Getting some WordPress plugins out to public»

Finally, there is a public repository for some of my WordPress plugins, and more is to follow. For the impatient, the repository is in my Github, under the name WordPress-plugins.

Getting these plugins published was not a simple task. Some of them needed – and some of them still need – quite heavy code review, and some even need near complete rewriting! For example, the Simple Planet plugin not only uses the new Widget class now, but it’s also using Simplepie instead Magpie, of which latter is still working, but deprecated in WordPress.

Plugins already in the repository

  • Interactive Images, formerly known as ImgCapt. With Interactive Images, you can upload images and add user-readable notes to them. See example on the Shimmer for gmusicbrowser -page. To see the current issues with the plugin, see the Interactive Images issues in Github.
  • One Year Earlier, formerly known as LastYear. A very simple plugin that fetches an article from a year ago and shows its title and excerpt with a “More”-link as a widget.
  • Simple Planet, formerly known as myPlanet. Another simple plugin that loads n newest articles from the feeds listed in the widget properties.

Plugins to be added to the repository

  • Compact & Chronological, formerly known as Yearly Archives. This is a really simple plugin that shows the chronological archive in a more compact way. See for yourself in the Search & Browse -page at this website! This is most probably the most widespread plugin I’ve written, and it only needs a quick review before ending in the repository.
  • Photoslider, formerly known as PicSlide, which is used in several sites. There are some parts that work as supposed, but while the plugin is relatively mature, I need to set some feasible defaults as well as add per-widget/shortcode -settings and probably extend it with some more options, like transition type. Once the plugin is cleaned up a bit, I will upload it to the repository and continue hacking on it. I am already tracking issues for Photoslider in Github.
  • Projects Catalog 2.0, which is the plugin running the Shimmer Project project listings. Before uploading to the repository, the plugin still needs some review, and some parts will probably need to be rewritten, since we plan doing some bigger updated for the Shimmer site.

There is more to come?

In addition, I have a plugin adding extra headers in emails describing the rationale of the message (eg. X-WordPress-Rationale: comment-moderation for messages that asks the user to moderate comments) that I think should be in the core, efficiently adding a rationale for every type of email sent. I will pursue getting this added in the core when I have more time on my hands.

There is some odds and ends around all of my WordPress-installations, and I need to go through that. Some of the stuff is strictly work-related and must stay work-only, but some of it might be available to publishing – and maybe even useful for somebody…

In the following weeks, I need to look at the statistics plugins the WordPress plugin directory can offer to me. Unless I find something suitable, I might end up writing a simple plugin myself.

Now, go check out the brand-new WordPress-plugins repository, file any issues and stay tuned for more!

January 17, 2012 — Comments Off
Development, Shimmer, Ubuntu — ,

Last updates before Christmas»

With Xubuntu, we are currently finalizing the specifications for those roadmap items that need community approval. I discussed those briefly in my blog, in the Roadmap closed -article. All specifications should be ready by December 29, 17UTC, when we have our community meeting (see the Meetings wiki page for more details and the agenda). Please join us then, it’s a great way to be involved and a good time to start contributing too, since we still need to implement all the blueprints – while all of them have an assignee already, any help is always welcome.

On other news, we talk a bit about work done in the last weeks in the Shimmer Project blog. Check it out!

Have a peaceful Christmas time and a very happy new year 2012!

December 21, 2011 — 1 comment »
Shimmer, Ubuntu — , ,

Roadmap closed»

The planning period for Xubuntu Precise Pangolin has ended. All in all, we have fifteen (15!) roadmap items with assignees! Thanks for all of you who submitted ideas, discussed the roadmap items and took action items! By the way, there is still a few items up to grabs. The roadmap has been closed for direct submissions, and all ideas must now pass, and be approved the community meeting separately.

If we don’t get any counterarguments for the items (see my email about approving roadmap items) and everything goes well, we will be expecting to get at least 11 of these in Precise.

The four roadmap items that still need a separate approvals from the community after the specification writing part, which last all the way to the end of this month, are:

  • New default media player (audio)
  • Ubiquity “Application sets”
  • Rethink shortcut keys
  • Clean themes (GTK, xfwm, wallpapers) list

To be honest, I expect at least three of these to get community approval after none to slight discussion and reviewing of the specification.

Yes, you guessed right, the one I’m not sure is the new default media player. It seems that we have had a lot of debate about this during my involvement in Xubuntu; we have changed the default player three times! While I think gmusicbrowser is a wonderful player and am very proud to ship that as our default player, I think there might be some viable alternatives, especially those players that are really simple. A bit like Listen was when we shipped it. I’m waiting the discussion with lots of interest, but I do hope we will have a civil and as objective as possible, discussion to make the best choice for most of our users.

Let’s keep on working hard, and this will be our best release so far, by far!

November 22, 2011 — 3 comments »
Community, Ubuntu — , ,