why is Textpattern Resources not being used?

kevinpotts · 2008-03-02 05:33:07

It seems to me that a centralized location for all Textpattern plugins would be hugely beneficial. At one point, I thought Textpattern Resources was that place, but over time, it seems more and more plugins are announced on this forum and never see the light of day anywhere else. The question: Why? I have traditionally gone to TXP Resources for all my plugin needs, but lately I am finding a rash of stuff that is not included there, stuff I am only uncovering by pure chance (like this one). Why are plugin authors not leveraging this community tool? Some possible answers:

Because plugin authors do not know about it?
Because the design sucks?
Because it’s too annoying to create an account, post something, and then re-log-in to maintain future versions?
Because the organization of the site leaves a lot to be desired? (Seriously, a category for “e-commerce” could not be more obvious.)

The maverick in me tends to look at a situation like this and say “fuck it, I’ll build my own”, but the last thing the TXP community needs is more fragmentation. But I’m really tired of Googling for possible plugins for potential functionality instead of just searching through one comprehensive site.

Thoughts?

(And I’m sure this has been discussed before, but it’s late and I didn’t feel like Googling that either.)

iblastoff · 2008-03-02 06:30:45

asy_dashboard was never really a finished plugin. it was developed as-is for the community to further (except i dont think anyone tried to. as mentioned before i did attempt it, but with no help/feedback from anyone so i dropped the whole thing altogether). i’m pretty sure sencer isn’t active in the community anymore as the last commit i’ve seen from him in svn was like last july or something. he hasn’t posted on the forums for a good 5 months either.

wheres rob sable at? seems to have dropped out of TXP plugin development as well. without rss_unlimited_categories i wouldn’t even be able to use TXP right now.

my offering of reasons would be:

how do people even find textpattern.org? the main textpattern homepage is dull and has way too much info on the front page with endless lists and links on both side columns that are hardly navigable. i’m surprised people can actually make their way to these forums, let alone any of the off-site resources. just from the visual impression i initially got a couple of years ago or so from textpattern.com, org, and .net sites, i wasn’t even sure textpattern itself was actually a serious project. i mean i’m glad i actually took the time to learn it but still, i can see many, many people being turned away just from the designs of the various main resource sites.

domain names. textpattern.net, textpattern.org are problematic and doesn’t really show any form of centralization at all. coupled with the fact that they’re all designed differently as well. and i do agree, not to put down the work of the community, but textpattern.org is in fact, an ugly site to behold :(

i think the method that plugin authors use to maintain their own plugins on textpattern.org is pretty simple and clear though. we get direct article edit links as well as the ability to view only or own plugins/posts in the backend.

lack of e-commerce category is probably due to the fact there just aren’t any fully functional e-commerce plugins for TXP at all. textpattern solutions book mentions the plugin rob sable did but that was never released. i worked on my own for a while and is usable, but its also more of an as-is plugin for developers. textcommerce has once again failed to provide any updates in more than 3 months (though i do see a bunch of ads being thrown on that site now). that new yab_shop plugin seems promising, though i can’t tell what it actually does besides provide some simple session-handling and sending a form, which has basically been available for years via joe_gcart.

Last edited by iblastoff (2008-03-02 06:40:10)

jm · 2008-03-02 07:34:45

For me, 2-4 are absolutely true. #3 is the biggest one for me because it requires maintaining 3 versions of the same thing (personal site, .org, forums). Personally, I think we could solve updating and .org maintenance if authors published an XML file with basic details (plugin name, version, URI, author name). Ack, that’s off-topic.

I agree with Steve – the domains are ridiculous. I think subdomains and a consistent design would make a lot more sense.

textpattern.com: About TXP, downloads, weblog
docs.textpattern.com: Wiki, FAQ
plugins.textpattern.com
themes.textpattern.com
forums.textpattern.com
dev.textpattern.com
svn.textpattern.com

Of course, it’s only worth doing subdomains if the login is the same for each site.

Mary · 2008-03-02 08:08:04

If you want a category added, erm, why not just add one? If you can’t, then email Alicson.

is likely your answer. An xml file still doesn’t solve the problem, because folks would still have to register to let the site know where the file is.

The sites are at different spots, with different designs, because they were created and run by different people. I would like to remedy that, but at the moment I’m kind of trying to fix our poor broken svn and dev sub-domains.

ruud · 2008-03-02 10:14:19

If there isn’t a e-commerce plugin yet, there’s no point in adding a category for it, IMHO.

Updating TXP.org when a new version is released… mostly that’s to keep the version number up-to-date, because if you keep the same plugin download location when a new plugin is released, people can still download the new plugin version even if TXP.org does not mention the correct version number (I suspect most visitors don’t care about the version number as much as just being able to find a plugin). Then again, it takes me 5 minutes to update version numbers for all my plugins. It’s not like it takes hours of valuable time.

Some plugins are mentioned on TXP.org, but do not have a topic here in the forum. I do think most plugins are mentioned both here and on TXP.org. If you see one that isn’t mentioned on TXP.org, you can add it yourself, even if you’re not the plugin author, although it’s probably best to point this out to the plugin author first.

the main textpattern homepage is dull and has way too much info on the front page with endless lists and links on both side columns that are hardly navigable.

