Author Archives: Scott Reilly

Scott Reilly 2:33 am on March 4, 2015
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New Plugin Directory Theme

Late last week saw the launch of the reimplemented Theme Directory, complete with a new theme. This week brings with it another improvement to 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/: a new theme for 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 Directory.

Its new appearance should look very familiar; the goal with the theme refresh was to mirror the look and experience of the wp-admin plugin browser.

The site didn’t just get a facelift; the update includes a few new features not previously available in the directory:

  • Introduction of a “Favorites” section:
    If you are logged in and have favorited plugins, this new section gives you direct access to the list of those plugins. Previously, you could only see a simple listing of them on your profile page.
  • Introduction of a “BetaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. Testing” section:
    Previously only available in the wp-admin plugin browser on sites running a development copy of WordPress, this new section lists plugins proposed for inclusion in a future version of WordPress.
  • Ability to search for plugins by author:
    In the same fashion as in the wp-admin plugin browser, you can now search for plugins by author (by username).
  • Listings now display a count of active installs instead of downloads:
    Individual plugin pages have just (days ago) seen a switch from displaying the number of downloads to the number of active installs for the plugin. This information is now also shown on all plugin listings, such as search results.

The individual plugin pages themselves were not changed as the wp-admin plugin browser already largely mirrors their UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing.. Also note that the effort didn’t include a rewrite or significant change in overall functionality other than what was outlined above. The backend reimplementation of the Plugin Directory will be undertaken at a later time.

As always, it you encounter a problem or have a suggestion, please submit them at meta.trac using the Plugin Directory component. Be sure to peruse the existing Plugin Directory tickets to avoid submitting a duplicate.

#plugin-directory

Scott Reilly 11:00 pm on December 10, 2014
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Plugin Directory Theme

In parallel with the Theme Directory reimplementation effort being chronicled by @obenland, work is also underway on a new 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 Directory theme. In a similar fashion, the goal is to bring the directory more into sync with the in-dash experience introduced in WordPress 4.0.

Unlike the Theme Directory, the Plugin Directory is not yet undergoing a backend reimplementation simultaneous to its visual refresh. As such, the change is more superficial, a modification of the existing bbPressbbPress Free, open source software built on top of WordPress for easily creating forums on sites. https://bbpress.org. 1 theme rather than becoming a true WordPress theme.

The plan is to first reimplement the simpler Theme Directory, transitioning it from bbPress 1 to WordPress. Then, with that experience and ideally extending on code common to both directories, we’d perform the same reimplementation for the Plugin Directory.

In the course of bringing the backends into WordPress and building on a shared base, we’ll be in a better position to implement long asked for features — particularly for the Theme Directory, such as: supporting multiple theme authors (#27-meta), readme.txt support (#215-meta), favoriting themes (#28-meta), changelogs (#45-meta), and just generally parity with features found in the Plugin Directory. And, of course, having the code become modernized and publicly accessible will facilitate additional future enhancements.

#plugin-directory