Top Extensions

Status update: we are now at step 3 - Next Steps

Introduction

The marketing calendar gives us a means to communicate updates, events and highlights. Because extension development is crucial to Foswiki, but largely unseen, we will highlight 5 top extensions this month.

What will we do?

• Polish the extension pages (attractive and understandable text, usage and examples, screenshots)
• Create videos
• Write blog posts
• Make teaser space on Extensions home
• Make teasers on About pages, homepage

This is a joint effort. Let us show what is good about these Foswiki extensions.

Proposed extensions

We need to make a selection. Voting takes place in 2 rounds. First we put forward proposals, second we will cast a vote.

1. Enter your favorite extension in the table below. Choose an extension that is available for download, because we cannot expect our users to get extensions from SVN...
2. Please add the reason for your vote, and whether you would be willing to take some of the work on you. When you vote, you are not obliged to do all of the work, this will be a joint effort!

Extension	Your name	Reason	I am willing to help with...
KinoSearchContrib and -plugin	ArthurClemens	This plugin has incredibly sped up searches on foswiki.org not anymore I just learned	updating text , make example screenshots , write blog post , work on extension landing page , make teasers
FwTopicPermissionsPlugin	MartinSeibert	The plugin helps new Foswiki users to use the powerful rights management of Foswiki through an easy-to-use interface.	updating text , make example screenshots , create video , write blog post , work on extension landing page , make teasers
CommentPlugin	GuruprasadIyer	A very useful plug-in.	updating text , make example screenshots , create video , write blog post , work on extension landing page , make teasers , other
DirectedGraphPlugin	MichaelTempest	This plugin (which wraps the excellent GraphViz toolkit) lets me incorporate diagrams in my wiki without needing additional software, and it does the graph layout for me, which lets me focus on the content. This is a great time-saver!
EditTablePlugin	CoriaXu	A good plugin which enables you to customize your foswiki tables with better lookings.	updating text , make example screenshots , create video , write blog post , work on extension landing page , make teasers , other
RenderFormPlugin	PaulHarvey	This plugin allows us to create very usable data-entry intensive DataForms applications, for instance it's possible to have a topic with more than one form displayed against it. Combined with AutoViewTemplatePlugin, JQueryPlugin, DirectedGraphPlugin, DBCachePlugin, the possibilities are impressive.	updating text , make example screenshots , create video , make teasers , other
ChartPlugin	KennethLavrsen	A natural plugin in any business environment to put numbers into simple graphs It is well documented. Plenty of visible examples. It just lives a hidden life with too few noticing it.	make example screenshots , make teasers , other
ActionTrackerPlugin	KennethLavrsen	In any business organisation people are chasing people getting things done. This is one of those tools that helps the chase. Main problem with the plugin is the cryptic setup of the cron job to send notifications and the unfinished last touch on the user interface where you need to combine it with CommentPlugin to get the full potential.	make example screenshots , make teasers , other
JHotDrawPlugin	KennethLavrsen	Another plugin that lives a more hidden life than it should. This gem is very powerful and simple to install and to use. It is incredible when describing work flows as you can with great ease add links to boxes that jumps to anything - topics, anchors or even external resources. I use these for process maps embedded in process descriptions. Makes navigation easy when you read long topics online.	updating text , make example screenshots , work on extension landing page , make teasers , other
KinoSearchContrib	OlivierRaginel	Even if this plugin isn't perfect yet, it's so much faster than the built-in one. And AndrewJones did a terrific job porting it properly to Foswiki, and making it more robust, and writing unit tests.	make example screenshots , create video , write blog post , make teasers , other
JQueryPlugin	RuiProcopio	I gives so many nice "tools" to make a nice looking and functional (usability) page.	make example screenshots , create video , write blog post , make teasers , other
ImagePlugin	ArthurClemens	Server side image sizing makes image attachments so much easier.	make example screenshots , create video , write blog post , make teasers , other
SocialBookmarkingAddOn	ChYang	An easy but wonderful add-on that is very helpful for wiki readers to bookmark and share their favorite topics.	updating text, make example screenshots, write blog post

---

It might be a good idea to have somewhere we can showcase these plugins, so that a user can try them out without downloading them. Something like a Showcase web, or a separate http://showcase.foswiki.org which only has these plugins enabled.

