Better Extensions for Users and Developers

Published
2016-06-05 14:43
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With the introduction of the teams and working groups structure, the CiviCRM core team has created more opportunities than ever for community members to step forward and contribute in a clear, directed way. As part of that initiative, the Extensions Working Group has formed with the mission of ensuring a strong, vibrant, enduring extensions ecosystem for CiviCRM.
 
Our initial primary goals are:
  • to provide more guidance and direction for developers in the creation and publishing of extensions, and
  • to provide more clarity and better usability for users in finding and managing extensions through the multiple channels through which they are available (including the user interface, on CiviCRM.org, and on GitHub).
 
There was a productive working session during CiviCON where we identified some of the biggest pain points involved in the extension ecosystem, especially for developers, and right now during the post-CiviCON sprint we are concentrating on the items from that list that have the “biggest bang for the buck.” 
 
The current members of the working group include Tim Otten (CiviCRM core team), Coleman Watts (CiviCRM core team), Frank Gomez (Ginkgo Street Labs), Jaap Jansma (CiviCooP), Jon Goldberg (Palante Technology Cooperative), Karl Tatgenhorst (South Shore Networks), Nicholas Gavinet (CiviDesk), Allen Shaw (Joinery), and Guy Iaccarino (Greenleaf Advancement). 
 
There is a lot of work to do, so we will be meeting (remotely) every other week following the sprint, and thereby take the work in manageable chunks. If you are interested in joining us, you don’t have to have programming experience. We welcome contributor, administrator, and user representation in the working group to help provide feedback and perhaps provide some documentation. For example, if we change the extension management interface in CiviCRM, how does the screen look to you? Is the information clear? Is the workflow clear? I think you get the idea.
 
If you are interested in getting involved with this working group please message me in the extensions channel or directly (@guyiac) on chat.civicrm.org, or shoot me an email at guyiac@greenleafadvancement.com. To see our current working document in Google Docs, go here. We will also be posting occasional updates to the extensions channel, so you may subscribe there to stay informed of our progress.
 
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