Plugins?

[Ryan Roos]

May 7, 2012 21:23:06 GMT -8 snap2000 said:

May 7, 2012 20:40:41 GMT -8 Ryan Roos said:

Do you mean the order they take priority? They can be reordered by the user.

Is it possible / planned for the plugin management page also have some additional, readily accessible information? Perhaps a short description and a link to update notes / known issues?

Plugins have descriptions and version numbers. Using the UI tools the Author of the plugin can write paragraphs of information if they wish. They can create Update Notes as part of the description. The Plugin Library will also probably have an update note when Authors upload new versions. Additionally there might be a known issues section for Authors to fill out on current versions. The Plugin Library has not even been started. Most of your questions revolve around that.

[Ryan Roos]

May 7, 2012 22:14:07 GMT -8 Chris said:

Ryan: So, what about individual header/footer order? while it is probably bad practice to believe so, I can foresee them needing reversed orders (i.e. matching <div></div> in proper order.)

We set a hard order in the builder. They can't reorder that user side. The Author codes it to work according to the set order.

[Ryan Roos]

May 8, 2012 5:21:14 GMT -8 Robyn said:

1) With the plugin system, what flexiblities do the coding authors have as far as the presentation of the UI? Can/Do they allow:

a) the code author to create tip boxes with arrrows that appear and point the user in the right order to fill things out and could also provide examples?

b) An instant preview (depending on the plugin) that shows the results of the chosen settings the user puts in via screenshot?


2) Can one edit the plugin directly in HTML and/or CSS if the user is comfortable, confidence, or aware of those codes?

example: You have a code that changes member's display name color and font and style based on what you decide. The plugin lets you type things out and use color pallets to select colors, etc. But if the user is aware of CSS, they can go to "edit mode" (instead of UI mode or whatever you could call it) and directly edit the plugin code.

Of course if 2 is allowed, then you'd need warnings to inform users that they are responsible for any mistakes they make and shouldn't come crying to the support forum for trying to edit the CSS if they don't know CSS.


3) Assuming 2 is possible or accepted, you could be more flexible and let the plugin author even let the user chose between direct code edits or UI editing.

4) I am unfamiliar with the plugin directory and assume not much news or confirming ideas have been public. However, as far as presentation, will you be including "Most popular" plugins, "Top rated" plugins (Assuming you will be given the ability to rate them either 5 stars or however) "Newest plugins", "Plugin of the week/month", etc.?

1)
Multiple tabs for organization. Authors can name these tabs.

Author Tools (These are the styles you see all over the admin area that we use to describe things.)

• Title Bars
  
• Bold Text
  
• Plain Text (Descriptions)
  

Form Fields (These are ways to collect information from the plugin user and set variables.)

• Fields (with various validation options)
  
• Text Areas
  
• Color Picker Hex Fields
  
• Drop Down Selection
  
• Check Boxes
  
• Radio Buttons
  
• Member Search
  
• Board Search
  
• Category Search
  
• Custom Page Search
  
• Key Permissions
  
• Plugin Image Search
  

Auto Forms which contain all of the form field options, but generate new rows or columns to collect the data. A good example of an existing Auto Form in v5 is the censored words list. It's made of two fields. The word you want to replace and the new word you want to display. Every time you start typing in a field a new row appears allowing you to add more words if you want.

Authors have the ability to add any of the above things to a tabbed page in any quantity and organize them in any order they wish. All of these tools essentially replicate the exact look and feel of the rest of the Admin Area. Using the above tools you could replicate the style of nearly any page in the admin area. We want plugins to feel solid and fit into their environment. ProBoards uses everything above somewhere already.

a) Every single Form Field Element above has a description box. If the author fills it out then a tool tip icon appears next to the form field in the UI. The same way we do it everywhere else in the admin area. There is also a way for Authors to flag elements to be Prompted at Installation time. Certain elements are highlighted and the user is told they need to fill out those elements.

b) There is a preview button for Authors to click, it toggles between the Build view and the UI view. If you are talking about user side there is no preview. Open a tab with your forum in it and refresh. The UI is pretty straight forward (depending on the Author), we can't incorporate an advanced preview pane into every plugin. A lot of these things are settings, most of which don't require a preview to set.

2) Only Authors can edit their plugins. We even have permissions set up forum side to allow access to who can work on a plugin while it's being built. As a user when you install a plugin you do not have access to the code of the plugin, you have access to the settings that the Author has given you.

