2017 Community Summit Notes

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 team is small but mighty. We had a very productive summit and contributor dayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/. this year, pushing forward some of the changes we’ve been working on for a while. The following notes are the product of the sessions as well as some hallway chats over red wine, gin, and cheese.

Notes:

  • Security issues in the new directory have to be corrected before new users can be added
  • We intend to open reviews by everyone (yes, everyone) with a .org account
  • Plugin Closures will be documented and then reported on
  • Plugin Check code revisited – What can we catch as a ‘before a human reviews’
  • Similar but not identical plugins will continue to be accepted
  • We need to allow frameworks in, but we have to do so safely to protect developers from hate-reviews when someone deletes a required framework

To Do:

  • Design a ‘dashboard’ for people to check the status of their plugins (and themes)
  • Add more stats to the plugin page (or possibly move to the future dashboard…)
  • Replace SupportPressSupportPress The ticket management interface for the plugin emails. It has been replaced with Help Scout. (our email client) with something that works (possibly Support Flow?)
  • Code out a way to publicly track why a plugin was closed (see 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. 2860 and 2627)
  • Determine if we want to backfill why 6500-ish plugins are currently closed (owwwww)
  • Determine the best way to track ‘dependancies’ (in lieu of 22316 ever getting traction …) so frameworks and add-on plugins can be clearly indicated and reduce errors
  • Incorporate theme review features such as 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 i18n ready flags
  • Make sure the VVV repo for the meta environment is sufficient for more people to contribute (see Meta Env)
  • Hold ‘open office’ hours to discuss topics like developer tools, what stats are needed, frameworks etc

Most of that to-do is on me to at least get the tickets started, but if these are things you’re interested in, then I encourage you to come to the open office hours! I’m hoping to have the first in August, as I have July Vacations 🙂 Sorry, family first!

I’ll post more about what I plan to do with the open office hours soon, including topics and schedules.

#community-summit, #contributor-day

WordCamp US/2016 Recap

First of all I suck for not getting everyone’s names. I’m lucky I remember mine…

This marks my first year as the rep 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 Directory Team and we’ve made some phenomenal headway. We’ve re-written the detailed plugin guidelines to be more understandable and clear for everyone. We’ve actually written a handbook! We never had one before. And Team Apollo has been brilliant getting the new directory from a pipe dream to 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. test reality. Thank you everyone for getting us here.

At WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. US 2016 Contributor DayContributor Day Contributor Days are standalone days, frequently held before or after WordCamps but they can also happen at any time. They are events where people get together to work on various areas of https://make.wordpress.org/ There are many teams that people can participate in, each with a different focus. https://2017.us.wordcamp.org/contributor-day/ https://make.wordpress.org/support/handbook/getting-started/getting-started-at-a-contributor-day/., we had over 20 people going over the brand new Handbook, which lead to the creation of the Glossary and a lot of edits! So a huge thank you to everyone who was here. I really appreciate it. We also had a few people reviewing plugins as practice for the first time. I look forward to their results. Good luck, folks!

Right now the new directory is in public beta. That means if you go check it out wordpress.org/plugins-wp/ you’ll see the brave new world for plugins, and we hope you can help us test things out. If you find bugs in search, please report them on Meta Trac #1692-meta.

The Plugin Developer Documentation has been updated to address the changes (mostly to your Plugin Assets) and the Handbook was written with this new interface in mind.

Which leads us to the eternal question… when will the directory open up to new reviewers?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the opening of the plugin team to new members will happen after the new directory is complete. This is just a technical necessity. The current system works but it has serious limitations that are just prohibitive to adding more people. That made writing a handbook for a process that doesn’t exist rather interesting. My goal is, once the directory is live, to iron out the how-to-review and then get some experienced developers in to review but not approve, to see if we can come up with a process closer to the Theme Review Team, but not fall to backlog.

This will take a lot of experimentation and patience.

Hang in there.

#contributor-day

#1692-meta