BTW, I came up with the idea that when clicking the button on the website, we can jump to the desktop app using a link (like joplin://plugin-name). And the app can automatically install the plugin. It can be implemented using Regedit in Windows and URL Shemes in MacOS. It's just a thought for now, let me know if there are better ways to make this process smoother.
In my opinion, in the 'Home Page' section, I would prefer to have the plugins listed in horizontal order (or an option to toggle card view or list view) just like we have in the app. In this way, we could display more plugins on the page.
Also, I had a question about the 'Trending' and 'Recommended' plugins section. Are we going to show only a handful number of plugins with an option to show more? Maybe after clicking show more, we can apply that specific filter and show the plugins? Just thinking out loud here. But again, these are all my personal opinions.
I really liked this idea. Just to make sure, you know there is already a PR for deep links to install plugins.
I originally plans to only show 3-5 plugins in the Trending section and use a sliding button to show all the recommended plugins in Recommended section since the number of plugins is limited now. But a 'more' button is a great idea!
@Retr0ve, it may be useful to spend more time on the mockup, and maybe propose different versions. For example I don't think the search bar should take half of the page. And what appears to be an advanced search at the bottom of the page doesn't make a lot of sense to me either.
Perhaps have a look at other plugin and extension stores, see what they do, try to understand why they do it, and see what can be borrowed from them.
Some plugin store did that, tiptap for instance, I personally think this type of hero section avoid user getting distracted from too much information. But I'll make another version if this doesn't make sense to you.
Do you think separating this advanced search to another page would be a good idea?
I think this is some sort of personal preference. We can display plugins in categories like the chrome extension store do or we can use filters to display plugins in certain categories or badges like the firefox add-on store do. If filters are a little bit heavy for Joplin plugin discovery, I guess we'll be using category then?
Hi Retr0ve,
If you want some reference for this one, here is my PR and forum discussion for filtering for plugins in desktop app. In this PR, I have also included a demo video, which might be useful.
The question is what shall be the focus for the first half, UI or functionality?
I would love to see a basic prototype first to see that all information can be pulled to provide an excellent UI/UX.
Hi @laurent,
I've updated the post to include version 2. It displays plugins according to the category selection on the sidebar. And search box is now pinned to the header. What do you think of this version?
This merged PR adds an optional categories field in plugins' manifest field, allowing devs to add multiple categories.
Personally, I think we can explain what are plugins in 1-2 sentences like how it's done on the Firefox add-ons page and then we can display searching and filtering options.
I think we are letting the plugin developers decide the categories themselves, so we don't need to label it ourselves. Joplin team will label the recommended plugins if I am not wrong.
The categories themselves are preset, only the choice is left to the developer, there were quite a few discussions to make sure there wasn't anything that could be too ambigious. I guess maintainers with access to the plugin repo could submit a change if there is any abuse but it might be best to play it by ear rather than be too restrictive from the outset.
Categories
Category
Description
appearance
dealing with appearance of some element/s of the app. For example line numbers, layout, etc.
developer tools
built for the developers.
editor
enhancing note editor.
files
dealing with files. For example import, export, backup, etc.
Thanks for the update. As a general rule I prefer not to be the only one reviewing projects, so please avoid @-mentioning me or anybody in particular, and instead simply ask the community to give their feedback
. I think it might make it easier for you during development if you also designed the mobile UIs. Great work though 
