Documentation for release

[MoritzMennenga]

http://docs.qgis.org/testing/en/docs/pyqgis_developer_cookbook/plugins.html#documentation http://docs.qgis.org/2.14/de/docs/pyqgis_developer_cookbook/releasing.html

[MoritzMennenga]

Metadata and names

• [x] avoid using a name too similar to existing plugins
• [x] if your plugin has a similar functionality to an existing plugin, please explain the differences in the About field, so the user will know which one to use without the need to install and test it
• [x] avoid repeating “plugin” in the name of the plugin itself
• [x] use the description field in metadata for a 1 line description, the About field for more detailed instructions
• [x] include a code repository, a bug tracker, and a home page; this will greatly enhance the possibility of collaboration, and can be done very easily with one of the available web infrastructures (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, etc.)
• [x] choose tags with care: avoid the uninformative ones (e.g. vector) and prefer the ones already used by others (see the plugin website)
• [x] add a proper icon, do not leave the default one; see QGIS interface for a suggestion of the style to be used

Code and help

• [ ] do not include generated file (ui_*.py, resources_rc.py, generated help files…) and useless stuff (e.g. .gitignore) in repository
• [x] add the plugin to the appropriate menu (Vector, Raster, Web, Database)
• [x] when appropriate (plugins performing analyses), consider adding the plugin as a subplugin of Processing framework: this will allow users to run it in batch, to integrate it in more complex workflows, and will free you from the burden of designing an interface
• [x] include at least minimal documentation and, if useful for testing and understanding, sample data.

Validation

• [x] the name of the main folder containing your plugin must contain only ASCII characters (A-Z and a-z), digits and the characters underscore (_) and minus (-), also it cannot start with a digit
• [x] metadata.txt is required
• [x] all required metadata listed in metadata table must be present
• [x] the version metadata field must be unique

Plugin structure

Following the validation rules the compressed (.zip) package of your plugin must have a specific structure to validate as a functional plugin. As the plugin will be unzipped inside the users plugins folder it must have it’s own directory inside the .zip file to not interfere with other plugins. Mandatory files are: metadata.txt and init.py. But it would be nice to have a README and of course an icon to represent the plugin (resources.qrc). Following is an example of how a plugin.zip should look like.

• [x] Structure

  plugin.zip pluginfolder/ |-- i18n | |-- translation_file_de.ts |-- img | |-- icon.png | -- iconsource.svg |-- __init__.py |-- Makefile |-- metadata.txt |-- more_code.py |-- main_code.py |-- README |-- resources.qrc |-- resources_rc.py -- ui_Qt_user_interface_file.ui

[MoritzMennenga]

How to add your plugin to this repository

Go to QGIS plugin repo and click on Share a plugin. The approval procedure should take 2 weeks maximum. If not approved, a e-mail will be sent to you. For a prompt approval, please check that your plugin:

• [ ] has no malicious code
• [x] goes to the appropriate menu (Vector, Raster, Web, Database)
• [x] has at least minimal documentation
• [x] does not duplicate of existing functionalities or plugin, unless there is a good reason
• [x] has a proper license
• [x] does not contain architecture-dependant binaries
• [x] supports English language
• [x] provides a minimal data set for testing
• [x] has (in the metadata) a link to the code repository and to a bug tracking system of your choice (you can use github or other infrastructures)
• [ ] is of reasonable size (try to keep it small, and not exceed 10 Mb)
• [x] english language is used in code (comments, identifiers) source repository is in good shape:
• [ ] no generated file is left in repository (ui_*.py, resources_rc.py, gen. help files…)
• [x] good code organization (subfolders)
• [x] code comments are available
• [ ] PEP8 & Python/QGIS guidelines compliance
• [ ] a README file and a LICENCE file (GPL2 or later mandatory) are present
• [ ] the licence is compliant wrt external dependencies (e.g. no import of proprietary python module)
• [x] does not break any other licence (e.g. for data providers, etc.) or do any illegal thing
• [x] more info about licencing in our blog post
• [x] if the plugin has a need for external dependency, this it should be clearly stated in the About metadata field
• [x] if some dependencies are not available in OSGeo4w Python, a clear indication of how to install them should be given
• [x] the name of the plugin and the folder name do not repeat the word plugin
• [ ] they plugins should make use of QgsNetworkAccessManager instead of home brew urllib2/requests/... solutions, which most of the times do not make use of proxy settings
• [x] finally, the use of plugin builder plugin is recommended, especially for new users.