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Plugin Repository
#1
Hey guys.

There has been little talk around the forums about the development of a plugin repository. As we
have become a larger community with more themes and plugins available for the end users, it
is time to get some people on board and get a system developed to host all available themes and
plugins.

So here are my questions to you:
1. What would you like to have in this system?
2. Should plugins have to be approved?
3. Is anyone willing to get on board with a group of people
and assist in the development of this system? We need both
designers and developers.

Here are my thoughts:
1. Everyone should login
2. Anyone can download themes/plugins.
3. Developers can submit themes/plugins.
4. If possible something to notify end users of updates in a plugin would be awesome.
5. Developers can private message users who have downloaded there plugin/theme to notify them
of security alerts or updates.

I really want to get this going and get this system built.

Please email me if you would be willing to assist in the design of the user interface or would like to assist in the development.

This system will need to be written in PHP and use MySQL as a database. There is hosting and domain available
as soon as this system is developed.

Post and ideas on this forum and email me (MPhillips@OwassoWebSolutions.com) if you are willing to assist. Make sure and tell me what you are willing to assist with in that email.
JWH Technologies
Have any marketing ideas for Get-Simple? Let me hear them!
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#2
1.Does such repository need to have a stand alone domain ?
Wouldn't it be better to use a subdomain, for example plugins.get-simple.info, to have everything under one flag ?

2. Downloading a plugin shouldn't force visitor to log in. Unless it's a simple method of preventing from download bots (transfer leechers) or other crap.

3. You came up with couple nice thoughts, like notifying users about new version of a plugin.
I'd go with advanced version. If somebody wants to get info about new version of certain plugin, he would just have to check "I want to get info about future updates of this plugin" and then download.
If user is logged, his mail would be automatically added to plugin's mailing list.
If not logged in, he would be asked to enter his e-mail address.


Plugins have to be approved by admins/mods who are webdevelopers. Other way plugins would contain dangerous code, and who knows what else.

4. Things which have definitely to be added:
- download counter - this would definitely tickle every developer's ego Wink
- comments , but this feature should lead to dedicated thread on forum.
- plugin changelog
- possibility to download older version of plugin, if it doesn't contain any vulnerabilities (or were fixed)
- additional translations of plugins to other languages. If plugin doesn't use a language file, then there should be a possibility to download a translated plugin (should be up to community to translate most popular plugins)
- good installation guide, not only as a .txt file inside plugin archive
- screenshots
- nightly builds - if those lazy devs won't drop the development Wink

There's one thing which bothers me. Some people post useful modifications to plugins, and it would be good to inform visitors about them.

Every page could be split to couple sections like:
general info | installation | download | tutorials (or users modifications)

general info: description, screens, counters, ratings, and if there's a new version or patch there should be an information about it
download: stable releases, archives, and nightly builds
tutorials: this section could contain above mentioned modifications posted by forum users
Addons: blue business theme, Online Visitors, Notepad
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#3
Quote:1.Does such repository need to have a stand alone domain ?
Wouldn't it be better to use a subdomain, for example plugins.get-simple.info, to have everything under one flag ?
I would say yea it needs its own domain, but I will talk to Chris about doing something with a sub domain to forward to the actual domain.

Quote:2. Downloading a plugin shouldn't force visitor to log in. Unless it's a simple method of preventing from download bots (transfer leechers) or other crap.
I think we need to require a login, this will just give us a little more control over things.

Quote:3. You came up with couple nice thoughts, like notifying users about new version of a plugin.
I'd go with advanced version. If somebody wants to get info about new version of certain plugin, he would just have to check "I want to get info about future updates of this plugin" and then download.
If user is logged, his mail would be automatically added to plugin's mailing list.
If not logged in, he would be asked to enter his e-mail address.
I love the idea about the check box.

