Hi all,
Please read this if you're a *Jenkins plugin developer*, as there may be
actions you need to take.
**Background**
As discussed recently on this list and in the community meeting last
week, we would really like to raise the quality bar for Jenkins plugins.
http://meetings.jenkins-ci.org/jenkins/2015/jenkins.2015-05-13-18.07.log.html#l-77
The first step is to ensure that plugins have some documentation.
There are a lot of plugins out there — even brand-new ones — which have
no wiki page, and therefore only show minimal information (if any!) in
the Jenkins plugin manager. This makes it hard for users to find out
whether the plugin is suitable, find where the source code is, who the
maintainers are, how to use the plugin, what the recent changes are, for
people to find plugins via Google etc etc..
It was decided that plugins which do not specify a wiki page will soon
*no longer be included* in the Jenkins Update Centre (i.e. the plugin
manager UI within Jenkins itself).
Adding a wiki page for your plugin with an infobox and documentation is
helpful for users, and it is not an unreasonable barrier to entry.
Another problem is that many plugins *do* have a wiki page, but fail to
specify its URL in the plugin metadata (e.g. pom.xml). This makes it
hard for the code that generates the Update Centre to know what the
correct wiki page is.
**What will happen**
* Changes to the Update Centre behaviour (in a few weeks)
There is a pull request which will implement this behaviour, i.e.
ignoring plugins without a valid URL when building the plugin list:
https://github.com/jenkinsci/backend-update-center2/pull/20
This should be merged at some point in June, i.e. in a few weeks.
Exactly when will likely be discussed in the next community meeting.
* Transition period (several months)
Because this change will affect ~10% of all current plugin releases,
there will be a transitional phase, where plugins that don't specify a
wiki page will still be included in the Update Centre.
This happens via the "wiki overrides" mechanism of the Update Centre:
https://github.com/jenkinsci/backend-update-center2/blob/beb31db/src/main/resources/wiki-overrides.properties
Any plugin on that list will remain in the Update Centre until the final
cut-off.
Plugins which have *no* wiki page whatsoever may be temporarily pointed
to a "Plugin Page Missing" wiki page, explaining to users that the
maintainer has not documented their plugin, and that they should be
encouraged to do so. Such plugins will therefore also remain in the
Update Centre during this period.
* Final cut off
After the transitional period, the temporary wiki overrides list will be
cleared out, and any plugins that still do not specify a wiki page will
no longer be listed in the Update Centre.
**Action required by plugin developers:**
1. Check whether your plugin is on either of these two lists:
Plugins which *do not* have a wiki page:
https://gist.github.com/orrc/4c149b62c62362191972
Plugins which have a wiki page, but *do not* list it in the metadata:
https://github.com/jenkinsci/backend-update-center2/blob/beb31db/src/main/resources/wiki-overrides.properties
2. If your plugin is not on either list, there's nothing to do! :)
3. If your plugin is listed here, ensure you have a wiki page:
https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/x/AgAcAQ#HostingPlugins-CreatingaWikipage
4. Ensure that the correct wiki URL is listed in your plugin metadata:
https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/x/AgAcAQ#HostingPlugins-AddingyourWikipagetoyourrepo
Examples of how to specify this for various plugin build systems:
Maven:
https://github.com/jenkinsci/git-tag-message-plugin/blob/master/pom.xml#L15
Gradle:
https://github.com/jenkinsci/job-dsl-plugin/blob/31216b7/job-dsl-plugin/build.gradle#L23
Ruby:
https://github.com/jenkinsci/pathignore-plugin/blob/22412e7/pathignore.pluginspec#L7
4a. While you're there, please also make sure that your <scm> info is
present and pointing to your jenkinsci repository, as future Update
Centre changes may enforce this more strictly:
https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/x/AgAcAQ#HostingPlugins-DeclareyourrepositoryinyourPOM
5. Create a new plugin release (some time before the final cut off)
Please check the above lists, and make the required changes as soon as
possible. Pass on the word if you know any of the maintainers on those
lists.
Feel free also to submit pull requests to the plugins on the wiki
overrides list!
Thanks for reading this far, and let me know if you have any questions :)
Thanks,
Chris
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