Plugin Repository
Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 1:38 pm
Hello Community,
there are a lot of plugins for CMSimple(...), but it's hard for users to get a good overview. In the CMSimple_XH Wiki there is merely a list of links to the descriptions (some of the links point to external websites), and in the CMSimple Wiki the situation is only slightly better, as the plugins are only partially categorized. Furthermore quite a few plugins are not listed in either Wiki, and some of the descriptions are not up to date.
The main problem seems to me that it's a lot of work for plugin developers to present new plugins and keep the information up-to-date. The developers are most likely interested in putting up a description on their own websites, and to keep that up-to-date. Additionally informing users in this forum about new plugins resp. updates, plus maintaining the descriptions in both Wiki's causes additional work, amplified by the fact that different markup notation is required: HTML vs. Wiki markup vs. BBCode.
There were discussion about setting up a central plugin repository where the developers will be able to enter information about their plugins in a structured way. However, that may not solve the issue that the developer has to create and maintain two sets of description (for the repo and his own website), and it's not clear where this repository should be hosted.
Recently, Hartmut had the idea that the plugin descriptions could be offered in a common format by the respective developers. This way, several independent repositories could exist, which could simply crawl the developers sites for (changes) in the description files. Futhermore it would be possible to generate (parts of) the plugin description on the developers' website from these description files.
There is already such a format that might be used: Portable Application Description. This is XML based and several editors exist to create such files (if one wants to avoid writing the XML manually). If this format would suit our needs, has to be investigated.
Anyway, I quite like the idea to write a single description of a plugin, which can be used by several channels to present it.
I'm looking forward to hear your opinions.
Christoph
PS: A related discussion in the German forum: http://cmsimpleforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=7857.
there are a lot of plugins for CMSimple(...), but it's hard for users to get a good overview. In the CMSimple_XH Wiki there is merely a list of links to the descriptions (some of the links point to external websites), and in the CMSimple Wiki the situation is only slightly better, as the plugins are only partially categorized. Furthermore quite a few plugins are not listed in either Wiki, and some of the descriptions are not up to date.
The main problem seems to me that it's a lot of work for plugin developers to present new plugins and keep the information up-to-date. The developers are most likely interested in putting up a description on their own websites, and to keep that up-to-date. Additionally informing users in this forum about new plugins resp. updates, plus maintaining the descriptions in both Wiki's causes additional work, amplified by the fact that different markup notation is required: HTML vs. Wiki markup vs. BBCode.
There were discussion about setting up a central plugin repository where the developers will be able to enter information about their plugins in a structured way. However, that may not solve the issue that the developer has to create and maintain two sets of description (for the repo and his own website), and it's not clear where this repository should be hosted.
Recently, Hartmut had the idea that the plugin descriptions could be offered in a common format by the respective developers. This way, several independent repositories could exist, which could simply crawl the developers sites for (changes) in the description files. Futhermore it would be possible to generate (parts of) the plugin description on the developers' website from these description files.
There is already such a format that might be used: Portable Application Description. This is XML based and several editors exist to create such files (if one wants to avoid writing the XML manually). If this format would suit our needs, has to be investigated.
Anyway, I quite like the idea to write a single description of a plugin, which can be used by several channels to present it.
I'm looking forward to hear your opinions.
Christoph
PS: A related discussion in the German forum: http://cmsimpleforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=7857.