Wappler Custom Extensions Market Place

[NewMedia]

What has not been mentioned:

When I review a “solution” that is considered Open Source I’ve learned (before deciding to commit days to downloading, installing, learning the interface & widgets) to investigate the 3rd-party support – how many developers are currently creating Free and Paid extensions for said framework, editor, debugger, etc.

Consider Visual Studio. Developed originally for Windows only machines.
Due to demand they broadened the operating systems it would run on.
I tested out Visual Studio not long after using Dreamweaver on a daily basis.
Then when I shifted to Mac for development I decided to try the Mac Visual Studio code.

BUT, I would not have gone any further in my IDE search & landed again on Visual Studio for my Macs if I had not noticed THIS – the MARKETPLACE for EXTENSIONS. By making Visual Studio Code Open Market download & installable on Windows, Mac & Linux and WELCOMING INDEPENDENT EXTENSIONS it opened up a huge new stream of users.

How popular will Wappler become? How many monthly or yearly Subscribers COULD Wappler have?

I searched the Visual Code Extensions Marketplace immediately to see what handy-dandy Tools & Solve-this-common-or-not-so-common EXTENSIONS would be available to me.

The vast marketplace of active Extensions developers for Visual Studio is an INCENTIVE to devote energy and time to USE IT.

I commonly see reviews about frameworks in vogue or falling out of vogue that prominently make sure to publish the number of Users. The number of Users is commonly used to RANK the Rising or Sinking stars in the world of code solutions.

I can only think that encouraging an Extensions Community welcome to both Free and Paid Wappler Extensions is THE MOST OBVIOUS WAY to expand Wappler’s Subscription base.

Addendum:
I have been around long enough to use Dreamweaver & first started using the DMX Extensions this team tried as their first business model.

Some were Free, some were Paid. At one time I had perhaps 17 different Paid DMX Extensions installed as well as a bunch of “free” DMX extensions.

After several years of dissatisfaction I quit my DMX Extensions, swearing to never try that Dreamweaver Extension company again.

I won’t elaborate. It’s now irrelevant. I’m using & trying to learn Wappler.

When I first saw the jazz on Wappler I signed up to be an early user.
When I saw that DMX was behind it I had a few doubts. But I reasoned that they had gotten tired of trying to piggyback their javascript extensions and generators onto a really crappy & increasingly abandoned Dreamweaver paid product.

Well, Wappler is far superior to Dreamweaver & many of the original DMX Extensions were wrapped into Wappler.

And now the time has come to ENCOURAGE a WIDE, COMPREHENSIVE Marketplace for Wappler Extensions.

[Hyperbytes]

@Mozzi

Thanks to @Hyperbytes for offering to do the training course on custom modules.

Sorry @Mozzi, it will be a general training Couse, not one specific to custom modules

[Mozzi]

Sorry @Hyperbytes… i got lost in translation but all good… but if you ever do a module training course ill be there like a bear…

[Hyperbytes]

@Mozzi I am currently brushing up my JS skills as they have got quite rusty but maybe in the future

[JonL]

Also worth noting that a public roadmap would be a nice to have for those that build extensions. But this kind of goes against the product philosophy.

I am currently on the design phase of creating an extension to handle email templating. This includes an out of the box solution for repeating and conditional regions and all the goodies.

It would be a bummer that Wappler decides in a month’s time to include it in the core. Because that time could have been invested in another extension.

When building a marketplace you need to take into account a lot of variables to do it right.

[sitestreet]

@JonL

I am currently on the design phase of creating an extension to handle email templating. This includes an out of the box solution for repeating and conditional regions and all the goodies.

That sounds like an excellent extension and one I’m sure will be popular.

@JonL

It would be a bummer that Wappler decides in a month’s time to include it in the core.

Maybe a private conversation with the team to check if that particular feature is planned soon would be enough?

PS Will your extension include PHP or just NodeJS?

[JonL]

Classic ASP!

[Dave]

Any chance of CFML? Drumbeat user here!

[sitestreet]

Should’ve guessed!

[JonL]

I read CFNM.

[JonL]

Nodejs as expected

[JonL]

Things are looking good so far. At least for the JS fam

[kfawcett]

I built an app for this, but couldn’t get traction so it’s been sitting dormant. It’s not currently on a plan that allows necessary features to work. If anyone thinks crowd funding Wappler components/features is worth pursuing I’m open to reviving it. It would need some tweaking as it’s currently meant for a vendor to build the feature vs a 3rd party developer.

Bubble - Visual Programming

[Mr.Rubi]

Hi Keith. A year and a half ago I started thinking about creating a crowdfunding platform for developers. The idea is very similar to the concept of your application. However, according to the plan, the task is to implement the service for many low-code/no-code development tools. The implementation of the idea is not moving fast, since I do it in my free time. But it may be possible to invest more time in development this year. It may even be possible to release a beta version by the end of the year.

I’m interested in something else. That a very similar concept in your performance did not become interesting to the market. Why do you think that is? Can you tell me in more detail?

[kfawcett]

Hi @Mr.Rubi, I didn’t spend a lot of time trying to get traction. It started as a similar conversation as this for Bubble, so I built the app. There were a few features that people said they would pay to have developed, but when it came down to actually committing funds there weren’t enough people to fund the ideas. That’s not at all to say a similar app couldn’t work. I know there are other similar apps out there for open source projects that I think manage to fund a good amount of features.

[George]

As we gradually add more and more support for extensibility, we will probably build also a central list of extensions that everybody can pick from to install. So that can evolve indeed to a marketplace.

Our primary goals is user convenience. So automatic install and updates. Quality control and pointing the user to the right support channel, are also very important.

Currently we have full extensibility for the server side with custom Server Connect Actions and Formatters and hope soon to add client side custom App Connect components support.

[JonL]

I remember it from back in the day! Unfortunate it didn’t get traction as it was a great idea. With all the movement and agencies pushing in their forums nowadays I can’t even think how that would go.

[JonL]

@George

So that can evolve indeed to a marketplace.

If this has to happen and it happens hopefully you can open a private conversation with creators as I think it’s important that all parties get involved to create a healthy marketplace.

From a creator perspective my main concern right now is how to protect the code to make sure only those that are entitled to use it do it. Nothing new of course as this is a common concern to any developer. There are several workarounds but nothing definitive and they all require putting myself in a place I don’t want to be. This is…chasing people.

The only way I see this working is if Wappler centralises everything and handles granting access to the code if there is a valid license to use the extension. Even if that means that you guys get a cut out to ensure viability of the feature and additional costs that you could incur in. Similar to how you handle the different licenses for the Wappler extensions.