I’ve done a lot of things as a front-end web developer. I’ve created all kinds of stuff that probably doesn’t really suit the job description really well. The one thing that I’ve always avoided like the plaque is PROGRAMMING.
I’m kind of a stickler when it comes to details, and that’s really a big reason why I’ve avoided programming — waaaay too many details. Sheesh! But an opportunity has come my way that I can’t ignore.
What the Foo!?
I’ve been working with FooPlugins as the Solutions Manager since March of this year. They are an amazing group. Adam W. Warner and Brad Vincent make an amazing team with a clear vision for developing high-quality, well supported, and continually developing WordPress and jQuery plugins. In a short amount of time they’ve developed some great plugins like FooBox, FooBar, and Social Wiggle. They’ve also made some really great partnerships with high quality developers. For example, the Justified Image Grid is the 7th most popular plugin at CodeCanyon. Adam and Brad reached out to Firsh of JIG about FooBox, and now JIG provides deep integration with FooBox within it’s settings. They also are now providing premium support tokens for WP Better Security. Yes, THE WP Better Security that has over 800,000 downloads on the WordPress Repository. Combine that with now showcasing Coming Soon Pro and PDF Comments, FooPlugins is quickly becoming a serious contender in the plugin market.
So… you get the picture, I think they’re great. So one day, Brad said to me: “Matt, you know how you’ve been saying we need to strengthen our documentation for all our FooPlugins plugins? We’ve been thinking of developing a plugin for it, and we want you to do it!” When he said that, I first asked him if he could make a plugin for a 36-hour day (’cause that’s what it might take), then I said: “Cool, teach me!”
Thus, Brad created:
I’m Making a WordPress Plugin!
Brad is going to be blogging about his approach to building plugins. You can see his first post about it here. He’ll bounce his strategy against what I’m doing with our documentation plugin that is in development concurrently, called FooDocs. We’ll post updates to it at github, everyone can learn together. It’s an awesome idea that I felt I couldn’t pass up, despite all my anxieties about programming.
So, there it is. Would love to hear your thoughts. We’ve researched quite a bit on various documentation plugins already out on the market, and I’ll go into that more in depth in the next post. But I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions for this plugin below in the comments field.
This will be an awesome experience for all, I’m really excited!
Hi Matt!
All that sounds really awesome! I really understand where you’re coming from as some similar stuff happened to me 2 years ago, when I started plugin development – with very humble beginnings!
Seeing that you’re a historian, teacher, musician and family man makes you the perfect person for such a plugin that you’ve plan to develop.
Why? Easy, you’re not into this whole developer lingo and such yet, you come with fresh eyes and that brings this connection to development which is based “in real life” on the needs that we’re (as devs) trying to solve.
I wish you all the best with this project and this challange – which I am sure it will be – but in the end I am sure you will come up with an awesome product that is for daily usage! :)
I am so eagerly awaiting such a plugin – maybe I could do that myself but currently don’t have the time for such bigger project. However, if such plugin would be available I would buy and use it the same day it releases.
I am planning on starting my plugin resources site where I present and document my WordPress plugins. I need such a plugin easy to handle, with custom post types of course, good search capabilities and some stuff that interlinks the aspects: FAQ, knowledge base etc. so that is is easy for me to manage but easy to overview and to use for the end user. That is our goal: to make the user experience awesome!
Again, all the best and I am eagerly awaiting new posts to this series, as well as the plugin :)
Best regards from Germany, Dave :)
Thanks for the encouragement Dave! How do you see the documentation being linked with the FAQ? And do you think it’s necessary to have a knowledge base (a forum, I assume you mean) AND full documentation? Help me parse some of those capabilities out a little. Brad and I are actively talking through this stuff now, so your input is valuable. Thanks!