2:18 am on September 9, 2013

For this particular situation: Unfortunately pretty much any 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 written for P2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/. is a terrible hack that is always very fragile and can very easily break. (I can see how fragile and hacky this one is from the screenshots.) Despite writing a dozen plugins for P2, I will never release a plugin for P2 into the directory and I don’t think anyone should. Also, with Automattic finally writing a replacement, we will likely be able to replace it next year sometime.

More generally: The metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. directory is designed to be a place for code that powers WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/, not a place for people to install code from for their own site, in the same way they would a plugin. It’s purposely designed to not target 99% of users. If someone wants to run it on their own site, they’re welcome to (and it’s all GPLv2 or later), but it isn’t something that we need to be encouraging.

Are there some things that could be useful in the plugin directory? Perhaps. But we’re not writing code for mass use or mass support, we’re writing code specific to WordPress.org in order to make WordPress.org better. And that should be our focus.

If we write something that makes sense as a “mass-market” plugin instead of being checked into meta.svn, I think we’ll know it when we see it. Most of the plugins I have seen running on WordPress.org (many of which I wrote) are just a few adjustments using filters. When the handbooks plugin becomes more than a set of hacks and actually has a decent, matured feature set, I think it could be a fine plugin. For reasons stated above, I wouldn’t publish this particular plugin to the directory, but that decision is totally up to you.
- Jen Mylo 7:23 pm on September 10, 2013
  
  I agree with @iandunn, that this instance is a general 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 not specific to the wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ setup (I have had feature requests for it before from WC organizers and 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. groups, for example, who use P2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/.). That said, if the wordpress.org team won’t support it and it’s just Ian writing it, then we could get around the “WordPress thinks this is worth releasing and supporting and building a community around” implication by having Ian release it in the repo with Automattic rather than .org as the author. Since p2 comes from Automattic also, and Ian is employed by Automattic, that wouldn’t be weird. Then .org would just be a user of it instead of an official party.
  - Ian Dunn 7:10 pm on September 16, 2013
    
    I released it at https://wordpress.org/plugins/p2-new-post-categories for others to use.
Bryan Petty 8:37 am on September 9, 2013

I tend to agree with @nacin here, and just have a couple other thoughts to add.

With everything running on WP.org actually managed and maintained on metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress., it’s all in one spot where anyone who wants to contribute knows where to go rather than maintaining a secondary list of WP.org sites, and which plugins in the whole directory are installed and being used at any given time. Of course, this mostly echoes the notion that this is for WP.org, not anyone else.

I guess nacin already covered this as well, but it’s worth reiterating that a *lot* of these plugins are frequently going to be minor filters, adjustments, and system hooksHooks In WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same. very specific to WP.org, and those definitely are not going to be worth the trouble of listing individually on the plugins repo, so there’s already going to be stuff maintained in meta regardless. Might as well leave the rest there too unless it absolutely makes sense to publicly offer it as a usable 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 to the masses, and those can be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Sam Sidler 6:34 pm on September 9, 2013

I also agree with @nacin and @bpetty. I don’t think this should be something we push for, but when it makes sense, if 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 developer (in this case, you) wants to do so, they can. But even in that case, we’d still want to pull in the plugin from the metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. svn and not the plugin directory.
- Ian Dunn 2:18 pm on September 10, 2013
  
  Nah, I don’t think it’d be good to maintain two different copies. I’m fine w/ just using MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. for this since that’s what everyone else wants.

Welcome to the MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. Team!

Contact

Open Sourcing Meta Plugins

Welcome to the MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. Team!

Contact

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