[wp-hackers] Plugin DB and RSS Feed...

[drDave]

Well, as I said previously, I originally took on the project after 
talking with Greg/NuclearMoose who had been, afaik, given the official 
task of putting such a site/DB together. He seemed to have neither the 
time nor the motivation to tackle it any time soon, and since I felt 
such a DB was urgently needed, I proposed to write the codebase and 
figure with him how he would like to integrate it into wp-plugins.org.
As it turns out, right about when I finished, Greg announced he was 
taking an extensive break from blogging and, I assume, from all matters 
WP as well. I've not heard from him ever since.

I wish nothing more than seeing this DB used as a central and official 
repository and definitely do not aspire to even be the only maintainer 
there. I tried designing the tools in such a way that, if need be, it 
can be 1) very easily transported on any other server 2) administered 
by more than one person...

It's been now more than two weeks and while I have gotten massive 
feedback from the user community, the WP team seems a bit less 
enthusiastic about either endorsing it officially, coming up with 
alternatives or simply figuring out what should be changed/added to 
make it a good fit within WP. I am honestly not that concerned about 
it, neither are most users, and neither should be developers: the DB, 
as well as the source for the client are all open-source and, while I 
haven't yet figured a good way to let people grab the whole content of 
the DB through SQL, they can already use it programmatically through 
the backdoor interface documented in the FAQ. Truthfully, if *anybody* 
was to come up with some kind of more useful/advanced plugin DB system 
and wanted to take over, I'll be more than happy to help migrate the 
data over. I seriously doubt that'll happen any time soon, though 
(well, it's not happened for the past 10 months, to start with).

In the meantime, judging from my stats alone, there's obviously a very 
strong need from users for such a repository: the wiki page is bloated 
and absolutely unusable, and most plugins as they are offered nowadays 
are out of reach for most casual WP users.

My two main goals were to 1) make it easy for these users to know what 
plugins are around 2) simplify the install process for as many plugins 
as possible.

I believe it does, and it might do it even better as an officially 
endorsed plugin DB, but if that cannot happen at the moment, I see no 
reason not to use it in the meantime.

PS: thanks to Rob who offered to take a look at the css and give it a 
shot, the page might finally get a nicer layout soon!

Cheers
-- 
dave


On Oct 26, 2004, at 1:03 AM, rmanalan.2869544 at bloglines.com wrote:

> Is this going to be the "WordPress Team" supported/endorsed plugin 
> repository?
>  I'm a bit reluctant to post my plugins there unless I get word from 
> someone
> on the WP team supporting or endorsing this repository.  Otherwise, 
> what's
> stopping someone else from creating yet another repository.
>
>
>
> - Rich
>
>
>
> ---
> hackers at wordpress.org wrote:
>
> Just a small reminder regarding the Plugin DB...
>
>> it's been updated (both client, admin and DB), holds quite a few
>
>> plugins
> now: http://unknowngenius.com/wp-plugins/
>
>> However it's still a far cry
> from an exhaustive repository, which is
>
>> too bad, since it draws quite
> a few users, presumably eager to try your
>
>> plugins.
>
>>
>
>> I know how
> it is and I am aware that, once one finishes a plugin or any
>
>> piece of
> code, it's always a drag to go back and do something more on
>
>> top. But
> it's really quite stupid to commit time and effort to
>
>> something and not
> give it the exposure it could get, helping new users
>
>> get features they
> want along the way.
>
>> It also seems that a few people are reluctant to let
> their plugins be
>
>> presented anywhere else than on their own blog... which
> is their
>
>> right... but I'd like to point out that the system allows developers
> to
>
>> handle their accounts/plugin descriptions etc. on their own. The DB
>
>
>> only holds the text they provide and links to their website, so if
>
>> traffic is a concern to you, you should realize that it will 
>> definitely
>
>
>> bring more people to your site than it would take away.
>
>>
>
>> In other
> news, there is also an RSS feed with the latest release and
>
>> updates:
>
>> http://unknowngenius.com/wp-plugins/rss2.php
>
>>
>
>> For all the details,
> you can check out this entry:
>
>> http://unknowngenius.com/blog/archives/2004/10/20/plugin-database-
>
>
>> update-v-12/
>
>>
>
>> And do not hesitate to contact me regarding features,
> bugs, comments
>
>> etc.
>
>>
>
>> PS: I am not particularly enthusiastic about
> the current Layout/CSS ,
>
>> however I have only limited time to spend on
> this project, and prefer
>
>> to focus on backend development at the moment.
> Though not perfect, it
>
>> is perfectly functional and will remain that way
> until somebody has
>
>> some time to contribute to it.
>
>>
>
>> Cheers,
>
>> --
>
>
>> Dave / デイヴ
>
>> drdave at unknowngenius.com
>
>>
>
>>
>
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>
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>
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>
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>
>>
>
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>
-- 
Dave / デイヴ
drdave at unknowngenius.com