As an enthusiastic Omeka Classic user, and also an amateurish plugins developer, I was wondering whether the Omeka team has ever considered including, in a future release, some of the plugin functions that have been made available by different developers.
I believe in some cases those functions would work much smoother/better as part of the core, instead of a plugin.
Maybe, a poll could be set up in this forum, to ask users which plugins they normally use the most / find more useful, and then some thinking could be done about including them.
Just my two cents.
I think “it depends” is probably my main answer here… there are things that definitely are easier or better-done in the core and things that can/should remain plugins and the line there is pretty case-by-case.
Of course people are welcome to weigh in, make suggestions, give examples of what they use and why. That’s all helpful to know and can inform our decisions.
You’re right, of course, @jflatnes: some functions are too specific to be worth being included in the core (first example that comes to mind: CSV Import, a very useful plugin but only to those who need to import data, so not the vast majority. Also: Custom Citation, useful only to those who actually need more control about the citation format).
Some other plugins alter the initial scope of some Omeka functions, so again they’re probably not the best choice.
But the ones enhancing/extending/improving already existing functions could be worth considering (again, I would suggest some kind of poll for Omeka Classic admins/users, since it’s impossible to tell how many times a specific plugins has been installed/used). The first ones that I’m thinking of, running through the Plugins list:
- Admin Images (or something similar; there was recently a thread in the forum, about how to add additional media not-dependent from a speficic Item)
- Block Party
- Collections Plus (extends Collection functions, making them more similar to the Item ones)
- Default Dublin Core
- E-Mail Notification
- Item Duplicator
- Item Order
- PDF Text
- Tags Plus
I would argue the majority of users need a means of bulk importing data, csv import seems useful for just about everyone. Other handy modules (for S) that would be candidates here, in my opinion, would be: file sideload, CSSeditor, copy resources, Log, and, if I may be so bold as to plug my own module, Banner. I think each of these modules have universal enough usecases as to make it to core.
@cnorton, I’m afraid this forum section is for Omeka Classic, while you seem to be suggesting modules for Omeka S (that do not exist for Omeka Classic)…
I entirely missed that, sorry!
No worries. Maybe, a similar thread could be started for Omeka S too…