Name of the plugin

[danieldudzic]

Hey guys,

I had an interesting chat with @stuartduff about this today.

Basically, we have agreed that the name "Features" is quite generic and undescriptive.

We encounter the following question quite a lot in support: "How can I change the name/slug ( WP dashboard / permalinks ) from Features to something else". Services is a popular choice - and as Stu has pointed out, that's exactly the type of content that people often use to showcase, using the plugin.

In our WP.org plugin forum we have requests to change it to Topic or even Product.

Of course, there still are semantically correct examples of usage ( people using "Features" to actually display features ( f.i. features of a product/service ) ), however I don't feel like it's the majority of times.

I was wondering whether we could address this somehow, in order to provide a better user experience, and make the plugin more distinctive.

I can think about the following changes that could be done:

• Change the name of the plugin entirely - I can't think of a good one just yet, but I'm sure a short brainstroming session would prove itself productive.
• Include an easy option/setting for users to customize the name/slug.

I'm interested to hear what you guys think about this :)

cc: @mattyza @jameskoster @jeffikus @stuartduff @tiagonoronha

[mattyza]

Hey @danieldudzic @stuartduff. :)

So, upfront, changing the name of the plugin "entirely" is out of the question. It creates a world of pain and admin for both us and our customers, as the file names would change, which means a new WordPress.org repository, and every customer needs to reactivate the plugin. We'd pretty much have to start over with an entirely new plugin (not an option).

Therefore, I'd propose the following:

• Rename the title of the plugin in the readme.txt file to "Features & Services".
• Add an option into the plugin to switch between "Features" and "Services" (this can be on a simple settings screen).

This setting could, perhaps, even be a select box with a few different label choices. The select box could even be filterable for customers to add their own label choices.

I'm hesitant to add too many label choices here, as it's very easy for certain label choices to actually be separate plugins entirely (eg: in your example above, "Product" is WooCommerce and "Topic" is more for blog posts).

We need to be sure to not turn this plugin into a "catch-all" post type generator of sorts.

I'd say lets stick with a select box offering either "Features" or "Services" as pre-programmed label choices. This is relatively low yield and can be coded up in an hour or less.

Thoughts? :)

[jeffikus]

@mattyza +1 for not changing the official name of the plugin. I'm happy with adding a select box (as long as it serves the same purpose as changing the slug) and changing the title to Features & Services.

Perhaps @jobthomas or @MarinaWoo would have some insight from the marketing/education perspective on the correct nomenclature here?

[MarinaWoo]

I don't anything to add here, but back you guys! :)

[stuartduff]

@mattyza @danieldudzic

Therefore, I'd propose the following:

Rename the title of the plugin in the readme.txt file to "Features & Services".
Add an option into the plugin to switch between "Features" and "Services" (this can be on a simple settings screen).

This works for me :)

[tiagonoronha]

Since we are done with 'all-in-one' themes, I kinda feel that we should discontinue this plugin.

First of all, it was never widely adopted. Secondly, since we are not building themes that try to please all different audiences at the same time anymore, this plugin can be easily replaced with Projects. I doubt we will ever use both at the same time.

t

[jeffikus]

@tiagonoronha it has over 110k downloads and getting 1000 downloads per week...

[mattyza]

Yeah, we're not retiring this one. :)

Let's get this tweak in and see the response from there.

I see a very legit use case for this plugin.

On Tuesday, December 9, 2014, Jeffrey Pearce notifications@github.com
wrote:

@tiagonoronha https://github.com/tiagonoronha it has over 110k
downloads and getting 1000 downloads per week...

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#45 (comment).

Matt Cohen
Chief Product Officer, WooThemes

http://woothemes.com/
http://matty.co.za/

Ask me questions via Clarity: https://clarity.fm/mattcohen/

[danieldudzic]

👍 - I think retiring Features, at this moment, is a big no no ( lot of upset users ).

Do you guys mind, if I give it a try? I'll work on this and do a PR. ( will consult with @jeffikus, if I hit a wall ).

[tiagonoronha]

I must have confused Features with some other plugin 👍

[jeffikus]

@danieldudzic sure man, have reassigned to you :) ping me tomorrow and we can chat, I'll review the code.

[jeffikus]

@stuartduff please test https://github.com/woothemes/features/tree/45-naming_options and let me know if this makes sense to you. I've added an option to General Settings for the plugin.

You need to test:
1 - all the post add/edit screen nomenclature is correct, as well as all update messages
2 - the widget nomenclature

I haven't got to the frontend stuff yet. I'll only do that if you are happy.

[stuartduff]

@jeffikus it looks good so far although It might be better to add a standalone settings page under the features menu item as this is where users would expect this to be located for consistency.

For example I actually didn't read the comment above before testing ( I know :p ) and looked in all sections but the General section of WordPress for the settings util I looked at the code. Projects has it's own setting page and it keeps in line with what a customer would expect and have become used to with most plugins that are available for WordPress.

[jeffikus]

@stuartduff thanks for the feedback. I'll be picking this up again on Tuesday when I'm back from AFK. I'm loath to add a new settings screen to be honest. I think it's reasonable to add it to general settings. Thoughts @jameskoster @mattyza ?

[mattyza]

Personally, I like logical separation, so happy with a small settings
screen. Are there any other settings we could/should add?

Makes sense to have them on an existing settings screen, yet it could
easily be hidden away and difficult for users to find.

Matt Cohen
Woo Chief Product Officer | Automattic

http://automattic.com/
http://woothemes.com/
http://matty.co.za/

Ask me questions via Clarity: https://clarity.fm/mattcohen/

On Fri, Aug 7, 2015 at 4:15 PM, Jeffrey Pearce notifications@github.com
wrote:

@stuartduff https://github.com/stuartduff thanks for the feedback. I'll
be picking this up again on Tuesday when I'm back from AFK. I'm loath to
add a new settings screen to be honest. I think it's reasonable to add it
to general settings. Thoughts @jameskoster
https://github.com/jameskoster @mattyza https://github.com/mattyza ?

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#45 (comment).

[johnny-bit]

Hi 😄 @jeffikus - question: in https://github.com/woothemes/features/tree/45-naming_options You opted to have slug setting as an option field. since features_setting_name is not hardcoded any way would it be possible to change it to text field? For one it would help with localizing slug and second - it would be great for users to map Features slug to actual contextual use. Features/Services are cool, but I'd love to have Functions for one of my project, Advantages for other etc 😉 What do you think?

[jeffikus]

Update -> tackling this in the New Year. Going to implement it the same way I've done it in Projects.