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Show HN: WP Pluginator – A WordPress Plugin Development tool

9 points by outsourceappz ↗ HN
Hello All,

We've created a WordPress Plugin Development tool called as 'WP Pluginator' which makes its super easy to create WordPress Plugins. It integrates quite a bit of functionality right off the bat. Here is the link - http://www.outsourceappz.com/products/wordpress-pluginator-orm-migrations

PHP has improved leaps and bounds over the last few years and so has PHP tooling, frameworks etc. As a result the learning curves and hence entry barriers are much lowered. WordPress plugin development process hasn't changed much. This tool aims to fill that void.

We would really appreciate if you can critique your impressions. Any advice on how to market it would be appreciated as well.

Thank you!

23 comments

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jcr
For feedback, you want "Show HN" rather than "Ask HN" so it will get listed under "show" in the HN top menu. The rules for doing a "Show HN" submission are here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html

I don't use WordPress, so I won't be able to help much. One thing I did notice on your site was the use of the word "opinionated" to describe your plugin. (i.e. "Pluginator is an opinionated scaffolding tool"). I know what a scaffolding tool is, but I do not know what an "opinionated scaffolding tool" is. The term "opinionated" tends to have an aggressive and negative connotation/association that you might be better off avoiding.

sctb
We updated the title from "Ask HN: Product feedback & advice for a WordPress tool, WP Pluginator".
chrisan
> The term "opinionated" tends to have an aggressive and negative connotation/association that you might be better off avoiding.

Opinionated in software is not negative to me. You know going in the author designed the ___ to fit his preferred workflow/goal/stack. For example, opinionated might mean: Doctrime ORM, LESS, and Bootstrap. If he left out the opinionated part I would assume it works with many various things where I could pick Doctrine, Eloquent, Propel etc and choose between LESS or SASS and Foundation vs Bootstrap.

This is much like yeoman: http://yeoman.io/

> Through our official Generators, we promote the "Yeoman workflow". This workflow is a robust and opinionated client-side stack, comprising tools and frameworks that can help developers quickly build beautiful web applications. We take care of providing everything needed to get started without any of the normal headaches associated with a manual setup.

mgkimsal
The video shows me nothing of value. There may be value there, but the fact that there's a video I sat through which shows me nothing useful is a potential strike against you.

If you're going to have a video, show actual utility beyond "enter your plugin's name". Show structure, show management screens, show ORM code, show... something of actual usefulness.

I'm browsing the docs and this looks like it might be useful, but anyone just watching the video definitely won't get that.

rememberlenny
Are you just charging money for the existing free templates that other developers have made?

- https://github.com/DevinVinson/WordPress-Plugin-Boilerplate

- https://github.com/hlashbrooke/WordPress-Plugin-Template

aarondf
Did you steal your doc design from http://laravel.com/docs/5.1?

http://www.outsourceappz.com/docs/wordpress-plugin-orm-plus-...

Certainly looks like it...

Killswitch
The whole design is a ripoff of Laravel.
mikeschinkel
Steal? I thought the whole idea of open-source was to allow people to remix and reuse?

Why is their use of Laravel's code not applauded instead of being derided?

outsourceappz
Thanks Mike,

Its MIT license https://github.com/laravel/laravel.com/blob/master/composer.... . However I have had people point it out that designs aren't. Not sure if they are correct.

Anyhow to keep focus on my product rather than this unwanted controversy I've changed it to plain bootstrap for now. Hopefully this should rest the case http://www.outsourceappz.com

p.s: My intention wasn't to rip it off as I believe I was permissible to do within the license.

Regards

aarondf
I actually believe that you got the licenses mixed up. Not totally unreasonable. The code is definitely open source, but the design of the website is not open source.
outsourceappz
Thanks arrondf. I am glad you could see the other side of the coin.
scarecrowbob
What does it do that this doesn't (other than add an ORM and migration tool?):

http://wppb.me/

outsourceappz
I think you've said it. It add functionality on top of a plugin structure. The additional functionality like ORM, migrations, validation, etc etc. Makes life easier for plugin developers. We intend to address other areas where we think we can safe time for developers doing the daily mundane stuff.

I've certainly had issues with doing repeat stuff so scratching my own itch.

I am sorry, I couldn't convey the benefits much better. Any suggestions you would like to give?

punjabisingh
It would better if this could integrate (and be listed inside) wp-cli, which is becoming the standard for interfacing with WordPress using cli.
outsourceappz
great point punjabisingh. We will certain consider that option too. We are currently trying to gauge if what we've provided solves a problem for someone. If it becomes successful, we would be very willing to interface with wp-cli.