devot:eeDevoted to ExpressionEngine

New Feature: Editable Add-Ons for Developers

December 2, 2009
by Ryan Masuga

Add-on developers are now able to update their own content on devot:ee through a new Stand Alone Edit Form that took us a few weeks to develop. The Edit form is nearly identical to the Add-on Submit form, but the fields are pre-populated with the entry's data and is just waiting to be revised, expanded upon, and improved. You're able to alter the tags, add a very complete description, update the summary, add links, add images, supply some roadmap info about porting to 2.0 - almost whatever you want. We recently enabled this editing feature for a small group of developers who helped us work out minor bugs. We believe it's now ready for everyone who wants to control their own content.

How to Edit Your Add-Ons

First of all, you have to be "hooked up", meaning your member account has to be associated with an entry in the Developer channel, which is, in turn, associated with all your add-ons. That part of the process is manual, and you'll need to request that we enable this relationship for you. If you are a registered member of devot:ee, and are also a developer with add-ons in the devot:ee library, just email us with your username and the developer entry to which you should be associated. Once this has been enabled, there are two ways to get to the Edit pages:

1. If you are on an add-on page and are allowed to edit it, you'll see a yellow box at the upper left with an Edit link.
2. If you click on "My Account" to visit your main account page, you'll see a list of Edit links for all your add-ons

A sample URL for editing an add-on would be: http://devot-ee.com/add-ons/edit/add-on-url-title/ Once you're on the Edit page, knock yourself out. If you're working on a full description, please heed the notes about encoding entities (especially if you're going to display blocks of sample code). There is a preview button (green checkmark) which will give you a "live" preview of your description, formatted with EE's XHTML typography. Remember that these page represent you and your work to the entire ExpressionEngine community, and if you're dealing with commercial add-ons, these are your customers and potential customers. Check your spelling. Check your grammar. Check your head. You're an ExpressionEngine developer for crying out loud…represent yourself well!

Why This is Most Excellent

Expanding the content-creator base by leaps and bounds means the content on devot:ee will be more relevant and useful than ever. But that's also just the start. There must be something in the air. Lately we have had quite a few requests and suggestions regarding setting up a marketplace at devot:ee for purchasing commercial ExpressionEngine add-ons. We've been tossing that idea around recently ourselves, but all the interest from various developers has gotten us motivated to make this happen. Allowing entry ownership is the first step towards creating this marketplace. We can't find much wrong with the following:

1. Create an awesome commercial add-on for ExpressionEngine
2. Make add-on page at devot:ee and upload your file(s)
3. PROFIT.

Who could argue with that three-step process to EE Dev Superstardom? Obviously there's way more there from a development standpoint, but that would be our problem. We'll keep you posted about this more advanced application as we get into it. For now, please enjoy the new editing feature and the fact that the content on devot:ee just gets better and better!