Please add meaningful plugin documentation, thank you

I am definitely guilty of this. Will definitely schedule some time in to make this happen. Appreciate your letter

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Could you elaborate on what was confusing… The documentation for it is sparse as it just does one / two simple things. The instructions on the page lay these out as:

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Honestly @gaurav, those first three lines barely mean anything. It’s difficult to know where to start as you are presumably so close to the topic that it is naturally completely unobvious to you what the problem is, and I am a Bubble relative newbie so it is partly my “fault” plus difficult for me to explain, but let me try.

Extract

A one word instruction is a shaky start. I would say something like, “To install the element that will ‘Extract’ data from text:”

(i) Install the ‘extract’ element on the page

I think you need to make clear that this just needs to go on the page. It doesn’t have to be doing anything - just be there. That had me stumped for ages.

(ii) The source data goes into the input on extractor

I still don’t really know what this means. I guess you mean "The input for the Extractor element is <something (still not clear to me)>.

(iii) The extracted values are accessed as This Extractor’s emails, urls, hashtags, mentions etc.

No idea what that means. Still trying to understand the above.

  1. Mentions

Not even going there yet.

Yours is I think the first non-Bubble Plugin I tried, so maybe this level of documentation is normal. It maybe makes more sense to experiences Bubble people (judging by the comments it does) but for newcomers it is too confusing.

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I am sorry to say this, but if you are having trouble with these instructions, then you are going to struggle with some non-plugin functions in bubble too.

Learn the platform first, it will save you a lot of time in the long run.

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Again, I would suggest that as someone very experienced in Bubble, it may be non-obvious to you how obscure those instructions are.

I may be a beginner here, but having worked on lots of complicated projects before I have a pretty good feeling for when documentation is good or not (vs when I am just being thick!), regardless of whether I know the platform in-depth already or not.

I’d say overall the Bubble documentation is on the weak side (so not just the plugins), and gives the impression of having been written by people who are in-depth to the platform, so again unaware of how it is to start afresh using Bubble. I’m assuming that is the sort of thing that will change now they have some VC money and can hire some technical writers.

Maybe we can even assume I am the thicko exception here, but @Nocodify seems to run a service teaching or building nocode apps and he says he gave up, so it’s not just me.

We need Bubble to be as widely successful as possible, and I would assume that the way to do that is to really broaden its appeal with “ELI5” instructions! :smile:

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Just to expand a bit, I realised that the explanation on the blogpage about the plugin, is subtly slightly better than the plugin page itself.

But the real standard for instructions for Tagger is this page: https://buildingonbubble.com/block/tagger-plugin-for-mentions-1515412723033x963917052088942600 which I see you wrote @NigelG, which is kinda ironic. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Basically what you have written seems like good instructions with examples. Thanks! :smile:

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For me, the tagger plugin was a “nice to have feature.”

If I really needed it, I would spend more time trying to figure it out. I couldn’t understand it the first go around, so I kind of gave up :open_mouth: I’m sure I could figure it out if I spent more time on it.

But I do agree with you that most plugins don’t have proper documentation. I also don’t suggest that plugin developers must have documentation… it’s really up to them if they want to take the time to document. @gaurav is the man and I appreciate all he does for the Bubble community.

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I don’t think that’s true Nigel, these instructions are confusing.

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I completely agree these instructions are very confusing.

There’s actually specific techniques and methodology for how to write support and training documentation, which any school teachers on here will be more than familiar with.

Plugin builders can just google to read up on this, there are interesting tips.

The end user is never to blame.

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Yes I would completely agree they are confusing and not written for a non code user, but rather interpreted and written as a developer. I see this all the time and clearly if plugin builders can’t see that their instructions are either non existent or confusing then you need to take a look at some of the benchmark help documentation and get some one else with the required expertise to write it for you.

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For those who still don’t get it.

Some good advice here:



https://geekboss.com/write-for-a-non-technical-audience/

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Almost. I think that end user must also do is part to learn the familliar word used in the domain they are. I will not use something else than “Add element on the page” or “Add a workflow” because this is a basic thing of Bubble world. If user don’t know what is an element or a workflow… I think he need to get familiar with Bubble a little bit more before.

