From the initial feedback and the amount of plugin development activity taking place in the Joomlapolis forums its has become more than obvious that the CB Team's decision to push for the plugin framework API in CB 1.0 RC2 has proven a very wise decision (see article Random Thoughts).
Now the challenge is to assist all this third party activity and support it without adding unecessary overhead and excessive protocol to the process.
After some initial pondering and discussion amongst the CB Team members and suggestions by third party developers we believe it's time to outline some initial guidelines. Nothing of course is written in stone - we can always make changes and improvements at some later stage.
The initial support steps proposed include (in no significant order):
- Joomlapolitan Third Party Developers can request and obtain a 3PD status on there Joomlapolitan Card tab in the CB profile here on Joomlapolis
- The JP Government will deploy measures to support and facilitate proper communication between 3PD and other Joomlapolitans. One such measure is the creation of a 3PD list on Joomlapolis (see CB Lists on Main Menu).
- Third Party Developers will also obtain an author status so they can submit articles and announcements on Joomlapolis about their work and progress.
- Third Party Developers may also submit their packages by uploading them to the download section of Joomlapolis.
- All under-development 3PD user plugin packages will be placed either within the announcement post forum or in the relative download area marked (beta).
- Special, moderator only, forums will be created to allow 3PD to post announcements and progress reports. Joomlapolitans are encouraged to subscribe to these areas for quick notification of new developements.
- Special forum areas facilitate the submission of ideas and requests posted by other Joomlapolitans as feature request seeds open to existing and potential 3PD for new projects. 3PD should post activity initiation announcements in the previously discussed moderated forum to inform the community of these intentions and potentially avoid parallel and duplicate effort. Of course this is up to each developer and unfortunately we cannot stop duplication of work or forks (it's happened before)
- Third Party Developers are kindly requested to take appropriate actions to notify other Joomlapolitans about their status. Such actions include changing their forum signature to include the wording CB3PD. Also completing their About Me creative tab in their profile so others can read a brief bio regarding their projects. Another idea is that all CB3PD maintain and undate their blogs so other Joomlapolitan can follow them.
- Third Party Developers may of course freely contact the Core CB Team with technical questions and proposals concerning the plugin API. Please try to limit these interactions and do not expect tutorials and hand holding. Third Party Developers of course can collaborate and exchange ideas in the Joomlapolis forums.
- Third Party Developers may also request that their packages be reviewed by CB Core Team members. These requests will be prioritized based on available free time and scheduling constraints.
- In addition to the Joomlapolis download repositories, mature and stable 3PD plugins packages may also be included in the release areas of the Community Builder project area on developer.joomla.org. Such a decision is of course subject to approval by both parties (3PD and CB Team).
- Many CB3PD are also developers of other components and have other websites that they use for forum support and downloading. The CB Team and the Joomlapolis government will collaborate in such cases to reach a mutually agreed upon decision to support or link to different areas.
- Third Party Developers may also request dedicated forum areas were Joomlapolitans may discuss specific package related issues.
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