{"id":1854,"date":"2017-02-02T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/2017.london.wordcamp.org\/?post_type=wcb_session&#038;p=1854"},"modified":"2017-08-31T14:05:46","modified_gmt":"2017-08-31T13:05:46","slug":"get-your-plugin-ready-for-the-new-wordpress-plugin-directory","status":"publish","type":"wcb_session","link":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/session\/get-your-plugin-ready-for-the-new-wordpress-plugin-directory\/","title":{"rendered":"Get Your Plugin Ready for the New WordPress Plugin Directory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The purpose of this session is to help plugin developers to prepare their plugins for the upcoming implementation of WordPress Plugin Directory 3.0. Years of experience in working with Joomla Extensions Directory data and my recent enrollment in the WordPress Plugin Directory gives me a possibility to advise how to make the transition from the old to the new directory smoothly for all parties involved: plugin developers, plugin users, and the directory team. Adjust to the new reality and discover new possibilities hidden in the new directory.<br \/>\nFor everyone:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>how the way we browse plugins will change?<\/li>\n<li>how long can I use the old plugin directory?<\/li>\n<li>how will the embedded plugin directory be affected by this change?<\/li>\n<li>what&#8217;s new? what&#8217;s missing?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For plugin developers:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>how to prepare your plugin description?<\/li>\n<li>how to take advantage of the opportunity?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<section id=\"slides\" class=\"session--slides\">\n<h2>Slides<\/h2>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/presentation\/d\/e\/2PACX-1vRy2DLqQCGJpNboAYlfLX_J_B4SZsfSVny4HpWRto0MhZvNjJimqm2qS25Dcrltbrf3Elk_8DcqQFC_\/embed?\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"100%\" height=\"453\" marginheight=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" mozallowfullscreen=\"true\" webkitallowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/iframe>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"video\" class=\"session--video\">\n<h2>Video<\/h2>\n<div id=\"v-igHAqWCY-1\" class=\"video-player\"><iframe title='VideoPress Video Player' aria-label='VideoPress Video Player' width='604' height='338' src='https:\/\/videopress.com\/embed\/igHAqWCY?hd=1&amp;cover=1&amp;loop=0&amp;autoPlay=0&amp;permalink=1&amp;muted=0&amp;controls=1&amp;playsinline=0&amp;useAverageColor=0&amp;preloadContent=metadata' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen data-resize-to-parent=\"true\" allow='clipboard-write'><\/iframe><script src='https:\/\/s0.wp.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/video\/assets\/js\/next\/videopress-iframe.js'><\/script><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"transcription\" class=\"session--transcription\">\n<h2>Transcription<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p><b>ELLIOT:<\/b> \u00a0Hello welcome to track B for our second talk of the day. \u00a0Did everyone get good SWAG? \u00a0Make sure you see the sponsors. \u00a0It is good to pay your dues. \u00a0Our talk today is with Aleksander who is the CEO of Perfect Dashboard and a VP of Joomla and an open source aficionado. \u00a0He has also told me he is a fan of London parks and English tea rooms which is a first, so are you ready Alex.<\/p>\n<p><b>ALEKSANDER: \u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p>(Computer crashed &#8211; small bit missing)<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; that will be the first five you have, and then you read the TXT file. \u00a0So if you have more than five of them, you should definitely change the order so that the most important five will be at the beginning of the readme TXT file. \u00a0Then, as I\u00a0told you, the installation tab is GAN. \u00a0So if you require some special installation procedure, then you should move to the &#8220;frequently asked questions&#8221; section and then just ask a\u00a0question like &#8220;How do I\u00a0install this plugin?