3)

4) It still is being worked on but all of that and more are being planned for the Plugin Library.

[Ryan Roos]

I thought I would show you a side by side comparison since you are asking about it.


*** These areas are still under construction and are not finalized. Things you see here may change before launch.


Author's Settings UI Builder This is a test plugin that one of the developers has been making.


User Side Settings The same plugin but set up for the user interface.


There is still a lot of work to be done. The key permissions are actually being redesigned right now as we speak. Obviously most of this only matters if you are a coder to start with. If you are a normal user who doesn't make codes then you really don't need to worry about the plugins at all outside of installing them and filling out the friendly settings pages.

[snap2000]

Holy G-Force, Batman! That's awesome!

[Chris]

The image selector looks sexier than anything I imagined while out there.

Edit: BTW, for those curious, Plugins arose because of the need for admin editable codes, yet the need for PB to restrict coding in the ACP.

[M³]

Q: Will the updates from said plugins be automatic (ex: firefox type updates), or will we have to grab the updated code/s like the past and plug them in?

[VS Admin]

We're still working on how updates will be handled. We'd like to make it as seamless as possible, but there are plenty of technical considerations that will affect that.

I can say we won't just automatically update you - you should be in control of your forum and whether or not you want to upgrade. But at the same time we'd like to make it a simple process for you.

[Robyn]

May 8, 2012 7:11:23 GMT -8 Ryan Roos said:

1)
Multiple tabs for organization. Authors can name these tabs.

Author Tools (These are the styles you see all over the admin area that we use to describe things.)

• Title Bars
  
• Bold Text
  
• Plain Text (Descriptions)
  

Form Fields (These are ways to collect information from the plugin user and set variables.)

• Fields (with various validation options)
  
• Text Areas
  
• Color Picker Hex Fields
  
• Drop Down Selection
  
• Check Boxes
  
• Radio Buttons
  
• Member Search
  
• Board Search
  
• Category Search
  
• Custom Page Search
  
• Key Permissions
  
• Plugin Image Search
  

Auto Forms which contain all of the form field options, but generate new rows or columns to collect the data. A good example of an existing Auto Form in v5 is the censored words list. It's made of two fields. The word you want to replace and the new word you want to display. Every time you start typing in a field a new row appears allowing you to add more words if you want.

Authors have the ability to add any of the above things to a tabbed page in any quantity and organize them in any order they wish. All of these tools essentially replicate the exact look and feel of the rest of the Admin Area. Using the above tools you could replicate the style of nearly any page in the admin area. We want plugins to feel solid and fit into their environment. ProBoards uses everything above somewhere already.

a) Every single Form Field Element above has a description box. If the author fills it out then a tool tip icon appears next to the form field in the UI. The same way we do it everywhere else in the admin area. There is also a way for Authors to flag elements to be Prompted at Installation time. Certain elements are highlighted and the user is told they need to fill out those elements.

b) There is a preview button for Authors to click, it toggles between the Build view and the UI view. If you are talking about user side there is no preview. Open a tab with your forum in it and refresh. The UI is pretty straight forward (depending on the Author), we can't incorporate an advanced preview pane into every plugin. A lot of these things are settings, most of which don't require a preview to set.

2) Only Authors can edit their plugins. We even have permissions set up forum side to allow access to who can work on a plugin while it's being built. As a user when you install a plugin you do not have access to the code of the plugin, you have access to the settings that the Author has given you.

3)

4) It still is being worked on but all of that and more are being planned for the Plugin Library.

1) Absolutely awesome (after seeing the screenshot)

a) That's basically what I described.

b) Okay so the UI will provide the user with the options they need. So no need to direct code editing.

4) Glad to hear!

May 8, 2012 14:50:23 GMT -8 VS Admin said:

We're still working on how updates will be handled. We'd like to make it as seamless as possible, but there are plenty of technical considerations that will affect that.

I can say we won't just automatically update you - you should be in control of your forum and whether or not you want to upgrade. But at the same time we'd like to make it a simple process for you.

Have it function like wordpress. It informs you of updates, and you're one click away from updating multiple plugins if there are more than one. But you can chose to update or not.

Maybe the updates can be labeled based on what was updated and why. Security updates can be labeled as greatly encouraged to update, while those updates with just new features or such could be labeled general.