Maintenance of plugins in this repo

[lentschi]

How should we maintain plugins in this repo?

On the one hand I'm a proponent of monorepos (i.e. having as many of the plugins directly in the foodsoft repo as possible) as it makes collaboration more seamless.

On the other hand they also raise the complexity and the knowledge required of each collaborator.
To pick two distinct examples:

1. Enable more than Foodsoft format imports #1173:
   This will introduce imports to several country-specific formats. I can imagine that if, in say, five years from now a non-German-speaking developer wants to do a required foodsoft upgrade, those might cause them a headache.
2. current_orders plugin - see [BUG]: can't select order group on Current Orders plugin #1189 (comment) for my thoughts on that.

To be clear: In both cases I still think it's fine to okay-ish to have them in the foodsoft repo, but we need to discuss the workflow maintaining them.

My proposal for this:

• Have a group of developers responsible for the plugin listed in its main README.md.
• If I - as a developer - want to do a foodsoft upgrade/change of any sorts that requires altering this plugin as well, but I don't know my way around the plugin's features for some reason, I can ask the responsible devs for help.
• If those devs don't have time to help or are no longer actively contributing, I have the liberty to just chuck the plugin out of the foodsoft repo. (Of course only using our PR workflow and only with a respective entry in the CHANGELOG.)

We might want to limit this workflow to plugins that are not enabled by default.

Also, stating the obvious, any plugin worth maintaining in the foodsoft repo should have unit tests. (Otherwise its breaking won't even be noticed until it's too late and maintenance is even more cumbersome.)

[yksflip]

Thanks for raising this!
I agree that there is no clear responsibility for the plugins. I honestly don't know how good all of them work.
I like your sugesstions for having contact persons in the readme file!

[lentschi]

Thanks for your feedback!

Since there are two upvotes and no objections, I'd create a PR for a README.md in ./plugins describing this.

Just one remaining choice:

We might want to limit this workflow to plugins that are not enabled by default.

Should we?
(I would vote yes. I mean, we can still have a list of responsible persons in the README, but removing a default plugin should always be a major decision - as per #1195 - and not be done, simply because the maintainers couldn't be contacted. In other words: Default plugins should always be maintained and maintainable by the whole foodsoft dev team.)

[RayOei]

Although the Mollie plugin is not enabled by default, I feel it is too important, because financial, a plugin for the (at least the Dutch) foodcoops that use is, to have it removed (without proper discussion). So I think there is a case for a set of "supported" plugins, part of the repo and others.
So it seems to me that every maintainer should be available to address issues when they arise, for those "supported" plugins?
Having some indication who to approach first when problems arise is fine but it should not be limited.
BTW. Mollie is not restricted to The Netherlands so other EEA countries can use it, and with the convergense of certain payment standards in the very near future. iDEAL, which is a originally a Dutch initiative, has been aquired by EPI (European Payment Initiative) which is moving to Wero the next year. I would expect more Foodcoops potentially using this plugin.
Anyway.. enough of the specific one but you can sign me up as the 1st person for it as I have been working on it recently and have a much more clear idea how it works (and where it needs serious improvements, including tests) 😁

[yksflip]

In todays community call we agreed on this proposal:

Resolution 002: Plugin Maintenance

• All plugins that are enabled by default are maintained by the core-developers.
• Plugins that are not enabled by default have a contact person in the Readme.md file

[RayOei]

Huh... I had that for next week on my calendar? Either way: where are the notes as the Hedgedoc link shows nothing anymore?

[lentschi]

Huh... I had that for next week on my calendar? Either way: where are the notes as the Hedgedoc link shows nothing anymore?

I'll respond on our community call discourse.

[lentschi]

Created #1198 to document this - please review