Why Should You Add Your Plugin to WordPress Extend?

Comments

1. Carl Hancock says:

   7/23/2009 at 9:50 pm

   It’s too bad WordPress Extend doesn’t offer anything for commercial GPL plugin authors.

   Just like commercial themes, commercial GPL plugin authors don’t want to add their plugins to the repository because they can’t control the initial download.

   They have added an area for commercial GPL themes but plugins don’t get any love from Matt and the WordPress.org brain trust.

   I don’t want to hear the argument that “Commercial GPL plugins like Akismet and PollDaddy ARE in the repository… so commercial plugins are already there…” because those are only commercial in that the 3rd party service they interact with are commercial. They are plugins that interact with software as a service offerings.

   I’m referring to commercial GPL plugins that don’t require some sort of subscription with a 3rd party service.
2. George Serradinho (107 comments.) says:

   7/24/2009 at 1:25 am

   I agree with you 100% although not all plugins can be put there. I know of some paid plugins that you get emails or updates via email or via logging onto their forum and updating your details. Good example of this is Thesis. I can understand why, but it creates a problem whereby you sometimes don’t know there is an update.
3. Benedict Eastaugh (17 comments.) says:

   7/24/2009 at 5:51 am

   It also forces one to use their version control system. This has numerous downsides, such as not being able to commit code when not connected to the internet, or if their servers are down (a not unknown occurrence). It also discourages the mixing of experimental programming and version control, since it forces one to gets one’s plugin to a point where it can be used by the general public, and then commit the code to the WP Extend SVN repository, thereby losing the entire change history that led to that point.

   I tend to think that while we should applaud a system that makes things easier for users and developers alike, anything that removes power from the hands of the developer is probably best avoided. Something like GitHub is a lot better in this regard.
4. Barry says:

   7/24/2009 at 7:19 am

   All of the reason you give, other than that it is on a WordPress.org domain and linked in to the WordPress backend are available elsewhere.

   Such as Google Code, UnFuddle (which offers ticketing as well), Github and, well I’ll stop there because any developers reading this will have their favourite and recommend system.

   Frankly, forcing me to use “another” SVN repository in order to get a plugin on WordPress extend is one step to far in my workflow.

   I already use SVN or Git for source version control of all my code, but having to set up another working copy directory, export my code from my main development system and then transfer it into the SVN for WordPress is a royal pain, and means that if I did take the time, it would pretty much ensure the WordPress extend copy / version is always behind my other release locations.

   What’s wrong with uploading a Zip file?
   • Benedict Eastaugh (17 comments.) says:

     7/24/2009 at 8:47 am

     It’s also worth noting that this is, in fact, how the themes extend site works.
5. Finbarr McCarthy (1 comments.) says:

   7/25/2009 at 5:56 am

   Hey, WordPress is awesome but the range of plugins seems to pretty extensive and can be a bit overwhelming for end users. Should the wordpress dev community model itself after the drupal community where there is agreement on supporting one module/plugin to do a specific task?

   Thoughts?

   Finbarr

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