[Qgis-developer] Plugin reorganization (again)

[Alister Hood]

Hi guys,
It's good to see some work in this area.

> Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:15:46 -0900
> From: Gary Sherman <gsherman at geoapt.com>
> Subject: Re: [Qgis-developer] Plugin reorganization (again)
> To: Alexander Bruy <alexander.bruy at gmail.com>
> Cc: Qgis Developer List <qgis-developer at lists.osgeo.org>
> Message-ID: <C92F5848-588F-4790-B768-16ACE62481E8 at geoapt.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> 
> On Dec 14, 2011, at 9:39 AM, Alexander Bruy wrote:
> 
> > Hi all,
> >
> > there are lot of core plugins and much more contributed. Keep all
> them in
> > single toolbar/menu decrease usability. I remember we have several
> > discussions about that, and one of the results - Raster and Database
> menus.
> >
> > But most plugins don't used appropriate menus, see [0]. So after
some
> offlist
> > discussion with Paolo I start to work on moving plugins to correct
> menus. As
> > a part of this work I also implement some new functionality:
> > - new methods to place plugin buttons to the Raster toolbar;
> > - new Vector menu (hidden by default, appears after loading first
> plugin. Same
> >   as we have with Database menu) and Vector toolbar. Methods to add
> plugins
> >   to this menu/toolbar;
> > - Database toolbar with appropriate methods.
> >
> > Also I move most of core plugins to different menus, depending on
> > their functions.
> 
> The only pitfall I see with this is if a plugin isn't loaded and the
> user loads it they may not know where to find the menu. I don't know
if
> this is the case, but when plugins used the Plugins menu, the user had
> a clue where to look.

Even with all the plugins in one menu they can be hard to find - there
are tickets about this:
http://hub.qgis.org/issues/4069
http://hub.qgis.org/issues/1734

Do you think my latest suggestion at #4069 would work?:

- A lot of plugins have an "about" page. The plugin system could be
changed so that instead of plugin authors implementing their own "about"
pages (as many do currently), there is a standard "about" page, build
from the plugin metadata, and accessible from the plugin
installer/manager.

- There could be a policy that plugin authors should explain on the
"about" page where to find the plugin in the QGIS gui.
e.g. "XYZplugin provides the ability to do xyz in QGIS, and can be
accessed from the Vector menu".
Or "WXYplugin adds a WXY tool to the standard digitizing toolbar".

- This would mean the search capability in the plugin manager/installer
would be sufficient for people to find where a plugin is. It would also
reduce gui clutter caused by plugins being put in submenus just so that
they can also provide an "about" page in the submenu.
The "about" page should also provide any needed links to a plugin's
website, tracker etc.


Alister