LouisGac wrote:

orvil wrote: @olle:
Nice, but is "Purchase" the right word if there are free (GPL etc) plugins too?
What's about "Get" or "Find"?

I agree with that statement.

And I would even go so far to not call it "shop" at all, but "Extensions" or whatever.

Since themes (surveys & questions) are part of the game, I would suggest "add-ons". But when you think about finding a suitable term in other languags "extensions" might be better.

If I get the intention of the shop right, the add-ons should be only offered inside of the LimeSurvey application. The store should not simple replace the function of the Joomla file repository (LimeSurvey.org -> Downloads).

If the user should be able to use add-ons without manual downloading and installing them, the way LimeSurvey and add-ons are offering updates gets a lot more critical.
More users will install more add-ons. Will e.g. ComfortUpdate analyze these add-ons? Will ComfortUpdate deactivate all add-ons during update? Or will ComfortUpdate access all add-ons for version compatibility upfront and demand update of add-ons first? The release early, release often approach in combination with an add-on shop will demand some change to get along smoothly.

Will there be a system to select the correct versions of add-ons? Upgrade/Downgrade of plug-ins? Or themes?
Long term aim: Packaging? research.swtch.com/vgo-mvs / blog.golang.org/versioning-proposal

Currently a LimeSurvey user has to have some knowledge to choose, download and install a plug-in. If a plug-in breaks e.g. LimeSurvey login, you could be sure that the user had access to the file-system. Removing plug-ins from the folder would be the current quick fix.

The theme and plug-in developers might have some questions about offering items too. Will the addon-shop be more like Wordpress (SaaS via Wordpress and external payment when selfhosted) or more like Apple App-Store (Payment via Store only). Who will handle the payment is a interesting part. Add-ons could be offered via a freemium business model and a key could be sold to upgrade a add-on. Personally I would like to see a central payment and product bundles to get transactions easier handled. Like Themeforest has done to the Wordpress theme market. But I have no idea how many developers are interested in the distribution via a central shop.

1) If I get what I want, there will be a plugin shop both in the installation and on limesurvey.org. Payments will always be done on limesurvey.org, though.

2) Plugins available in our shop will be certified and controlled by us, and the authors will be legally responsible for security issues etc.

3) No events are executed during ComfortUpdate, so no plugin code can run during the upgrade.

4) The plugin manager has been hardened with shutdown control that automatically disable plugins that have critical errors, like syntax errors or "Class not found".

5) All plugins HAVE TO include a config.xml file with compatibility information. Plugins that are not compatible will automatically be disabled.

6) If a plugin breaks the login procedure you're screwed. yes.

Hope this answered some of your questions. It's still a draft, but we hope to achieve something along these lines.

Recent progress:

* Made a script that uses static analyzers, to check the quality of a plugin, available here: github.com/LimeSurvey/LimeSurvey/blob/de...ets/run_checkers.php
* The analyzers that are used are:
* PHP Mess Detector (check for huge classes or methods)
* PHP Code Sniffer (enforces PSR-2)
* Psalm (analyzer made by Vimeo, checks availability of methods and variables and much more)

So a plugin that will be available in the extension shop has to pass these checkers within reasonable error margins.

Lacking checkers:

* Something for JavaScript.
* A PHP checker only for security issues.

About the attached picture, there will be three methods to install plugin:

* Plugins installed by git clone (scan files)
* Plugins uploaded with ZIP file
* Plugins installed via extension shop

On LimeService, only the last option will be available, for security reasons.

Some more pictures of recent development.

Joomla component to add a new extension (provided you're an approved thirt-party dev).

In the admin we can view recently submitted extensions and check the result of any automatic checkers. If everything is OK, the extension can be verified and made available in the shop.

Everything is unstyled at this point, as you can see.

Example output from the LimeShop REST API. This will be used by the LimeShop in the community edition of LimeSurvey, and by plugins etc to check for updates.

Progress report:

* We've decided that Markus will do the shop Joomla front-end. It will be similar to Wordpress theme browsing or Joomla extension browsing.

* Now possible to install plugins via ZIP file in the dev branch. See pics.

* Our current goal is to make a pilot available before Christmas, where it's possible to upload and buy ZIP files.

I NEED to test that …

To create an installable ZIP-file, cd into the plugin folder and run

zip -r mypackage.zip *

With git repo :

I use
Then : did plugin zip must be in directory or not ?

If not :

Yeah, as it is now, the zip file should NOT include the folder, so you should cd into the folder before zipping. This should be more flexible in the future...

It's not an issue, just for downloading app/plugin : is more easy for user : uncompress zip, send whole directory without renaming to ftp.

And even with that : some user rename directory … ;(