Tag Archives: directory

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 4:56 pm on May 14, 2018
Tags: directory   

Closing Unused Plugins

When you submit 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, we get to see every single plugin you’ve ever submitted. This means we also see how many plugins we approve that people never use. At this moment, there are over 9100 plugins approved and unused.

Edit: Unused means LITERALLY unused. No one uploaded code. Ever.

Because of that, we’re going through and closing unused plugins if it’s been 6+ months since the plugin was approved. In addition, if we notice a pattern of behaviour, where you are submitting multiple plugins and not using the provided hosting, we will pend any new submissions until you actually use the directory.

The good news about this is once we close it, people can request to take over the slug and use it for a new plugin.

Remember: Every time you submit a plugin, a human being downloads and reviews your code. If you’re submitting with out a plan to actually use the hosting, you are abusing the finite resources, and taking away from everyone else who is using the directory. Worse, we’ve found out some people like to get a review as a ‘free’ security review instead of hiring people for that work.

Most of you, this won’t impact in the slightest. After all, you use the hosting 😀

And of course, if you have a plugin you don’t want to host anymore, you can always ask us to close it (though please read the FAQ on Closing Plugins first).

#directory

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 6:44 pm on February 13, 2018
Tags: directory   

“Not Updated In …” Warning

The old warning that 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 has not been updated in 2+ years has been changed to an indication of what version of WordPress a plugin has been tested up to. If that version is more than 3 major releases old, a plugin will be flagged as being maybe out of date.

Why the change?

Two years was rather arbitrary, but also wasn’t helpful to as many people. That is, two years had little meaning, since there were many plugins that didn’t need updates.

In addition, developers failed to understand what we meant by the multiple emails (the ones we send every major releaseMajor Release A set of releases or versions having the same major version number may be collectively referred to as “X.Y” -- for example version 5.2.x to refer to versions 5.2, 5.2.1, and all other versions in the 5.2. (five dot two dot) branch of that software. Major Releases often are the introduction of new major features and functionality.) asking them to bump the tested-up-to value, without releasing new code. By doing that, the 2-year warning would go away. With this change, developers have a clearer one-to-one understanding of why their plugin is showing up as ‘old’ and users can see that a plugin has or has not been tested with the version of WP they’re using.

What do I put in for ‘tested up to’ versions?

We recommend the MAJOR release. For example, WordPress is currently on version 4.9.4. If you put in 4.9, then it will show as compatible. Don’t use words like “WP 4.9” – just use the version number.

Can I put in 5.0 as a version?

Yes, but it won’t do what you think it does. That is, you won’t show as compatible with 4.9. Don’t try to be clever on that one.

Does this make more work for developers?

No. A year ago I would have said yes, but now that we’re not releasing new major releases of WordPress 3 times a year, it works out to needing to update plugins’ readmes every 18 months or so. That changes the time by roughly six months, depending on the status of projects.

Can we indicate version compatibility with other plugins?

You mean like bbPressbbPress Free, open source software built on top of WordPress for easily creating forums on sites. https://bbpress.org., WooCommerce, and so on? No. We recommend doing that within your plugin code.

Will this change the functionality of plugins?

No. This will neither alert your users nor will it disable your plugin within WordPress itself. You still have to handle that manually.

Is this a guideline change?

Nope. If you don’t want to update it ever, we don’t mind. The only reason we’d close a plugin for being ‘old’ is if it was broken or your email bounced.

#directory

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 10:42 pm on March 31, 2017
Tags: directory,   

Plugin Submissions ETA Reopening Early Next Week

I really want to say “We’ll reopen on Monday!” but right now we’re aiming for Monday.

What’s going on?

We found some bugs that didn’t happen in testing.

For example, when we did the final import of all the pending plugins, they were in a maybe-wrong state. That meant we had to go through all our emails and logs to make sure we’d emailed everyone about their 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 status or not. That took us until Friday afternoon.

At the same time, we found some process flow bugs that were just going to make things worse all around and had to address those. It doesn’t do you any good to submit a plugin if we can’t review it, or if approvals don’t generate your SVNSVN Short for "SubVersioN", it's the code management system used to maintain the plugins hosted on WordPress.org. It's similar to git. folder, for example! We had to document all of those to make sure things would get fixed in the right order (some of them we can live with, obviously).

