Keeping the Wheels Greased (a.k.a. Add-on Submission Changes)

Recently we rolled out a set of Developer Guidelines, including a promise of news regarding changes to the submission process to ensure higher quality add-ons and a faster turnaround on reviewing your submissions.  Today is part one of those changes.

We had already linked to the guidelines and made mention on the submission form that the add-on needed to meet those requirements, but we also understand the excitement of a new add-on and submitting something for the community.  It tends to make one not read a paragraph or two above the submission form, and one either forgets about the guidelines altogether, or doesn’t realize that they are not optional.  Naughty!

When you submit an add-on, you will now first be asked if your add-on meets the requirements of each of the three sections of the guidelines, with handy links to each section and the checklist that you can use once familiarized with the guidelines.  If it helps, you can imagine Paul wearing a pair of large frame glasses with an attached chain around his neck, holding a ruler and pointing sternly.

But seriously, the guidelines have a purpose, and we don’t want to seem heavy-handed or demanding here, but the reality is that we get many submissions that have to be rejected for either quality, performance, or security, and carefully reviewing someone else’s code takes a lot of time.  The guidelines not only will ensure that you do not make the most common or egregious errors, but for many developers, your coding skills will no doubt improve as well.  It also means that Paul and I can spend more time developing.  So please use the developer guidelines for your own benefit - not only for your code, and for the users who use your add-on, but also so Kurt, Randy, and Ingmar won’t blame you for delaying further development.