Extensions-website

TDF LibreOffice Document Liberation Project Community Blogs Weblate Nextcloud Redmine Ask LibreOffice Donate

New Extensions Repository / Website

You can prepare your uploads to the repository using this manual.

Requirements and Constraints

Use Cases and Priorization

The following lists state the use cases and their assumed priority as discussed within the Design Team. This information should guide the work on the extension repository.

Source: Thread on libreoffice-design: Discussion about Extensions-Site-Layout

Priority of use cases for people approaching the page:

U1. Getting extensions / templates ... so users should get an initial idea (so showing e.g. the most recent or best rated items from here, people should be able to get further collections)
U2. Getting help how to install Extensions (currently it is still manual work, so we have to help here)*
U3. Getting help what extension might be helpful to them as well (fitting their tasks and needs)
U4. People want to provide feedback on downloaded extensions. Either indirectly via the Extension Page, or directly to the developer of an extension.
U5. Making it possible to "forward" information / templates to other people (use case: advanced user "helps" less experienced person to find what he might need)
U6. Upload their own content (this needs refinement as well ...)

Priority of interest by the LibreOffice community:

U1. Users should get information about LibreOffice (to know that this is an official page, to get information about "us" if the user approaches the page by accident)
U2. User should be asked to join the community / support LibO (e.g. spreading the word, joining the community as explained on our "Get Involved" on the main page).

Solution Proposals

For U3: Currently, people need to pick extensions bit-by-bit. What we're missing (not now, but if we become more popular) is a way to suggest Extensions to users - fitting to their needs.
- Prepared collections by users / teams, e.g. the "Professional Writer" pack, the "Extension Developer" pack
- Automatically created proposals like "Other people that downloaded XYZ also downloaded ABC".
For U4:
- Proposal by Oliver Hallot: How about twitting / g+ / fb a template or extension you liked
- Proposal by Christophe Stark: There could be a more neutral "Share This" or "Add this" button. As Facebook is "pure evil" and the opposite of "open" or "good" this might be a controversial idea. A Share-Link to these services should be okay in my opinion: Diasproa, Identi.ca, Twitter, Email this
- Proposal by Christoph Noack: We may need eed to support free (as in speech) and proprietary services (the most successful ones). But these should be clearly marked - e.g. a "mega menu" with clear labels.

Related Information

OpenOffice.org Extension Site Design:

Proposals for Improvements

Home page is not very sexy: a lot of text to read (from my humble opinion). It seems that the text was written for a website with both extensions and templates, and not only extensions.
~~Not only project, but also Section and Release must have Language neutral in Metadata. It should be added on Home page.~~ [Done]
Home page text should be corrected to reflect new behavior:
- The contributor of an extension release should mark every release of LibreOffice (from 3.3.0 up to 3.4.x): now only main version number are necessary (3.3 and 3.4)
Extension Center page should not select as default last version of LibO, but "Any version", because:
- there is very few extensions that appear in this case
- contributors do not seem to be aware of the importance of the selection of the compatible releases
- as there is a bug with the update of the compatible version of a project, selection is incorrect (see farther)
It would be great to be able to store (in a cookie?) my login/password.

Answer: We had to examine, which browser are affected

With Firefox 6, WinXP, I have to type both each time: I type first letter of login and I can select login, but password remains empty
With IE8, WinXP, I type first letter of login and I can select login, then remembered password is filled

When I register my project, I have to wait that it is approved. Would it be possible to receive an e-mail saying that it is OK (or not)? Otherwise, I have to check time to time on the website. Moreover there is no clear indication if it will take few seconds, minutes, hours or days.

Answer: We need some more active reviewers, thus the process will be handled in just one day.

As a contributor, I would appreciate to have a way to find easily my extensions already created. May be just after "Submit your extension"?
When selecting license of a release, version numbers of GPL or LGPL are not given. It is far from being a problem for me or subject to discussion, but I though it was an important concern in FLOSS world.

Answer: Please create a list with all licenses that should be available on the wiki-page (with a link to the license text).

All above licenses are available now in the sites.

=> Unnecessary licenses should be removed: GPL and LGPL without version number.

Screen-shot should also be accessible on the project page, and not only on the Extension Center page.
default page should be Extension center and not Home.

Logo proposal:

(Alexander Wilms)

Proposals by Astron 2011-07-27T21:19:53 (CEST) (copied from an old version of the site; obsolete items removed):

~~the "Center" in "Extension Center"/"Template Center" seems to be unnecessary to me, I think just "Extensions" and "Templates" would be cleaner~~ – fixed, thanks!
search UI directly under the navigation:
- should show a free search first, but user should be able to click on "Advanced" to open the current search form
- needs a larger font size—should match the navigation
currently you have to login to "Like" things which shouldn't be necessary (although logging in is vital for reviews – review spam is bad)
every extension/template should have an icon—where there is nothing we should have a standard icon (for now, the X and the T from the logo could be enough), but maybe ask the design team again
the current language selector will not scale well once it has to show over ten languages, it should become a combo box

Bugs

Filename of uploaded file is lost:
- login on Extension Center
- select filter to see my extension
- click on extension name
- click on Release section
- click on a release name
- Add new > Downloadable File:
  - File description: should be independent from file name, so I put Test file
  - Browse file and Accept disclamer
  - Save

=> a page is created Extension Center > Project > Releases > Release name > Test file

If I click on the link Download, I download a file named Test file and not the name of the file I uploaded. The space has been replaced by an hyphen.

Wrong filename

File not recognized

To be able to change the name of the file it's a little bit tricky.

go back on the page of the release
select Contents
select file
click Rename
change Short Name with the name of the file, and keep the same Title

Change filename

Now the name of the file is correct!

Right filename

Correct file type

On the description of the extension on Extension Center page, LibO compatible version numbers are in an strange order: 3.3.4 to 3.3, then 3.4 to 3.4.2 [Solution: Only main versions are listed now (3.3, 3.4). If there is a special minor version necessary this should be mentioned in the release notes.]
When updating the compatible release numbers of LibO of a release of my extension, it is not updated on the description in the Extension Center. I need to add a new release of my extension to see the right version number
On Extension Center page, filter on version number of compatible LibO is not updated, neither when updating extension release info, nor when adding a new release.