The WordPress Plugin Directory Is Getting a Makeover

photo credit: Patryk Dziejma

In February 2015, the WordPress Theme Directory launched a new design. Konstantin Obenland worked with Samuel “Otto” Wood and the WordPress meta team to update the design and move the directory off of bbPress. Today Obenland announced that the Plugin Directory will be getting a similar treatment.

Version 3 of the Plugin Directory will focus heavily on improving the search interface, including prioritizing translated plugins for international users. Another major goal of the redesign is to streamline the plugin submission and review process. The new directory will be powered by WordPress, instead of bbPress, which will make it easier for plugin developers and reviewers to manage plugins, tags/categories, and committers.

According to the project overview, plugins will be saved in a custom post type, offering reviewers a more efficient workflow that makes use of post statuses with capability controlled permissions. This will also make it possible to run automated checks on plugins, which should reduce the number of inconsistencies in the review process.

The meta team plans to hit milestones every two weeks in order to ship version 3 by June 26, 2016. Obenland is aiming for getting a minimal viable product off the ground by March 1st, which would includes the plugin CPT, readme.txt parsing, and a basic display on the frontend. A full overview of the project and the tickets that will need to be addressed is available on the make.wordpress.org/meta P2. New contributors are welcome to jump in on Meta Trac and in the #meta Slack channel.