Roundcube Plugins/Extensions..

[Ross Poulton]

Praneet,



I believe this is a great idea. When we used to use squirrelmail I loved the way I could just pick up a new plugin and have it 'just work'.



I much prefer (for obvious reasons) using RoundCube now, but not being able to easily expand the core product is definately a shortcoming.



I'm unable to code this myself (mostly due to time constraints) but would be more than happy to assist with testing.



Great work on Round Cube so far guys - it's an excellent product.



Ross



On Sun, 9 Oct 2005 21:20:14 -0400, Praneet Kandula <pkmlist at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Everyone,

> 

> Glad to see a nice community is evolving around Roundcube. I wanted to

> point out something to keep in mind before development got too far

> ahead. By nature, any good piece of software will try to find a

> middle-ground between feature-bloat, and bare-bones mode.

> 

> Since most developers have decided that they cannot figure out exactly

> what will make all of their users satisfied, they develop a plugin

> architecture into their product, which enables third party developers

> to add features to the program. Almost all of the successful programs,

> whether desktop based (Firefox, thunderbird, etc.), or web based

> (wordpress, squirrelmail), etc. have done this.

> 

> Roundcube allows for a certain degree of customization though

> skinning, which is great, but I believe as we move forward, we should

> expose a plugin API so that third party developers can develop great

> plugins. Squirrelmail has been quite successful in this regard:

> http://squirrelmail.org/plugins.php , fostering an active development

> community of plugin authors, who might eventually move into core

> development after they get comfortable with the code.

> 

> So basically to summarize, I'll outline what I think the advantages

> that a plugin API gives us are:

> 

> 1) Features that are controversial, such as a WYSIWYG editor, can be

> implemented without "bloating" the core code, yet fit into the program

> nicely for people that want them.

> 

> 2) The core developers have some pressure off them because if someone

> really wants a feature, they can easily implement it as a plugin. If

> the plugin gains popularity, it can later be rolled into the main

> code.

> 

> 3) Builds an active community around roundcube. Both squirrelmail and

> wordpress have been very successful at attracting third party

> developers because of how easy they make it to develop extensions.

> 

> I'm sure there are many more advantages to a plugin api, but these are

> the main ones i could think of.

> 

> Also, as far as implmentation goes, I believe wordpress has an

> excellent plugin API, simple to develop on, as well as simple to

> maintain.

> 

> Take a read here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API

> 

> Sorry for the super-long mail guys, but I thought this was an

> important issue to be addressed (IMHO) :-)

> 

> --

> Praneet Kandula