&#8221; \u00a0You install it by all the information. \u00a0And we&#8217;ve lost the screen. \u00a0And we&#8217;re back. \u00a0Perfect.<\/p>\n<p>So if there is some special installation procedure, it is not like just go to your WordPress dashboard and install it, that&#8217;s the place to put some information about it.<\/p>\n<p>Then, compatibility. \u00a0If there are some compatibility issues within your plugin, you should definitely put that somewhere in the description, because there will be no information on the compatibility any more, as I\u00a0have shown you.<\/p>\n<p>Statistics. \u00a0There will be no statistics available except for a\u00a0number of active installs for the end user. \u00a0So if you want to brag about it, then again brag about it in the description.<\/p>\n<p>One tiny thing about the authors. \u00a0As you may be able to see somewhere here, just move back\u00a0&#8212; yeah. \u00a0The authors here are not the same as authors as all contributors to plugin. \u00a0There is a special tag called &#8220;authors header&#8221;, I\u00a0guess, if I\u00a0can remember it correctly, and you need to set that one to put the name of authors that will be shown on the plugin list. \u00a0So if you don&#8217;t have that one already, that&#8217;s another handy thing to do before the new plugin repository comes in place.<\/p>\n<p>Okay. \u00a0Getting back to our list. \u00a0And then there is one extra thing on top of\u00a0it. \u00a0There is an admin view, for extension developers. \u00a0That&#8217;s a\u00a0brand new thing. \u00a0Stats are back in there, as of now. \u00a0I\u00a0can&#8217;t guarantee they will stay there, but as of now, they are there, but there is only available for plugin admins.<\/p>\n<p>Your regular users won&#8217;t see that. \u00a0You can, but that&#8217;s all we have right now. \u00a0And as I&#8217;ve told you, those downloads per day count both download and updates. \u00a0So that&#8217;s not the information on how many people, you know, have tried your plugin, so every time somebody updates your plugin, it counts as downloads. \u00a0And that&#8217;s the fact that\u00a0&#8212; if you&#8217;re not familiar with that one, you should remember this one as a\u00a0take away.<\/p>\n<p>Okay. \u00a0So, my big ask to you is to help us test the new plugin repository. \u00a0And no matter you are a\u00a0user or a\u00a0plugin developer, or a\u00a0website developer, we need your input because we&#8217;ve been working with that for a\u00a0long time. \u00a0We&#8217;re trying to make it better, but we are aware that there are many things that should be improved in that, so that&#8217;s why we&#8217;re looking for input, go to WordPress.org\/plugins\/WP and provide your feedback, tell us what is wrong, and my plugin is not shown at certain keywords for on the first place, it is not a\u00a0valid input, but every other is, and please do help us because we want make this tool better than the previous one. \u00a0And without your input, it is difficult to see whether your find it helpful or not, really.<\/p>\n<p>So like whether you find it more interesting search results thanks to that, or you find more of crap. \u00a0So do tell us what you think. \u00a0Okay. \u00a0My name is Aleksander Kuczek and I\u00a0turn web development businesses into moneymaking machines. \u00a0If you want to get slides from this presentation, I\u00a0will do a\u00a0link to them shortly on Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you. \u00a0[applause].<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>ELLIOT: \u00a0<\/b>Okay, Bernhard is going around with a\u00a0microphone now, so if you have any questions, hands in the air. \u00a0We&#8217;ve got one here on the right.<\/p>\n<p><b>FROM THE FLOOR: \u00a0<\/b>Hey, thanks for that. \u00a0Really interesting. \u00a0There was some talk about a\u00a0year ago, it might actually have been at this WordCamp, where the results that were returned that some of the older plugins that hadn&#8217;t been updated for say like two or three years might be deprioritised in the results. \u00a0Has there been any implemented in that respect?