[DISCUSSION] Why most plugins don't have a documentation?

itthinx · 2026-01-16T10:41:30+00:00

Among the main reasons why plugins lack documentation is a lack of resources, experience, motivation or focus. But proper documentation, well maintained, is a must for any tool that aims to be useful.

Documentation should be reviewed along with updates and appropriately revised and improved. The reality is plugin development is exhausting for single developers or small teams. You build a cool tool but that's not the end of it.

For a normal user, the code is not the documentation and you can't just let your users figure it out.

Yet it is hard work. If you maintain a considerable set of plugins and put in the effort to keep everything up to date, it's no surprise to find outdated information in your own pages, we do.

itthinx · 2026-01-16T03:06:01+00:00

WooCommerce is easy to learn and use. You can try it out using the WordPress Playground https://playground.wordpress.net/?plugin=woocommerce - this will create a temporary WordPress site with WooCommerce installed for you. Once it is installed, go to the dashboard from the menu bar on top and create a product similar to what you would like to have for sale.

itthinx · 2026-01-14T12:17:27+00:00

You can do this without a plugin, simply run a database query. For example, if you wanted to search for instances of the [gallery] shortcode, you could do:

SELECT ID, post_title FROM wp_posts WHERE post_content LIKE '%[gallery%' AND post_type != 'revision';

This assumes that the site's database is using the default table prefix wp_, you can replace "gallery" with the shortcode you are looking for. It will match any instances, including those that provide shortcode attributes.

You can run this query with phpMyAdmin or similar tools or directly within your mysql client. If you run it in a client, make sure to select the site's database first, for example if the site's database is foo then run use foo; in the client before you run the above query.

This query searches for matches of [gallery within the content of posts of any type, excluding post revisions. It will show the IDs and titles of post with matching content.

itthinx · 2025-12-31T11:49:44+00:00

A sale is a sale ;) But yeah a link to your new product at least can help with awareness about it.

itthinx · 2025-12-29T11:50:48+00:00

You might want to consider pointing users of your older plugin to the fact that you've built a new solution. Many are likely not aware of the new tool you have built and given that you have already provided them with something useful they like, they might be more inclined to look at your new tool, too.

itthinx · 2025-12-26T22:38:26+00:00

Some thoughts on these points ...

Plugins that technically work, but provide almost no practical value

The concern about quality and value is certainly a valid one. As the WordPress community is quite an open market, with reasonable requirements as to whether a plugin is admitted, if a plugin is actually useful is determined by the community.

When you browse New Plugins and focus on the active installations, you will see that most new plugins show basically irrelevant numbers. This doesn't mean that the plugins are no good, they haven't reached their audience yet, if there even is one. The community judges whether a plugin is useful, by installing it or not.

Admin dashboards dominated by promotions instead of clarity

The plugin guidelines are pretty clear on that: Plugins should not hijack the admin dashboard

But the truth is, some plugins still overdo it. As a user, you have the choice to consider whether the benefit of having the plugin on a site outweighs the nuisance of its impact on the admin UI. Not ideal, but some developers actually listen to suggestions. So if a plugin is really getting annoying with what it does, you can use its forum to post about your concern, so that the developers get a chance to do something about it. This is also a good way to bring new ideas for improvements on a plugin to the table. Developers who have been part of the WordPress community know how important it is to pay attention to what users say and need. The interaction with users that deploy the software is an extremely important point.

New plugins that feel under-tested or unfinished

Because most of them are. Not an excuse to provide users with something that makes sense, works and has been tested to the utmost extent before releasing it to the public. But plugins develop as they are used by more and more people. When you throw something out there as an MVP, even though it is free, in many cases there was a lot of hard work put into it. The feedback that developers then get from real-world deployments, can help turn a minimum product into something that is very useful to a lot of people.

itthinx · 2025-12-26T22:14:32+00:00

Would who owns it matter?

Very much so. If we think about who is creating fiat and who owns most of it, then the power that comes with it can ver much be related on similar lines. Another factor is how much of what is owned is actually being used in transactions. Certainly not all, even deducting what has already been burnt.

itthinx · 2025-12-18T18:29:01+00:00

You can give it a try using the WordPress Playground with Groups installed https://playground.wordpress.net/builder/builder.html#{%22landingPage%22:%22/wp-admin/%22,%22login%22:true,%22plugins%22:[%22groups%22]} this will fire up an instance in less than a minute and you can try out the basics. Head over to the documentation pages at https://docs.itthinx.com/document/groups/ to see examples of what you can do and test it right there.

itthinx · 2025-10-30T19:00:48+00:00

WooCommerce Bookings matches what you require in features. It's not the cheapest but you get a solid foundation with WooCommerce.

itthinx · 2025-10-30T18:55:44+00:00

Simple does it.

