← Previous · Index · Next →
When the PR is merged and the package published (Packaging), the addon exists — but nobody can find it, read about it, or reach you about it. This page covers the four steps that make a merged addon part of the ecosystem: the addon-list entry, the addon's own wiki page, the announcement, and the ongoing support duty. None of them touch code; all of them decide whether the addon gets used.
Add a row for your addon to the release's addon list — 6.0 Addons for the current release, or the next release's list (e.g. 6.1 Addons) if the addon targets an unreleased minor. Copy an existing row and fill in the columns; the Addon list legend explains what each column means (type, audience, rating, contact, download).
The row skeleton, as it appears in the list page's wiki source:
|- <!-- Copy this section and list your Addon -->
|<!-- Plugin / Documentation -->
|<!-- Type -->
|<!-- Image -->
|<!-- Description -->
|<!-- Use -->
|<!-- Rating (out of 4) -->
|<!-- Contact -->
|<!-- Download -->
|-
This listing is what users browse; the Plugin Manager's download listing (Packaging → the make.py listing step) is what Gramps itself reads. An addon needs both.
Give the addon its own wiki support page — the page the addon list's first column links to. Examine other addons' pages for the format; the conventional skeleton:
{{Third-party plugin}} <!-- standard banner shown on every addon page -->
== Usage ==
=== Configure Options ===
== Features ==
== Prerequisites ==
== Issues ==
[[Category:Addons]]
[[Category:Plugins]]
[[Category:Developers/General]]
Only add the sections the addon needs — a Gramplet with no options doesn't need Configure Options. The {{Third-party plugin}} template expands to the standard notice that the addon is third-party and where to report problems; every addon page carries it.
Join the Gramps forum and announce the addon to users: what it does, why you built it, and how to use it. This is the step authors skip most — and an unannounced addon is invisible to the users who would have wanted it.
Register on the Gramps MantisBT tracker and check it regularly. There is no automated notification that routes issues against your addon to you — reports sit unseen unless you look. (For fix workflow, the tracker conventions, and the commit-message trailers that close Mantis issues, see Rules → Commit messages.)
Users don't read code and they make assumptions; reports will be ambiguous or wrong about the cause. Be kind and guiding — a curt reply from an addon's own author is the fastest way to lose the users the announcement won.
Worth keeping in mind across the maintenance years that follow (Compatibility, What's New): the addon channel is deliberately low-barrier. It provides:
- a quick way for anyone to share their work — the project has never refused an addon;
- a place for a component to evolve continuously, often before core acceptance;
- a home for plugins that will never be accepted into core but are loved by many users;
- a place for experimental components to live.
- Packaging — the build/listing mechanics that precede these steps.
- Compatibility — keeping the published addon working across Gramps versions.
- Addons development — the upstream page these steps derive from.
- 6.0 Addons — the addon list itself.