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Hey, I like your idea. I'm not accepting clients, so this is not a plug, I'm just saying this to frame where I am coming from. I do audits and WordPress code

Hey, I like your idea. I'm not accepting clients, so this is not a plug, I'm just saying this to frame where I am coming from. I do audits and WordPress code reviews for folks like junior college districts and largish content marketing sites; these range from load-testing and auditing the servers to examining the code quality of custom plugins and themes. I also do a lot of one-off and custom WP work for similar levels of clients. Here's one element that you might find useful that I wasn't seeing in your reviews and that I don't see in a lot of reviews (because it's a pain in the butt to do the work to uncover): looking at the hooks/ expandability of the plugin. Like, you might audit the actual code quality and see how easy you think it might be to accomplish various customizations without, say, forking the plug. I'm always surprised at the variability on this point among various plugins. Some plugins are filtering all kinds of things, some don't filter much at all. Some have really flexible and easy to modify CPTs, some have a ton of functionality hard coded. Some things have really baroque systems that would be easy to expand, but they are written using some crazy complicated architecture and you have to do hours of reading code to understand what you'd want to do. A second thing that you might look at is the nature of "paid-ness" of the plugins. There is one business listing plugin (which I hate writing extensions for) that basically breaks the site if you don't re-up the subscription every year. There are other plugins that play nice-- you buy them once, and they work everywhere just fine and if they release a new major version you can buy it again. I don't like paid-for commercial stuff in GPL, but that's at least reasonable. What isn't reasonable are licensing schemes that do things like break local/staging/test/prod environments because the license is tied to some crazy thing like the URL. Anyhow, it's a pretty site, so I wish you well.

shash7 9y ago
Hey thanks for the writeup! Code review/table structure, etc are highly requested featured right now. I'm working on it but I don't want to rush and put something wrong out there. I don't understand your second point. Can you point me to the plugin which keeps breaking after the license expires.
- ddebernardy 9y ago
  Not the OP, but what he likely means is some plugins calling home using a unique url tied to the licence, that can then be removed to revoke the ability to use the plugin.
- scarecrowbob 9y ago
  "I don't understand your second point. Can you point me to the plugin which keeps breaking after the license expires." Well, that, once again, is a pain in the ass to find. For instance, there is this business listings plugin: https://businessdirectoryplugin.com/ https://businessdirectoryplugin.com/ Personally, I found it a massive pain in the ass to use, but on top of that the add-on plugins are setup to work only with the specific version of the main plugin. So you can't update just one, you have to update them all, and you have to pay for them all each update== regardless of if there is an actual change to the software. IMO, that's BS. The WordPress community, in general, disagrees with me, but whatever :D Another example is that ACF used to (and maybe still does, I have an unlimited license and this doesn't seem to be a problem) set its license based on the URL of the site, so if I clone the site to another URL (like for staging on WPEngine) then the key is no longer functional and the plugin breaks.
  - shash7 9y ago
    I'm not sure about the businessdirectory plugin but I can vouch for ACF. The plugin doesn't break if you remove the license key. In fact, you can actually give someone the pro version's plugin folder and they can use it for free(it just won't be able to update that's all) Perhaps this used to happen in the past but not anymore.
social_quotient 9y ago
I’d like to second the comment about url binding. Using a host like WPengine and similar allow for rapid creation of clone environments where one can test things out, code or content related. But if I have to go and register domains on another party site it takes what would be a cool feature and drags a lot of time in to something that should be otherwise solved. The workflow of the above also makes a lot of assumptions about who has access to the 3rd party plugin accounts. Testing some css with a contractor shouldn’t mean they need to login to all plugin accounts. Also to add on the code quality. It would be nice to know if the plugin properly registers styles and js. A ton of plugins arbitrarily inject to header or footer or inline or all three. One of the first things I do when we test a plugin is to see if it functions as needed and then I go see what wreckage it has caused to the html/perf. I then decide if I can live with myself. To all Wordpress plugin developers. I’d easily pay 2-10x for higher quality considerations. Most plugins I find so cheap $ they take away my ability to complain or have a high expectation.
- sleavey 9y ago
  Maybe we need a linter for plugins, and a score board or minimum score requirement for premier listing on wordpress.org...
chiefalchemist 9y ago
To that list I'd like to add documentation,as well as support. I know the cliche "code should be self documenting." But that's rare. Even so key sections should set context. A free plugin isn't free if you have to slave through the code trying to sort somwthing out.

shash7 9y ago

Hey thanks for the writeup! Code review/table structure, etc are highly requested featured right now. I'm working on it but I don't want to rush and put something wrong out there. I don't understand your second point. Can you point me to the plugin which keeps breaking after the license expires.

ddebernardy 9y ago
Not the OP, but what he likely means is some plugins calling home using a unique url tied to the licence, that can then be removed to revoke the ability to use the plugin.
scarecrowbob 9y ago
"I don't understand your second point. Can you point me to the plugin which keeps breaking after the license expires." Well, that, once again, is a pain in the ass to find. For instance, there is this business listings plugin: https://businessdirectoryplugin.com/ https://businessdirectoryplugin.com/ Personally, I found it a massive pain in the ass to use, but on top of that the add-on plugins are setup to work only with the specific version of the main plugin. So you can't update just one, you have to update them all, and you have to pay for them all each update== regardless of if there is an actual change to the software. IMO, that's BS. The WordPress community, in general, disagrees with me, but whatever :D Another example is that ACF used to (and maybe still does, I have an unlimited license and this doesn't seem to be a problem) set its license based on the URL of the site, so if I clone the site to another URL (like for staging on WPEngine) then the key is no longer functional and the plugin breaks.
- shash7 9y ago
  I'm not sure about the businessdirectory plugin but I can vouch for ACF. The plugin doesn't break if you remove the license key. In fact, you can actually give someone the pro version's plugin folder and they can use it for free(it just won't be able to update that's all) Perhaps this used to happen in the past but not anymore.

social_quotient 9y ago

I’d like to second the comment about url binding. Using a host like WPengine and similar allow for rapid creation of clone environments where one can test things out, code or content related. But if I have to go and register domains on another party site it takes what would be a cool feature and drags a lot of time in to something that should be otherwise solved. The workflow of the above also makes a lot of assumptions about who has access to the 3rd party plugin accounts. Testing some css with a contractor shouldn’t mean they need to login to all plugin accounts. Also to add on the code quality. It would be nice to know if the plugin properly registers styles and js. A ton of plugins arbitrarily inject to header or footer or inline or all three. One of the first things I do when we test a plugin is to see if it functions as needed and then I go see what wreckage it has caused to the html/perf. I then decide if I can live with myself. To all Wordpress plugin developers. I’d easily pay 2-10x for higher quality considerations. Most plugins I find so cheap $ they take away my ability to complain or have a high expectation.

sleavey 9y ago
Maybe we need a linter for plugins, and a score board or minimum score requirement for premier listing on wordpress.org...

chiefalchemist 9y ago

To that list I'd like to add documentation,as well as support. I know the cliche "code should be self documenting." But that's rare. Even so key sections should set context. A free plugin isn't free if you have to slave through the code trying to sort somwthing out.