Quote:Plugins have to be approved by admins/mods who are webdevelopers. Other way plugins would contain dangerous code, and who knows what else.
I agree, we wouldn't necessary have to be very strict about approval; but this would allow us to create guidelines for plugins
to ensure they are not screwing up the core.
Quote:4. Things which have definitely to be added:
- download counter - this would definitely tickle every developer's ego Wink Yes!
- comments , but this feature should lead to dedicated thread on forum. Not really sure how I like this,
maybe we could do a FAQ where users could submit questions, and the dev could choose to publish them. We
could also do a ranking system like rate with up to 5 starts type dill

- plugin changelog This would be nice.
- possibility to download older version of plugin, if it doesn't contain any vulnerabilities (or were fixed) I am not sure this is a great idea due to the amount of storage it may require. But we could always look into it!
- additional translations of plugins to other languages. If plugin doesn't use a language file, then there should be a possibility to download a translated plugin (should be up to community to translate most popular plugins)This again could become an issue with storage. I am not sure the best way to do this as it is needed.
- good installation guide, not only as a .txt file inside plugin archive I think we could implement javascript tabs that would allow for one tab to be screenshots one tab to be installation and so on.
- screenshots We may have to limit this to like 4 or 5 due to storage.
- nightly builds - if those lazy devs won't drop the development ;This could be a storage issue to.)

This is all great, I am going to get a list of things that will be included. No one has contacted me yet willing to help out!

Another thing we need to add is as developers you could choose to set up a individual account or a company account that
would allow you to place company links and logos.
JWH Technologies
Have any marketing ideas for Get-Simple? Let me hear them!
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#4
Also, If you volunteer to assist in the development/design of this site, We may be able to work out a deal where
we have a sponsors page with your logo and link on it. We may also consider doing a rotating advertisement system
where you would be guaranteed a place on for no charge.

I would really like this thing to get going! I need 2 developers and at least 1 designer.
JWH Technologies
Have any marketing ideas for Get-Simple? Let me hear them!
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#5
OWS_Matthew Wrote:
yojoe Wrote:Downloading a plugin shouldn’t force visitor to log in. Unless it’s a simple method of preventing from download bots (transfer leechers) or other crap.
I think we need to require a login, this will just give us a little more control over things.
Requiring login will also cut down the number of users because people are not willing to register just to download. I think you shouldn’t block downloads from those who are not logged in, everything else however could be offered to registered users only.

Also, blocking downloads will just mean people will also publish their plugins on other websites to more easily link and share their work. This will then make any download statistics useless and inaccurate.

OWS_Matthew Wrote:
yojoe Wrote:Additional translations of plugins to other languages. If plugin doesn’t use a language file, then there should be a possibility to download a translated plugin (should be up to community to translate most popular plugins).
This again could become an issue with storage. I am not sure the best way to do this as it is needed.
I don’t think this will be a storage issue, because if the community deems a plugin to be worth translating they are going to do it. If they are going to translate it they are also going to publish it and upload it. In the end you will be losing the space anyway. The thing to decide is whether you want to offer them a specific option for publishing translations or not.

OWS_Matthew Wrote:Another thing we need to add is as developers you could choose to set up a individual account or a company account that would allow you to place company links and logos.
I second this, it’s very good to set apart developer accounts from users. This way people will know whether you’re contributing or not (and whether you can be trusted when talking code).

Do you think these accounts need to be moderated? Like, you can only get a developer account if you’ve actually uploaded an original plugin/theme (no translation)?

I’m willing to help out setting this up but I don’t know how much time I can really give you Sad
“Don’t forget the important ˚ (not °) on the a,” says the Unicode lover.
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#6
Hum I'm really not sure what to do about the login to download.. We could try it for a while and if it becomes an issue we could then require a login.

If a developer is willing all I need from you in this first version is the login and user management system. I can handle the plugin upload/display/approval.

When a user registers and checks the developer box they will initially be registered as a developers. But all there olivine will still be required to be approved by mods or admins.
JWH Technologies
Have any marketing ideas for Get-Simple? Let me hear them!
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#7
Still looking for at least 1 designer and 1 developer.

Email me if you are the tab bit interested in helping out!

In exchange for your assistance we will consider providing you
with 1 year free advertisement on the site.
JWH Technologies
Have any marketing ideas for Get-Simple? Let me hear them!
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#8
As yojoe and Zegnåt you should not force users to login just to download a plugin. Most of the people don't want another account and personally I would search till I find a place where to download that plugin without registering.

