Hi guys, It's good to see some work in this area. > Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:15:46 -0900 > From: Gary Sherman <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Qgis-developer] Plugin reorganization (again) > To: Alexander Bruy <[email protected]> > Cc: Qgis Developer List <[email protected]> > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > On Dec 14, 2011, at 9:39 AM, Alexander Bruy wrote: > > > Hi all, > > > > there are lot of core plugins and much more contributed. Keep all > them in > > single toolbar/menu decrease usability. I remember we have several > > discussions about that, and one of the results - Raster and Database > menus. > > > > But most plugins don't used appropriate menus, see [0]. So after some > offlist > > discussion with Paolo I start to work on moving plugins to correct > menus. As > > a part of this work I also implement some new functionality: > > - new methods to place plugin buttons to the Raster toolbar; > > - new Vector menu (hidden by default, appears after loading first > plugin. Same > > as we have with Database menu) and Vector toolbar. Methods to add > plugins > > to this menu/toolbar; > > - Database toolbar with appropriate methods. > > > > Also I move most of core plugins to different menus, depending on > > their functions. > > The only pitfall I see with this is if a plugin isn't loaded and the > user loads it they may not know where to find the menu. I don't know if > this is the case, but when plugins used the Plugins menu, the user had > a clue where to look.
Even with all the plugins in one menu they can be hard to find - there are tickets about this: http://hub.qgis.org/issues/4069 http://hub.qgis.org/issues/1734 Do you think my latest suggestion at #4069 would work?: - A lot of plugins have an "about" page. The plugin system could be changed so that instead of plugin authors implementing their own "about" pages (as many do currently), there is a standard "about" page, build from the plugin metadata, and accessible from the plugin installer/manager. - There could be a policy that plugin authors should explain on the "about" page where to find the plugin in the QGIS gui. e.g. "XYZplugin provides the ability to do xyz in QGIS, and can be accessed from the Vector menu". Or "WXYplugin adds a WXY tool to the standard digitizing toolbar". - This would mean the search capability in the plugin manager/installer would be sufficient for people to find where a plugin is. It would also reduce gui clutter caused by plugins being put in submenus just so that they can also provide an "about" page in the submenu. The "about" page should also provide any needed links to a plugin's website, tracker etc. Alister _______________________________________________ Qgis-developer mailing list [email protected] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-developer
