A discussion on plugin development with Ben Croker who has developed plugins for Craft CMS and previously for ExpressionEngine. We discuss when to use a plugin, when a plugin should be commercial, how to price a plugin, and providing support to end users.

• Ben's origin story
• What is a plugin?
• CMS acquisition of plugins in order to add to core functionality
• When to use a plugin or build it myself?
• How do you come up with an idea for a plugin?
• Commercial vs Free plugins
• Supporting plugins
• No code vs bring your own code and technical knowledge
• Support tickets/issues
  • GitHub issues
  • Email (good for sensitive information)
  • Ticketing systems
• Feature requests and pull requests
  
• How to decide the cost of commercial plugins
• Breaking changes in the CMS
• Plugins that work with other plugins
• Website security and plugin evaluation
• Advice for developers new to plugin development
• USE an IDE

Show Links

• Code Igniter
• ExpressionEngine
• Craft Cms
• Put Your Lights On
• Blitz
• Sprig
• Sendgrid
• Feed Me
• The Dangers of Over Reliance on Plugins in Website Builds
• SEOmatic
• Good Documentation is Hard (Matt Stein)
• HTMX
• Tailwind with Adam Wathan - Season 5 Episode 4
• Semantic Versioning
• Craft CMS Docs
• Craft Quest
• Craft Generator
• PHP Storm
• Visual Studio Code

More Website 101 Podcast

• Email the Podcast!
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• Sean on LinkedIn
• Mike on LinkedIn
• Amanda on LinkedIn