Earlier this year, the WordPress plugin directory review team reminded developers that frameworks are not allowed in the directory. WordPress core doesn’t have a built-in way to support plugin dependencies which creates extra hassle for users.
Seeing an opportunity, Vova Feldman, founder of Freemius, created IncludeWP, a directory specifically catered to listing WordPress theme and plugin frameworks.
Frameworks are listed using their public GitHub repositories. Visitors can sort frameworks by stars, forks, issues, or name. Selecting a framework displays information including, how many sites it’s on and the number of plugins and themes hosted on the official directory that are using it.
To identify which plugins and themes are used by frameworks, Feldman collaborated with Luca Fracassi of Addendio. “We realized that we can leverage the WordPress.org APIs and SVN to automatically identify plugins and themes associated with frameworks on WordPress.org,” Feldman said. “So we decided to join forces.”
Fracassi developed a framework identification system and ran it against WordPress.org. The data was exposed via a custom API endpoint that allowed Feldman to display it on IncludeWP. “We leveraged Fracassi’s endpoint to fetch the plugins and themes data from WordPress.org and present it under the framework’s page,” Feldman said.
Like the frameworks listed on IncludeWP, the code powering the site is open source and available on GitHub. “I’m preaching about code reusability,” Feldman said.
“The least I can do is provide the option for other developers to reuse our code for their projects. By reusing this code base, everyone can easily create a similar category type listing mini-site for GitHub repos.”
Developers interested in having their frameworks listed need to fork the IncludeWP repository on GitHub, add the framework as a .php in the src/frameworks folder, and submit a Pull Request. However, in order to be listed, frameworks must meet the following guidelines.
- The framework must be GPL Licensed.
- The framework must have a public repository on GitHub
- Complete each field in the src/frameworks area
- Add a reference to the plugin or theme’s slug if it’s hosted on WordPress.org
- Have a short description
Feldman says he doesn’t plan on generating revenue through the site and considers IncludeWP as one of many contributions back to the WordPress community.
IncludeWP is a great resource for developers whose frameworks are spread across GitHub who are looking for ways to generate more exposure. It’s also an excellent way to see what’s available in the WordPress ecosystem. Take a look around IncludeWP and let us know what you think in the comments.
I’ve stumbled upon this site yesterday while searching for people using Titan Framework. It really helped us in tracking new people using TF. Thank you Vova and great article!