<\/p>\n<p><b>ALEKSANDER: \u00a0<\/b>That&#8217;s a\u00a0very hot topic, I must say. \u00a0Our current state is that all plugins are there, no matter they are old or not, but if something has not been updated in the last two years, it will\u00a0&#8212; the position will be decreased significantly. \u00a0So unless you&#8217;re looking for something very rare, or you&#8217;re going\u00a0&#8212; or you&#8217;re looking for\u00a0&#8212; or you&#8217;ll go to the very last page you want to see the old plugins.<\/p>\n<p><b>ELLIOT: \u00a0<\/b>I\u00a0think there&#8217;s a\u00a0hand here, as well.<\/p>\n<p><b>FROM THE FLOOR: \u00a0<\/b>Hi. \u00a0I\u00a0work for Outlandish, and we produce WP packages, which is the composer repository for WordPress plugins, kind of wrapper for. \u00a0Are there any changes under the hood in the way the new repository represents plugins over SVN, or this kind of thing, or is it simply just a\u00a0cosmetic change to the way the interface works and the way the sorting algorithm works?<\/p>\n<p><b>ALEKSANDER: \u00a0<\/b>Okay. \u00a0If I\u00a0understood your question right, you&#8217;re asking whether we have changed something within the way we organise plugins or the search engine itself?<\/p>\n<p><b>FROM THE FLOOR: \u00a0<\/b>It is more in the in terms of how the plugins are stored, and in the SVN in the large SVN repository?<\/p>\n<p><b>ALEKSANDER: \u00a0<\/b>No, we keep it exactly the same way it was. \u00a0Actually, if you can go now and see the new version and it is based on exactly the same data we have from the old repository, both interfaces and both search engines use exactly the same data. \u00a0So we&#8217;re using the same structure. \u00a0But for example, as I&#8217;ve mentioned over, we&#8217;re using in a\u00a0different way, like the old repository was taking all information about tax, and the new one is taking only the five more recent. \u00a0But it is still the same as the VN, and in this case nothing has changed.<\/p>\n<p>Good.<\/p>\n<p>Any more questions?<\/p>\n<p><b>FROM THE FLOOR: \u00a0<\/b>Just to clarify, as well, the author header tag, is that\u00a0&#8212; I\u00a0mean obviously there&#8217;s the contributor&#8217;s tag you can set in the plugin header; is that the same thing, or is this a\u00a0completely separate tag?<\/p>\n<p><b>ALEKSANDER: \u00a0<\/b>I\u00a0think it is author\/header. \u00a0That&#8217;s the name of the tag that you should be looking for.<\/p>\n<p><b>ELLIOT: \u00a0<\/b>Hands up, any more questions? \u00a0One at the back on the left.<\/p>\n<p><b>FROM THE FLOOR: \u00a0<\/b>Hi. \u00a0I\u00a0was just wondering, you&#8217;ve removed quite a\u00a0bit of information from the interface, like installation instructions, but also compatibility info. \u00a0I\u00a0was wondering what is the reasoning behind those choices is, if you know.<\/p>\n<p><b>ALEKSANDER: \u00a0<\/b>Well, I\u00a0asked this to my senior team members quite often, I\u00a0must say, and for some of those, the reason is obvious. \u00a0Like nobody, or hardly anyone is using compatibility information. \u00a0Like, we don&#8217;t update others, so it is just a\u00a0space that is being used. \u00a0In terms of installation information, the reasoning behind that was that most of the plugins can be used\u00a0&#8212; well, installation is pretty simple. \u00a0You don&#8217;t need any special instruction to install a\u00a0plugin, and if you need one in, then the frequently-asked questions would be the better place to go. \u00a0So the idea was that they started before with a\u00a0blank page, and they start to fill in with the elements, not looking at the old directory, but thinking what actually is needed and useful, and then they&#8217;ve discussed the missing, or we have discussed the missing parts and decided on the fate of some small things that will be gone. \u00a0Thanks to that, we have way clearer interface, but of course it is also\u00a0&#8212; there are informations missing, and that&#8217;s correct.<\/p>\n<p><b>FROM THE FLOOR: \u00a0<\/b>Hi. \u00a0I\u00a0have another question, a\u00a0sort of related question. \u00a0Given that the compatibility information is not there and, as you say, presumably you&#8217;ve got information that nobody was selecting from the dropdown and checking whether the plugin was compatible with them, is there going to be recommended or guidance on how to express compatibility issues in the readmes, particularly for plugin authors who perhaps English isn&#8217;t their first language? \u00a0So a\u00a0way to make sure users know this plugin will not work if you&#8217;re on version 4.5, for example.