The good news is that we did clean out the queue, so everyone who had a submission pending has now been emailed. Some of you twice. Sorry about that. If you didn’t get one and you think your plugin is pending, email us at plugins@wordpress.org and we can look.

Thank You Systems/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.

Systems and Meta have been wonderful, plowing through the tickets raised. Right now, we’re prioritizing “Fix what’s broken” so the only tickets you see in the Plugin Directory v 3.0 milestone are items we feel must be fixed as soon as possible. If I’ve moved your ticket out, it’s simply because it’s not deemed mission critical at this moment, and not that it will never be addressed. It’s triage, and we were just as brutal about it on ourselves.

Thank You Too

I really do appreciate everyones patience and understanding.

Obviously things didn’t go perfectly, but considering the magnitude of this change, it’s gone smoother than I predicted (I may owe people dinner now). If you want to help us out, right now please spread the word to your fellow developers. Remember, if you can get everyone to read this blog first before they email/dm/pingPing The act of sending a very small amount of data to an end point. Ping is used in computer science to illicit a response from a target server to test it’s connection. Ping is also a term used by Slack users to @ someone or send them a direct message (DM). Users might say something along the lines of “Ping me when the meeting starts.” for status, you make reviews go faster!

#directory, #repository

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 4:30 pm on October 28, 2016
Tags: directory   

Plugin Directory Chat: Nov 2

Next plugin directory chat 2016-11-02

We skipped this week and we will next meet at 2016-11-02 22:00:00 UTC

#directory

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 4:00 pm on August 31, 2016
Tags: directory,   

Reviewing the Revamped Guidelines

Thank you everyone for being patient about this.

This summer was spent re-writing and editing and tweaking the guidelines. I ripped them down, sat and spelled out what they meant, then I rewrote them to be more clear. Then I got 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 review team to review the changes. Then I had a group of people at WCNYC 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/. review them.

Finally, I moved it all to a 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/ repo and started to ask smaller groups to review it. Then we had a quick rebranding and that all brings us here.

I would like everyone in the community to read these proposed updates to the Plugin Directory Guidelines.

WordPress.org Plugin Guidelines

At the risk of sounding trite, pull requests and issues are welcome.

If you feel a guideline’s explanation is unclear, please create an issue or a pull request with what you feel should be changed and why. All grammar/spelling corrections are greatly welcome. We’re trying to write these for all levels of developers, as well as people who may not speak English proficiently. Using words like ‘obsequious’ should be avoided (nb: That’s mostly to me who uses those words regularly).

All feedback should be opened as issues in the tracker.

Let the games begin!

#directory, #guidelines

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 4:58 pm on August 29, 2016
Tags: directory   

WordPress Plugin Directory

The WordPress 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 Repository is rebranding as the WordPress Plugin Directory.

As “directory” refers to the entire plugin hosting service (the site, VCS, etc) and “repository” conventionally refers more specifically to just a VCS (such as 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/, SVNSVN Short for "SubVersioN", it's the code management system used to maintain the plugins hosted on WordPress.org. It's similar to git., etc), we feel this will be less confusing and more in-line with the other aspects of 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/.

We’re in the process of updating all our documentation. I believe I’ve updated all the documentation. Can I nap now?

#directory

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 8:46 pm on August 3, 2016
Tags: directory, ,   

Plugin Directory Revamp Meeting Today

Plugin Directory Chat Agenda

This is _not_ a meeting about 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 review process or guidelines. This is only about the revamp.

#directory, #reminder, #repository

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 5:52 am on July 29, 2016
Tags: directory, ,   

Status on the Plugin Repo Revamp, Guidelines, and Handbooks

First off, please read Obenland’s post on the repo:

Plugin Directory v3: Next Steps

Obviously we have a long way to go.

As for the Guidelines, I wanted to be done and ready to release them to everyone before 4.6 dropped, but I’ve been using small focus groups at WordCamps first. This resulted in a lot of small changes that I want to take the time to go over with 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 before I unleash it to the world for nitpicking. A huge amount of thanks goes to @courtneydawn @logankipp and @lunacodes for being my first run of editors!

