Featured/Beta Plugins Now Limit Changes

If your 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 is a FEATURED or 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. plugin, which means officially recognized as such by the WordPress project, you will no longer be able to add or remove committers, nor will you be able to change ownership.

This change was made due to the high profile nature of those plugins, and the potential for abuse if a plugin is given to someone who turns out to be malicious. We hope that it will prevent issues like a featured plugin being turned into a premium-upsell plugin.

This does not relate to the size of a plugin. If a 2-user plugin is made a Featured Plugin, then it will be have this limitation. That said, it also will not cause any change to proposed feature plugins or self-declared beta.

If you are an owner/committer to one of those plugins, you can add support reps as needed, but you will need to email the plugins team (`plugins@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/`) to have new committers added/removed, and to change ownership if needed.

#features #security

Proposed Block Directory guidelines

The proposed guidelines for submitting BlockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Plugins to the Block Directory have been revised, with many thanks for the feedback and suggestions from developers and the community. If you haven’t had a chance to see them yet, you can read the most current version of the guidelines here.

In case you missed it, the Block Directory is a new feature coming in WordPress 5.5 that allows specially-written Block Plugins to be instantly and seamlessly installed in the editor, without ever leaving the page. In order for blocks to install seamlessly, they need to meet certain expectations.

These guidelines will be added to the official WordPress Detailed Plugin Guidelines, as a special section that applies to plugins submitted to the Block Directory. This set of guidelines would not apply to general plugins that happen to include blocks — plugins in the main 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 need only follow the standard plugin guidelines.

If you are interested in developing a special Block Plugin that will work in the Block Directory, here’s some new documentation and tools to help:

If you have feedback, comments, or questions about the proposed Block Directory guidelines — or about the tools or tutorials — please share them in a comment on this post.

#features #block-directory

You can now add your own plugins to the Block Directory

Introducing the BlockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Directory in WordPress 5.5

The WordPress 5.5 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. release that’s now in testing includes Block Directory support enabled by default. In case you missed it, the Block Directory is a subset of plugins in the plugin directory that can be instantly and seamlessly installed from the GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’ to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/ editor with a single click. We call these new plugins “block plugins” and have worked hard to make it easier for people to contribute to this new feature coming to WordPress 5.5. This post is meant to help show how to get your very own block 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 added to the directory and share some helpful resources along the way.

Step 1: Create your own block plugin

If you haven’t yet had a chance to create a Block Plugin, don’t fear! There’s still some time until the August 5.5 release. Here’s a new and improved tutorial that walks you through the process of creating a block plugin. More documentation is on its way too and you can join the discussion about what would be helpful to have shared in this GitHub overview issue.

The guidelines for Block Plugins are still in the process of being finalized. Block Plugins need to be much more minimal than a regular WordPress plugin in order to be safely installed with a single click. That means as well as keeping to the regular plugin guidelines you’ll also need to follow some additional rules. In particular, you should stick to mostly 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/. code and keep PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. http://php.net/manual/en/intro-whatis.php. to the bare minimum; and not add any 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. or other code outside of the Gutenberg editor.

Step 2: Run your block plugin through the checker tool

In order to help developers follow the guidelines and best practices, we’ve been working on some documentation and a new tool. It’s called the Block Plugin Checker. Give it a plugin repo URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org, and it will examine the code to look for possible problems to resolve before your block plugin can be added to the directory:

This is still a work in progress so if you find any fun bugs or omissions, please let us know. We’d love the chance to fix them and to make the Checker a more useful tool.

Step 3: Add your block plugin directly to the Block Directory

If you’re a committer of a block plugin that does meet the criteria for adding it to the Block Directory as confirmed by the Checker tool, you can then add it yourself using the same tool:

Likewise you can remove it at any time using that same tool if you notice problems or would prefer it wasn’t included. 

Going Forward

We’ll be making improvements to the Block Plugin Checker, and doing additional testing of plugins that are added, so please expect some changes along the way. If you have any feedback or questions, please comment here or in #meta on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..

#features #block-directory

Technically you always could, but…

Technically you always could, but now you can officially change the owner of 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.

For most of you, this is going to be a “Meh, who cares” change. For me? Well, it’s always nice to let people take agency of their own plugins 🙂

In the newly renamed ‘Danger Zone’ of the advanced tab, we have a way for you to transfer ownership to someone. This must be done by the actual owner of the plugin, and they need to select the new owner from the drop down, which looks like this:

transfer

Why would I want to do this?

It’s pretty rare, but sometimes people want a specific account to be THE official owner of a plugin. Usually this relates to company-owned plugins.

Who’s the owner now?

The page will tell you who, but in most cases it’s whomever submitted the plugin.

Does it matter who owns a plugin?

Actually yes. At the end of the day, the owner accepts responsibility of everyone else who does things in the name of the plugin.

If I change the owner by accident, will you change it back?

You can ask, but we’ll have to talk to the new owner to make sure this was actually a mistake and not something else.

#features

You Are Now Able to Close Your Own Plugins

Edit: We tweaked the page to try and make it more clear that your 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 is OPEN (which is why you have the option to close it — can’t close a closed plugin right?). If you have recommendations or suggestions about a better way to phrase things, please leave a comment with your ideas 🙂

I am well aware of the confusion caused by releasing this today, but this isn’t a joke.

Starting April 2020 you have the ability to close your own plugin without having to email us and explain why!

How do I close a plugin?

Log in with a committer account and go to the ADVANCED tab on your plugin. There, you will see a CLOSE THIS PLUGIN section that looks like this:

Read the warning. If you understand that the change is permanent, and you still want to close the plugin, press the button. Like magic, your plugin will be closed.

Who can close a plugin?

Anyone who has COMMIT access to a plugin. So now is the time for you to check who you gave commit access to, and prune the list. Please keep in mind, if you are managing a company plugin, it needs to be owned by a company account who has commit access. This is for your own legal protection.

Can I reopen the plugin?

Not without emailing the plugins team (plugins@wordpress.org) and explaining why you changed your mind.

The purpose of this requirement is to limit abuse (it does warn you the closure is intended to be permanent) and create a better experience for users. If people are constantly closing and reopening plugins, it makes users doubt the stability and security of the plugin.

What if I don’t have access to a commit account? How can I close my plugin?

Email plugins@wordpress.org and explain what the situation is, we’ll help you sort it out.

#close, #features