Supply Plugin-Developer-Documentation on Github via wiki or markdown file(s)

[hpr1999]

These suggestions are obviously contingent on the fact, that the goal is even a real goal for @adirh3, which is something I don't know for sure.

Goal

Increase the chance of open source contributions in the form of plugins.

Current Situation

As far as I know, the only guidance to plugin development is this blog post, which is also linked in the readme.md file.

The article is useful, but not very visible, being only accessible on the blog. There does not seem to be much (high-level) documentation of the architecture of Fluent Search. The APIs itself seem to be sparsely documented, but might lack an overview.

Proposed Course of Action

Create development documentation in GitHub. This is the most native platform for developers and most likely to be clicked on the website as well when searching for resources.

Sensible formats would be a wiki or alternatively separate markdown files in the main repo, which both enable enough formatting etc. for this purpose.

Possible documentation could include:

• High level overview
  • core design principles of Fluent Search
  • most important architecture description / where plugins fit into the system
  • what plugins could do
• API description
  • what API exists, links to latest versions
  • which parts of the API are especially important
  • conceptual description of the parts of the API
• HOW-TO material
  • process of developing/installing/testing a plugin and getting @adirh3 to include it
  • tutorial(s) and how to get started (like the blog entry)
  • (links to potentially useful resources?)

Potential Upsides

The current documentation can perhaps enable the development of new plugins, but more guidance could maybe act to:

• make sure the plugins can be more integrated with the core principle of FS
• advertise the fact that people CAN make plugins and THAT'S WANTED.
• keep information more easily up to date then a blog is likely to do
• allow plugin developers to discuss on how good or correct the documentation is

[hpr1999]

Btw @adirh3, I didn't open this because I think your docs are so bad or because I think you're not putting enough effort into them, but because I thought it might be useful to have a way to collect possibilities for improvement in a structured way 😅

I think docs are always a long term issue

[adirh3]

Btw @adirh3, I didn't open this because I think your docs are so bad or because I think you're not putting enough effort into them, but because I thought it might be useful to have a way to collect possibilities for improvement in a structured way 😅

I think docs are always a long term issue

It's ok I KNOW the docs are bad. I didn't see much engagement from developers yet, but I plan to eventually have a whole website/wiki dedicated for developers once I get the plugins implementation right.

[hpr1999]

I didn't see much engagement from developers yet

No way of knowing for sure (and it's not like I have a ton of experience to back this up), but this might be a circular problem. I suspect that widespread developer engagement depends on knowing that developer engagement is wanted, possible and convenient (in addition to the need for developers in the user base).

[MakeshVineeth]

@adirh3 I also feel that GitHub Wiki is much better way to have documentation instead of website blog as everyone can easily contribute it, frequent updates can be made as compared to website blog and GitHub Markdown is really good. As part of this suggestion, can you point the plugins guide link in your FS Plugins Window to here: https://github.com/adirh3/Fluent-Search/wiki/3.x-Plugins-Developer-Guide