It would also allow us to provide some extended examples.

-- AndrewJones - 12 Oct 2009

I agree. I'd be willing to contribute working examples to a showcase area.

-- PaulHarvey - 14 Oct 2009

I wonder about CoriaXu's statement that EditTablePlugin can be used to create better looking tables.

-- ArthurClemens - 14 Oct 2009

Another suggestion (but I have already casted my vote): ImagePlugin. Server side image sizing makes image attachments so much easier.

• As Kenneth has proposed more than 1 extension, I have added this one to the list as well.

-- ArthurClemens - 14 Oct 2009

I am a little in doubt if the distributed extensions should be among these.

• Pro - they are the best and most important and they are part of selling the Foswiki concept.
• Con - they take away ramp light from extensions that live a hidden life in the looong list of more or less interesting extensions in the Extensions web. Somehow I'd rather see some of these highligted.

I have added 3 non-standard that I find are essential in my daily life.

-- KennethLavrsen - 15 Oct 2009

Cast your vote

We now have 11 extensions to choose from.

Please vote by selecting one of the extensions in the list.

Votes are in

%VOTE{ id="FavouriteExtension" select1="Extension" options1="KinoSearch,FwTopicPermissionsPlugin,CommentPlugin,DirectedGraphPlugin,EditTablePlugin,RenderFormPlugin,ChartPlugin,ActionTrackerPlugin,JHotDrawPlugin,JQueryPlugin,ImagePlugin,SocialBookmarkingAddOn " open="off" }%

Result

3 extensions have received more than one vote:

1. JQueryPlugin
2. DirectedGraphPlugin
3. KinoSearch

7 extensions received 1 vote. So we have to decide on those. I prefer to promote non-core above core extensions. Also looking at the differentiators and the work the proposers are prepared to put in, I suggest to add:

1. RenderFormPlugin
2. ActionTrackerPlugin

That does not mean that the other proposed extensions do not have value. We can even include other extensions if people feel inclined to work on these anyhow. But let us first focus on these 5.

-- ArthurClemens - 20 Oct 2009

Please pick another than ActionTrackerPlugin (or find another presenter). I am away and not back till after the 26th. If we do 5 new in November we can some of those I proposed there.. -- Kenneth

What about CommentPlugin? It is in the distribution, but more powerful than the name assumes (and it takes some experience to get the best out of it). -- ArthurClemens - 21 Oct 2009

I've had unexpected diversions this week fixing TinyMCEPlugin and other things beyond Foswiki, so I'm afraid I cannot get my example RenderFormPlugin application to a presentable state (and there are still some bugs I had intended to fix by now). It will be worth waiting for though.

Seeing as I was the only one who voted for RenderFormPlugin, perhaps I may arbitrarily choose to do a different extension instead. I just updated FirebugLitePlugin, I have polished it up and will do a video. I hope that will be a sufficient contribution.

-- PaulHarvey - 24 Oct 2009

Next steps

Distribute the work to the people in the first list

I have started by putting proposers in the list below. Others: please add your name

Extension	Contributors
JQueryPlugin	RuiProcopio
DirectedGraphPlugin	help wanted
KinoSearch	ArthurClemens, OlivierRaginel
RenderFormPluginFirebugLitePlugin	PaulHarvey
ActionTrackerPlugin
CommentPlugin	GuruprasadIyer

Using guidelines

TO BE WRITTEN

Have updates ready end of week

Create blog post, videos next weekend

Have everything ready Monday 26 October

It is November now. We obviously need more time.

-- ArthurClemens - 03 Nov 2009