I also understand dev that create plugin and make it available for free to not make extensive documentation. However. A minimal instruction to make the plugin usable should be available.
For me “Install the ‘extract’ element on the page” is correct. But ‘The extracted values are accessed as This Extractor’s emails, urls, hashtags, mentions etc.’ may miss a more specific thing like You can access email, url, hastags or mentions in the element state (element state for me is something that end user need to learn to use bubble and plugin).

Nocode doesn’t mean nothing to learn… just no code to learn (and write, and understand…) :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: Bubble user need to learn Bubble first.

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This thread prompted me to create a poll. I welcome your participation. Thank you!

It’s the height of arrogance for a developer to argue over whether an instruction is confusing or not when given feedback that it is confusing. If the plugin only does ‘1 or 2’ things, then it won’t take long to humbly update the docs to make it understandable without needing to make any fuss about it.

I’ve worked with Bubble for nearly 3 years and am an ex-front end web developer. The instructions make no sense.

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@cowontherun Like I said in my post, I didn’t say it’s perfect. And give an example that for me is correct and what i found is not (personnaly). also, for what I know, @gaurav ask to get more explanation of what is confusing for you (and other) (I believe to update it). This is how I understand this reply.

I think of it this way:

If a plugin is free (I.E.: tagger) you have a few options:

  1. Work through it (best way) - It will cost you time and you will learn something that will make you understand the plugin and subsequent similar plugins and make you a better dev in general.
  2. Hire a coach - it will cost both money and time, but maybe a lot less time, and you end up with the same level of knowledge to help you out in the future.
  3. Hire a freelancer - it will cost you money and very little time but you’ll have a working solution.
  4. Sponsor a solution - it will cost you money and very little time, but you’ll have better documentation for the future, and so will everyone else. PM the dev and say how much is your time worth, and can I buy some of it to help out the community.

It took me roughly 1 hour to set up tagger when I first tried it. I expect it will take the brand-new bubble novice 4ish. It will take a coach who’s done it before 20-30 mins to get the bubble novice up to speed. It will take the average freelancer 20mins-1hr depending on your setup to integrate it. I estimate it will take Guarav 1-2 hours to build a doc for it.

But the height of arrogance, IMHO, is to say “Thanks for investing this time and energy and making things available to me for free and now I’m going to tell you that you’re not doing your job to the fullest by not providing more value for free. Thanks.” What kind of value are you going to provide in return?

If a plugin is NOT FREE:

  1. Standard business rules apply. Ask for your money back, ask for the documentation, ask for help in integrating the solution.
  2. If not happy with the product and service, boycot the provider.
  3. Sponsor a solution.

That said, who is here to sponsor documentation and for what plugin?

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I didn’t say they were not confusing. They are. Partly because of the way they are written, and partly because they assume a level of understanding of Bubble.

Which is why there are resources and forum posts :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Well, that escalated quickly.

Someone wrote a plugin, for free.
Someone wrote detailed instructions, with examples, for free.

And we are the bad guys :roll_eyes:

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You know @AliFarahat’s reply was:

“I am definitely guilty of this. Will definitely schedule some time in to make this happen. Appreciate your letter.”

And that’s the plugin developer that I will remember that cares about his customers.

That’s why.

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Here’s how I think of feedback (the quoted text being sent by a user to the builder):

Not actionable Feedback :disappointed: :

" The documentation isn’t adequate for someone new to bubble. I had to spend a bunch of time figuring it out. It can be improved. "

Actionable Feedback :neutral_face: :

" The documentation lacks X & Y, which is especially useful for someone new to bubble. I figured it out after spending a bunch of time. It might be a good idea to update it from documentation / example / post here: ZZZ"

Pay-it-Forward Feedback :smiley: :

" Thanks for the plugin. I thought the current documentation could be improved. I copied your existing documentation and made the changes. Here’s a revised documentation that you can copy-paste to update on your plugin page."

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