Besides the download counter it would be really great if you could access a profile page of the developer with all the plugins they uploaded.
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#9
I agree now that I think about it more..

I really wish I could get one or two people to help out with this..

I am in the process of creating a client website, I just went through all of the plugins
to find the ones I wanted took forever.
JWH Technologies
Have any marketing ideas for Get-Simple? Let me hear them!
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#10
I could probably knock out an alpha version this afternoon if you want, to get an idea of the upload/download/search functionality?

I'll post a link here when I have something worth showing!
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#11
That's awsome, let me know if you need anything!
JWH Technologies
Have any marketing ideas for Get-Simple? Let me hear them!
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#12
Ok, super simple, but it's a start:
http://www.helixtech.org.uk/gsplugins

So far you can upload & download plugins, and search by tag. No login stuff is done, so all pages are open. Very little validation is done (apart from SQL injection prevention), so you can upload anything as a plugin. View count is implemented, this could be extended to count downloads as well.

I also agree that users should not have to log in to download - it stops people getting at the content. I'd end up making an account for Bugmenot (they provide generic accounts for sites that require login to view content) if I had to use it.

However, developers should register to upload plugins, so they can update existing ones, and get download stats, etc. Uploaded plugins should be marked as 'unverified' until they can be checked by moderators. By default, unverified plugins would not be displayed to site users.

I know the theme isnt great, but it's better than nothing at the moment!
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#13
That looks awsome, are you going to be working on the user system?
JWH Technologies
Have any marketing ideas for Get-Simple? Let me hear them!
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#14
Yep, i've updated the site with basic register/login functionality. You now need to register to upload, but anyone can register.

There is now filtering on the file upload, so only zips and valid images are accepted, and images are thumbnailed before being displayed.

Next it needs a user control panel, then moderation functionality.
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#15
You are awsome!
Thanks for your hardwork, look forward to seeing the finished product!
JWH Technologies
Have any marketing ideas for Get-Simple? Let me hear them!
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#16
Another update, plugins are now uploaded as "unverified", and a moderator needs to approve them.
You can test out the site with theses accounts:
Standard user: user + user
Moderator: mod + mod

I'll keep hacking away at it!
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#17
I would also like to make developers choose to be a developer, not everyone needs the upload option.

If a user is not logged in, can you hide the buttons they cannot access, thanks.
JWH Technologies
Have any marketing ideas for Get-Simple? Let me hear them!
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#18
OWS_Matthew Wrote:I would also like to make developers choose to be a developer, not everyone needs the upload option.

If a user is not logged in, can you hide the buttons they cannot access, thanks.

Well at the moment if you're not a developer there is no point in registering, but it shouldnt be too difficult to split the levels up.

I thought that most things were correctly hidden, but i'm not sure how up to date the live copy was compared to my local version.

I'm going away for the week, so I probably wont be able to work on the code, but i'll keep an eye on this thread!

I've uploaded a copy of the code (and an SQL dump) here: http://www.helixtech.org.uk/files/gsplugins.zip
It's not particularly pretty, my next job will be to tidy it up, possibly move all HTML to a simple templating system, but feel free to have a go at any bits that need it.
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#19
How about making it somewhat like Simple Machine's system
http://custom.simplemachines.org/
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#20
I've updated the version again. The description for a plugin is now tabbed, but developers can specify what tabs they want as they write it.
I thought this was better than fixing the tabs as columns in the database.

Are there any more features people consider must-haves?
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#21
guys, i'm sorry i just saw this now... I will try and take some of the things that dig412 has created and implement them into the basic system I just created: http://get-simple.info/extend/
- Chris
Thanks for using GetSimple! - Download

Please do not email me directly for help regarding GetSimple. Please post all your questions/problems in the forum!
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#22
Well, that system already has pretty much everything mine did, and forum integrated login!
(Plus it actually has a theme...)

I'd offer you some code, but it's pretty hack-y, and not very modular.
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