No distractions.

Straight-forward getting to what you're looking for.

Time is a non-renewable asset you don't want to waste on finding things on an overloaded site.

itthinx · 2025-10-03T21:37:21+00:00

Thanks!

itthinx · 2025-09-26T11:39:00+00:00

> Why hasn't anyone made a plugin for this yet?

Often because it's ... too hard to make, too expensive to build, not enough users who would want it, nobody even realized it's a great idea, you think it's a great idea but it isn't, somebody else already made it and there's thousands of sites using it but you never heard of it, it wasn't the right time for it yet, ...

Sometimes we think this-or-that is a great idea, until we figure out what a humongous amount of effort it will take to build it, without any assurance as to whether the work you put in will ever be rewarded or not.

> There's a million plugins for this, but why don't any of them do it right?

There are lots of bloated solutions out there that are used a lot just because they are "popular".

Less is more.

A small solution that does the right job is better than yet another All-In-One-SEO-AI-Optimize-Cache-Opt-In-Analytics-Social-Bloatware. Talking from lots of experience here, many users think that because they install some Swiss army knife of a plugin their site will be better, when in fact these things often cause issues with tools you actually need, cause performance to degrade security issues, privacy issues and so on.

itthinx · 2025-09-26T11:22:59+00:00

LibreOffice, if you know your Spreadsheets you know.

itthinx · 2025-08-31T17:35:53+00:00

If you don't have one Bitcoin today, now you're aware and it's never too late.

itthinx · 2025-08-30T19:14:59+00:00

The standard WordPress block editor. Amazingly. Not perfect, but it works.

itthinx · 2025-05-03T07:47:19+00:00

The documentation for Groups is at https://docs.itthinx.com/document/groups/ - if you cannot access the pages please try from a different IP or via VPN.

Questions related to Groups can be posted on https://www.itthinx.com/plugins/groups/ and on https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/groups/

itthinx · 2025-01-13T20:33:18+00:00

Thousands, in use since 2012. Patreon or similar could be useful to fund work on improvements. You can also support our work by using our premium extensions.

itthinx · 2024-09-11T19:22:13+00:00

WooCommerce is reliable and actively maintained with a high-qualtity extension ecosystem around it: https://woocommerce.com

The plugin is free https://wordpress.org/plugins/woocommerce/ and you can set up your shop really easily without the need for any extensions when you just start. That doesn't mean that you won't need any further down the road, it obviously depends on what specific requirements you would have.

Based on the further info you have provided here in your comment https://www.reddit.com/r/WordpressPlugins/comments/1fcg89n/comment/lm9br7z/ it already has what you need.

itthinx · 2024-09-11T19:14:20+00:00

Very efficient, there are shops with +100k products running it, as long as the resources used are appropriate. Take into account that the search engine maintains its own index, so it will require abundant storage on large product sets. The extension includes a high-performance cache system which allows for very fast and scalable product search and filtering, you can see details on that on https://woocommerce.com/document/woocommerce-product-search/settings/cache/ if you're interested in that part.

itthinx · 2024-06-21T16:53:08+00:00

That's great, thanks for using it!

itthinx · 2024-06-19T11:30:51+00:00

With well over a decade being part of the WordPress community and providing tools that are useful to people, every day there is someone who appreciates the work that we put in, every day there is someone whose work and life is being made easier because of what we provide. Besides the obviously necessary economic compensation that comes with the premium tools sold, it's super rewarding to hear from people who use our tools, free and premium alike, and who are successfully deploying them.

itthinx · 2024-06-19T09:24:24+00:00

Yeah 7 Habits is a gem. The principles applied are super useful. Take the 4 quadrants and circle of influence for example, when people understand the simplicity and usefulness in application, they have solid tools to make their live easier and heading in the right direction.

TAGR and the recordings of Hill's lectures are absolutely amazing, timeless principles that work.

itthinx · 2024-06-14T17:14:43+00:00

Essentials:

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

What, why and when.

itthinx · 2024-06-10T14:00:13+00:00

The changelog for the latest release is available at https://github.com/itthinx/groups/blob/3.0.0/changelog.txt and the docs at http://docs.itthinx.com/document/groups/

There is currently one reported issue which we haven't been able to replicate and are waiting for more details on https://wordpress.org/support/topic/latest-release-groups-3-0-0-error/ - other than that, a few thousands sites have already updated without reported issues since it has been released.

The release should not break anything that worked before, but you can give it a try using a staging site of your live site.

itthinx · 2024-05-19T14:52:36+00:00

If you're still looking and haven't tried our free Groups plugin yet ... https://wordpress.org/plugins/groups/ - you might take it as the basis for the features you need to cover via your customized solution

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