<\/p>\n<p><b>ALEKSANDER: \u00a0<\/b>If I\u00a0were you, I\u00a0wouldn&#8217;t expect any official guidance from the WordPress plugin team, but I\u00a0think there will be some trend and people will start to follow it. \u00a0Like, if the big players will start to put information about the compatibility in a\u00a0certain way, then others will follow. \u00a0I\u00a0hope that again, for most of the plugins that will not be the case, because they&#8217;re just compatible with everything we have, and they have backwards compatibility and they have\u00a0&#8212; they are compatible with the new version. \u00a0So that&#8217;s again, I\u00a0hope that it will work in that way, and the compatibility information will be more if you&#8217;re compatible only with certain databases, or you need a\u00a0certain version of PHP that is higher than the basic base WordPress requirement. \u00a0So I\u00a0think that will go more for this than for compatibility with certain WordPress versions. \u00a0Because WordPress is going into that trend that every plugin should be compatible with every modern. \u00a0I hope that answers your question,.<\/p>\n<p><b>FROM THE FLOOR: \u00a0<\/b>Yes.<\/p>\n<p><b>ALEKSANDER: \u00a0<\/b>Perfect. \u00a0Any more questions or may I\u00a0go home? \u00a0[Laughter].<\/p>\n<p><b>FROM THE FLOOR: \u00a0<\/b>Hi. \u00a0I\u00a0see that you say that they might be removing the previous versions, the previous revisions. \u00a0What happens if somebody updates a\u00a0plugin but it actually breaks, and you need to roll back to a\u00a0previous version?<\/p>\n<p><b>ALEKSANDER: \u00a0<\/b>You still have an access to an SVN, I\u00a0guess, but it is like you don&#8217;t have it, you don&#8217;t have links on the page, because that&#8217;s again this WordPress trend. \u00a0We should all be updated and we should all run the newer version of WordPress and the newer version of plugin, and it should be working. \u00a0I\u00a0know it&#8217;s not always the case, and I\u00a0see it regularly. \u00a0So that may be the thing but that&#8217;s the way WordPress goes, and we want everyone\u00a0&#8212; maybe in a\u00a0few years, there won&#8217;t be even an update button, everything will update seamlessly, and we would all like to make that happen and make sure it won&#8217;t break websites, but there is still a\u00a0long way ahead of us to get there.<\/p>\n<p><b>FROM THE FLOOR: \u00a0<\/b>Yeah, just a\u00a0follow-up of that. \u00a0We have several problems with, you know, tax being deleted from the plugins directory. \u00a0So we stop using WP packages and then we point to a certain version, and then I don&#8217;t know, the plugin updates to version 1.6 and then we&#8217;re still on 1.5, and then 1.5 doesn&#8217;t exist any more. \u00a0And then when we update, boom. \u00a0So I don&#8217;t know, it might be for, you know, for search purposes, use the last version but not delete the old ones. \u00a0Never delete the tag version from SVN.<\/p>\n<p><b>ALEKSANDER: \u00a0<\/b>There is no reason to delete any versions from SVN. \u00a0That&#8217;s the purpose, to keep all the versions there. \u00a0I&#8217;m just saying that there won&#8217;t be links displayed, but if you&#8217;re a\u00a0plugin developer, obviously you should keep all the old versions there, and don&#8217;t remove them. \u00a0Yeah, that&#8217;s a\u00a0very good point.<\/p>\n<p><b>FROM THE FLOOR: \u00a0<\/b>Sorry to harp about this one, because I\u00a0think losing the easeability to get a\u00a0rollback on an old one is going to be a\u00a0huge minus, so my question is if the tags are still there, will the automatic zip still be there as well? \u00a0Because if you can work out what the URL is going to be for the previous version, will you still be able to download that zip, because the link is missing from the page?<\/p>\n<p><b>ALEKSANDER: \u00a0<\/b>Yeah, that&#8217;s only links missing from the page, we&#8217;re talking about the interface change. \u00a0But as I\u00a0told you, there is a\u00a0huge discussion whether that should be back or not. \u00a0So I\u00a0will bring this feedback to the next meeting on Wednesday, and tell them that you did insist you need them.