[dokuwiki] Re: plugins, and their 'activity' / 'maintenance'

  • From: "Martin Tschofen" <martin.tschofen@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: dokuwiki@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Thu, 8 Feb 2007 08:24:54 -0600

Looking at the problem a bit more, is there a general pattern or patterns
behind the idea of collecting information in a structured way with
collaboration involved? It just happens to be plugins we're talking about
now that have physical files envolved. Issue lists, recepies, logo library,
UI pattern library, API documentation... A pattern that may be worth while
to address the wiki way? That would mean simple, easy to use, and in DW's
situation local file storage.
I suppose it would need a little more definition around the problem to grasp
the larger pattern behind it.
Things like, common/structured content capture, vote and review option,
sharing of files/source code, search capability, tagging, aggregation of
content in various ways e.g. listing of content accross wiki pages,
commenting, notification (rss, email), user control of namespaces, group
building, idea sharing...

Food for thought...martin

On 2/8/07, Esther Brunner <wikidesign@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi all

> Which I can perfectly understand :-). I'm thinking about this my self
for a
> while... I have an idea about a plugin repository outside the Wiki
(maybe
> connected to the same auth backend). I'll just scribble away some of my
> ideas how I imagine it:
>
> - database driven
> - located at plugins.dokuwiki.org
> - developers can upload plugin
> - developers can upload updates to existing plugins
> - maybe users can upload corrections as well
> - users can comment
> - user can vote: works for me with Dokuwiki version X, does not work for
me
>   with Version X
> - The plugin manager connects to plugins.splitbrain.org to list
available
>   plugin, and to check for updates
> - plugins can be tagged to categorize them
> - probably more I just forgot
> - users could easily see the health status of a plugin based onthe user
>   votes (work/don't work)
> - maybe special users could even do security audits, which would give a
>   plugin an extra point or something
> - probably more I just forgot
>
> What do you all think of it?

Great! I was about to propose a plugin repository as well. The plugin
page, to be frank, is a mess. And the wiki is not suited that well for
all the things we need to maintain a plugin project. That was also the
reason why I started mailing lists, code repositories, issues
trackers, etc. for my plugins. I do this with a combination of Google
services (Google Groups and Google Code) and custom made plugins for
my wiki site about the plugins. – But I would still prefer a
centralized solution at dokuwiki.org.

The reason why I didn't send this proposal to the list up to now, is
simply that building a full fledged plugin repository takes a
considerable amount of time. And my spare time is limited. Now I just
finished the semester at university and should have a bit more time in
the next weeks to help on this project, if my help is needed.

I'd vote for a combination of database and wiki. A database alone is
inflexible and for documentation we need some kind of wiki markup
anyway. Maybe something like in WikiMatrix, where every project has
it's own namespace. The database could store a bunch of pages a plugin
project usually has: desctiption, configuration, change history,
discussion, issue tracker, available languages and source code (and
maybe more).

Every plugin project should have a project owner, usually the plugin
author, who can add other project owners and members, who then are
allowed to make changes to the wiki pages and contribute patches to
the plugin's code repository. If the sole project owner doesn't want
to maintain the plugin any more and no other member wants to take over
the project, it is tagged 'abandonned' and a warning message is
presented to users.

> Should I spend time on writing this system? Or should I use the little
spare
> time I have to go outside looking at the sun? ;-)

I wish you still have time to go outside and enjoy looking at the sun
- you deserve it!

-- esther
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