As we clean up the aftermath of the 4.6 emails (you have no idea…), I’ll be pinging people whom I know to be good copyeditors and have mentioned wanting to help before. If you think that’s you, please leave a comment here. I won’t be asking everyone as I’ve found that to be overwhelming for me to be able to process, so please don’t take it personally. Once I have it mostly good, I’ll flip it from Google Docs to a GitGit Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency. Git is easy to learn and has a tiny footprint with lightning fast performance. Most modern plugin and theme development is being done with this version control system. https://git-scm.com/. Repo and people can pull request!

Also a handbook! Oh me oh my I’ve been writing one! And I’m almost ready to ask Sam to flip the switch for it. It’s sparse and will need lots of attention too.

Thank you everyone for understanding the crazy that goes on with all this, and for being patient. It’s been a long 7 months for me working on all this.

#directory, #guidelines, #repository

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 1:36 am on July 14, 2016
Tags: directory,   

New Repo Open Beta

Please review the proposed new repository and leave some comments so Obenland can make all more awesome.

Plugin Directory v3 Open Beta

 

#directory, #repository

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 5:58 pm on March 1, 2016
Tags: directory, ,   

Please do not submit frameworks

Note: We are aware that some frameworks are current in the repository. We are asking you not submit any NEW at this time.

This isn’t a new ‘rule.’ It’s not a secret one either. It’s not listed in the guidelines specifically because any attempt to lay down each and every reason 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 shouldn’t be in the repository just ends in people rule-lawyering. Should we have to tell people “Don’t ask users to write to your plugin files”? No. That should be self-evident. A plugin gets replaced when it’s upgraded, so writing to plugin files means the changes get destroyed. And in many ways, that’s our problem here.

The issue is as follows: Having a framework as a plugin is a poor experience for the user. Not the developer. The user. The user understands “I have an add-on for WooCommerce, I probably need Woo.” They do not always understand “I have plugin Slider Joe. Why do I need Advanced Custom Fields?” In addition, by having a library as a plugin, the onus of version compatibility is now on the person least likely to understand it: the user.

The plugin repository is not, currently, a library or framework repository. It’s not meant like the NPM package manager, or even Composer as a way to define what a plugin ‘needs’ in the same ways for a developer to build a project. The plugin repository is, plain and simple, meant for plugins that users will find useful. Plugins that add functionality to WordPress in a directly inter-actable way.

We don’t allow people to add javascriptJavaScript JavaScript or JS is an object-oriented computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers. WordPress makes extensive use of JS for a better user experience. While PHP is executed on the server, JS executes within a user’s browser. https://www.javascript.com/. or fonts on their own to the repository and, I suspect, most of you would nod and say “Well of course not. A font and javascript should be included in the plugin or theme!” We feel the same way about most full blown library and framework plugins too. The user doesn’t need to know or care about the libraries. They shouldn’t be expected to be responsible for it.

At this time, we are not accepting frameworks as we don’t feel frameworks, boilerplates, and libraries are appropriate for the Plugins Directory. We require that plugins be useful in and of themselves (even if only being a portal to an external service). And while there are many benefits to frameworks and libraries, without plugin dependency support in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. or the directory, it becomes another level of hassle for users.

The parade of likely support issues:

  • Not recognizing the framework plugin, and thus deleting it (causing the plugin(s) to break)
  • Not recognizing the framework plugin and thinking they’ve been hacked
  • Debugging drama, when we tell them to disable all their plugins and they find its a library problem
  • Updating the framework plugin separately from the dependent plugins, possibly leading to breakage
  • Updating a dependent plugin without updating the framework, possibly leading to breakage
  • Plugins not keeping up with library changes to the point that they break
  • Different plugins requiring different versions of the framework

And bearing in mind that the framework and plugin developers are different people, that’s another level of coordination/compatibility issues. A developer is (in theory) clever enough to write their plugin in a way that it includes the version of the library they need in a way that will not break everyone else. Of course, you developers know that’s a goal and not an absolute.

Frameworks and libraries should be packaged with each plugin (hopefully in a way that doesn’t conflict with other plugins using the framework or libraries). At least until core supports plugin dependencies.

Making this messier is the fact that once a library is in the repository, you shouldn’t put it in your plugin anymore. Why not? Well what happens if they install a library as a plugin, while having the library inside a plugin already? Which one takes precedent? What happens when they’re out of sync and so on? See the goal up above that isn’t an absolute. It gets even messier.

A library is a library, and should be in the plugin, not separate.

Maybe one day we’ll have proper plugin dependencies, but we simply are not there yet.

#directory, #reminder, #repository