Improving the extensions site

[Sadr]

I would love to see some improvements in the way the extensions site is presented. In perticular, I'd like to see a much more visible seperation between the commercial and the free extensions. It would also be nice if you could have a place to put some preview pictures, kinda like they do over at the SMF website with the modules and themes.

Doable?..

[swiftly]

Yeah, I agree.

And I like to add 1.0 and 1.5 extentions split up or this is visible in the overview page. Now it is needed to check the details to see if it is available for 1.5

[infograf768]

Moving to JED forum.

[LorenzoG]

Hi Sadr and Jack,

Thank you for your suggestions. Work is in progress for to improve the Extensions Directory. Your suggestions make sense and are noted 

[JackCorbae]

Hi!

Further to the original suggestions I was wondering if the current system could be extended to allow some type of filtering.

For example, the advanced search options allows you to search for: GNU/GPL or BSD or PHP License or Commercial License or Donationware / Subscriptionware or Other open source/Free license - but I think that should be a multiple check box so you can search for GNU/GPL AND Donationware / Subscriptionware AND Other open source/Free license.

In addition, when browsing the extension listings, there are 169 extensions listed in the "Content & News | Content Management" category. A set of filters at the top of that page that defaulted to showing all types could then be changed by removing the tick, for example, from the "Commercial license" check box to filter out extensions with Commercial Licenses. Similarly if I only wanted to list Joomla 1.5 compatible extensions.

Which leads me to the last item on my wish list - a differentiation between Joomla 1.5 native support and Joomla 1.5 support in Legacy mode. To be honest, I have no idea what (if any) the drawback to running in legacy mode is - but I have a sneaky suspicion we probably want to avoid it if possible! Only one of the Joomla 1.5 extensions that I've downloaded (of the huge sample of 5) has installed without Legacy mode enabled. Then, of course, once I have enabled legacy mode, I don't know whether subsequent 1.5 extensions I install are truly compatible or only working because legacy mode is already enabled!

[Sadr]

Commenting system

I can't help feel like the review system for the extensions isn't quite enough, and doesn't allow us to efficiently interact with the developer(s) behind it. I'm kinda further revealing my love for the SMF mod sites now, but I just have to say that I love the way they handle their mods. For every mod added there's a new thread created (uhm, or maybe it's the other way), where the mod can be easily discussed and the creator has all the benefits of choosing to be notified of replies and so on if such should be desirable. Could it be possible to get something similar working for the Joomla! extensions site? I would really love to have a better way of communicating with the creators (without leaving the site) because I imagine that I like many others often just wanna ask a simple question, like "will it be made compatible with 1.5?"...

[vdrover]

I'd like the users reviews to be sorted by date

[Padreic]

Yeah, I agree.

And I like to add 1.0 and 1.5 extentions split up or this is visible in the overview page. Now it is needed to check the details to see if it is available for 1.5

yes please

[Sadr]

In addition to the "New additions" and "Top rated" as well as the others in the navigation on the front page, I'd like to see "Most viewed" and "Most reviewed".

Also, I'd love to get a more thurough explanation on what "Most popular extensions" really is, as in, what is it based on.

[pietrogallo]

... that's my idea.

This system would face the issue raised by neo_fox here: http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,137539.0.html

The user should be allowed to leave empty review (that's basically what a vote is) but the name will be shown.

Another suggestion could be taking the Median as statistical indicator instead of the average. The median is a more solid indicator.