<\/p>\n<p><b>FROM THE FLOOR: \u00a0<\/b>Thank you.<\/p>\n<p><b>ALEKSANDER: \u00a0<\/b>I\u00a0hope this will help.<\/p>\n<p><b>FROM THE FLOOR: \u00a0<\/b>Sure. \u00a0Even if it is just the last three, four, five, something like that, I\u00a0think it will be helpful.<\/p>\n<p><b>ALEKSANDER: \u00a0<\/b>I&#8217;ll do my best. \u00a0I&#8217;m a\u00a0junior member there, so I\u00a0don&#8217;t have much to say, but I&#8217;ll do my best to bring that case there.<\/p>\n<p><b>FROM THE FLOOR: \u00a0<\/b>Plus one for that. \u00a0I\u00a0think it is pretty crazy to think that everyone is going to be happy interacting with kind of SVN and stuff. \u00a0You&#8217;ve got a\u00a0whole millions of users, frankly, that would be pretty uncomfortable, or not even aware of that system, frankly. \u00a0So, I\u00a0think not even just plus one, but plus 100 to keeping the old links, because frankly I\u00a0think you&#8217;re going to end up with real trouble with that in the future. \u00a0So please, keep it for the users.<\/p>\n<p><b>ALEKSANDER: \u00a0<\/b>I&#8217;ll do my best, I\u00a0promise. \u00a0Okay.<\/p>\n<p><b>ELLIOT: \u00a0<\/b>No pressure.<\/p>\n<p><b>ALEKSANDER: \u00a0<\/b>Yeah, so if you have any more specific questions or questions related to your own plugin, or your own use case, you will be able to find me around, I&#8217;ll be in the Happiness Bar for sure, if you want to ask anything. \u00a0Thank you for your time. \u00a0[applause].<\/p>\n<p><b>ELLIOT: \u00a0<\/b>Okay, we have a\u00a0little break now, and then after that, we return at 11.50 to hear Edd Hurst talk about migrating content. \u00a0So go have a wander around, have a coffee, grab some swag and we&#8217;ll be back here at 11.50. \u00a0Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The purpose of this session is to help plugin developers to prepare their plugins for the upcoming implementation of WordPress Plugin Directory 3.0. Years of experience in working with Joomla Extensions Directory data and my recent enrollment in the WordPress Plugin Directory gives me a possibility to advise how to make the transition from the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/session\/get-your-plugin-ready-for-the-new-wordpress-plugin-directory\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Get Your Plugin Ready for the New WordPress Plugin Directory<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13944846,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_wcpt_session_time":1489834200,"_wcpt_session_duration":3000,"_wcpt_session_type":"session","_wcpt_session_slides":"","_wcpt_session_video":"","_wcpt_speaker_id":[1707],"footnotes":""},"session_track":[446812],"session_category":[],"class_list":["post-1854","wcb_session","type-wcb_session","status-publish","hentry","wcb_track-track-b"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p833Rb-tU","session_date_time":{"date":"18\/03\/2017","time":"10:50"},"session_speakers":[{"id":"1707","slug":"aleksander-kuczek","name":"Aleksander Kuczek","link":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/speaker\/aleksander-kuczek\/"}],"session_cats_rendered":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sessions\/1854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sessions"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/wcb_session"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sessions\/1854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3622,"href":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sessions\/1854\/revisions\/3622"}],"speakers":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speakers\/1707"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wporg\/v1\/users\/aleksanderkuczek"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"wcb_track","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/session_track?post=1854"},{"taxonomy":"wcb_session_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/london.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/session_category?post=1854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}