Plugin development: Is this allowed as a plugin welcome screen?

  • Fran Sanchez

    (@fransanchezoria)


    9 years, 9 months ago

    Hi guys,

    I am new to plugin development in wordpress. Over the past few months I have been working in building a company which offers extensions for woocommerce, these extensions have a lite and a pro version. I plan to host the lite versions in www.remarpro.com.

    Together with every lite extension, I wan to bundle a welcome screen. This screen will show other available extensions and themes from my company, status of the license and license activation, link to documentation and support forums, etc.

    The way I have envision it to work would be like this example from a premium plugin I own: https://youtu.be/eaXyxn3tb50. This is the mockup of my welcome screen: https://beta.moqups.com/[email protected]/I3hEUpto2l/view/page/a2d745b49

    Now my questions:

    * Concerning the refreshing of available extensions and themes, I know that www.remarpro.com don’t like the plugin calls to external servers. Would this be an acceptable situation for doing so? If not, I can always code the available extensions on the screen so that there is no call to my server, just though that this would be a better way since it updates on the spot.

    * Concerning the ajax install of extensions, is this possible to accomplish when the download comes from wordpress repository? All the plugins I’ve seen doing this download from their own server since they are premium extensions

    * Lastly, on the management of the welcome screen itself. I plan to bundle it with every plugin. In many cases I have seen this sort of functionality under Addons submenu of plugins (Menu “Plugin name” -> “Addons”), however in my case it makes a lot more sense to have only one menu for it, since it will be the same for all plugins. The question is what is the best way to display the latest version of the welcome screen when an user clicks on the menu? I’m thinking about a possible scenario where an user has plugin 1 and plugin 2, and plugin 2 comes with a more updated version of the welcome screen.

    Many thanks for your input!

    Best regards,
    Fran

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

  • Together with every lite extension, I want to…show other available extensions and themes from my company…

    As a user who views his Dashboard as a workspace and not as a billboard, I immediately deactivate and delete any plugin that does that in any kind of overt manner.

    Thread Starter Fran Sanchez

    (@fransanchezoria)

    Hi leejosepho,

    These are not in the user wordpress dashboard, they are in the plugin dashboard. Also, I don’t know if you saw the mockup, but is not a billboard. It shows the installation and license status of other plugins (1 click installs), but also is the place where documentation and support will be shown.

    In summary, is a space for the relationship between the brand and the customers. The plugin settings and configurations is in a different page.

    Maybe I have misunderstood, and please forgive me if that is so! When I install and activate a plugin at my WordPress Dashboard and then go to that plugin at my Dashboard, I immediately deactivate and delete it if it looks to me like any kind of billboard. Having a reasonably-sized row of tabs — nothing flashy — at the top where one or more tabs might go to “Premium Features Available” or whatever is certainly fine, and my only intent here was to offer an end-user perspective.

    Thread Starter Fran Sanchez

    (@fransanchezoria)

    Hi leejosepho,

    No worries I understand. I appreciate your input, I’ve been wordpress user myself for many years and I know the difference between reasonable promotion and annoyance.

    That being said, I think this route shouldn’t be annoying the user, I just need input from a development point of view and if it breaches any wordpress rules.

    I think this route shouldn’t be annoying the user, I just need input from a development point of view and if it breaches any wordpress rules.

    Understood, and I thank you for tolerating my interjection!

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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