Very true, unfortunately.

marios · 2008-03-02 10:40:18

I’ve been frustrated by this as well.
It turns out, that for those, that have some paramount base knolledge about which ones the most important base plugins are, the easiest way to find a plugin is by name.
( Requires you to remember the Author code )

Features could include. ( Advanced Search )

Finding a plugin by the Real Name of an Author
Finding by tag name
Filtering by Type ( 0 1 2 )
Finding a Plugin by release Date/ date spans
Descending directly into the PHP source ( a la PHPxref )

For the migrated documentation/wiki I’d recommend a plugin Live Search Utility ( Autocompletion while you type )

regards

els · 2008-03-02 14:20:22

jm wrote:

textpattern.com: About TXP, downloads, weblog

docs.textpattern.com: Wiki, FAQ

plugins.textpattern.com

themes.textpattern.com

forums.textpattern.com

dev.textpattern.com

svn.textpattern.com

I totally agree!

kevinpotts · 2008-03-02 15:49:55

Some plugins are mentioned on TXP.org, but do not have a topic here in the forum. I do think most plugins are mentioned both here and on TXP.org. If you see one that isn’t mentioned on TXP.org, you can add it yourself, even if you’re not the plugin author, although it’s probably best to point this out to the plugin author first.

This is precisely the point of my post. We need ONE location — not both. It just does not make any kind of sense. I don’t care if people announce their plugin on the forum, but TXP Resources should always be the most up-to-date and comprehensive repository for the community. This fuzziness is not helping anyone, and newcomers to the CMS are the ones most affected — the confusion caused by two separate locations is unnecessary and really makes the community look unorganized. (And don’t even get me started on the fractured organization and publishing of templates.)

Even plugins like asy_dashboard, which may have been released as a quick hack or “proof of concept,” should have an entry on TXP Resources. All you have to do is say that it’s a proof of concept in the description. But since many people use it, it’s the only thing of its kind, and more people are looking for it, why not publish it? The forum may be a fine place to publish a beta version for testing, but once it’s done (which it clearly is), it needs more organized exposure. I’m not picking on asy_dashboard or Sencer (although asy_sitemap is another example); it’s just the most recent, personal example. There are many others.

the main textpattern homepage is dull and has way too much info on the front page with endless lists and links on both side columns that are hardly navigable.

Indeed. Although related, that’s a different issue.

ruud · 2008-03-02 16:01:04

We need both locations. TXP.org to be able to quickly find a plugin and the forums for plugin discussion.

kevinpotts · 2008-03-02 16:11:53

ruud wrote:

We need both locations. TXP.org to be able to quickly find a plugin and the forums for plugin discussion.

I do not disagree. But don’t publish plugins on the forum — publish them on TXP Resources and then link to that page. TXPR acts as the central, comprehensive repository (with no commenting), the forum serves as the place for discussion. When a plugin is updated, update TXPR.

Am I alone in wanting this delineation? If so, I will shut up. I just cannot stand disorganized data.

masa · 2008-03-02 16:44:53

ruud wrote:

We need both locations. TXP.org to be able to quickly find a plugin and the forums for plugin discussion.

I agree that plugin discussions belong in the forum.

Regarding the search on TXP.org I have often had problems finding plugins which I knew existed. Sometimes I could only remember part of the name, but that didn’t bring up any results. Searching the forum can be hit and miss at times, too.

As to the general presentation of the various resources I agree they should be organised as subdomains. Perhaps even more important, and no offense intended, I think a unified look of all these resources would help txp’s acceptance immensely – at the moment things look a bit incoherent.

Last edited by masa (2008-03-02 16:48:15)

mhulse · 2008-03-31 06:34:41

Interesting thread…

Not sure if this will help, but I kinda like how EE has an official list of plugins.

Maybe TXP should have a similar setup?

Also, FWIK, EE just uses the forums for EE plugin announcements.

Hmmm, maybe the TXP “Plugin Author Support” sub-forum should be re-named as “Plugin Announcements”?

I think I would prefer having to post info in only one location — In other words, I prefer searching and posting to the forums over Textpattern Resources.

Textpattern CMS

Textpattern CMS support forum

#1 2008-03-02 05:33:07

why is Textpattern Resources not being used?

#2 2008-03-02 06:30:45

Re: why is Textpattern Resources not being used?

#3 2008-03-02 07:34:45

Re: why is Textpattern Resources not being used?

#4 2008-03-02 08:08:04

Re: why is Textpattern Resources not being used?

#5 2008-03-02 10:14:19

Re: why is Textpattern Resources not being used?

#6 2008-03-02 10:40:18

Re: why is Textpattern Resources not being used?

#7 2008-03-02 14:20:22

Re: why is Textpattern Resources not being used?

#8 2008-03-02 15:49:55

Re: why is Textpattern Resources not being used?

#9 2008-03-02 16:01:04

Re: why is Textpattern Resources not being used?

#10 2008-03-02 16:11:53

Re: why is Textpattern Resources not being used?

#11 2008-03-02 16:44:53

Re: why is Textpattern Resources not being used?

#12 2008-03-31 06:34:41

Re: why is Textpattern Resources not being used?

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