Basics/Background:

Here you are… with your latest and greatest plugin that you have labored after so hard, all completed and ready for it’s day in glory. However, how do you get the word out? Sure, you can advertise it and, hope that someday, someone will google for something that is relevant to your plugin, and google will take the user to your plugin. However, what if you want to make an immediate impact? Best way: Have your plugin be listed in the Wordpress Plugins Database. This is the best and easiest way for you to gain some exposure for your plugin.

However, you will need to jump through couple of hoops in order to have your plugin appear inside the Plugins Database.

What You Need To Do:

Step 1. Create an account on WordPress
Step 2. Once Registered and Logged in, go to this link, and submit a request for adding your plugin to the Plugins Database. This is the most time consuming step… so go, and have some coffee, watch some TV (or better yet, go to Digg and read an article or two). Upon successful setup of your account, Wordpress will shoot out an email to you, letting you know that all’s well and that you can go ahead and upload your plugin to the SVN. (You will basically get an email similar to the one below:)

Email you get, once WordPress has successfully setup your account

Now the interesting bit comes into play. If you have never dealt with SVN before, this could get a bit tricky. However, fear not… This is exactly the reason why this guide was written

Download RapidSVN Client

Step 2. Downloading an SVN client: If you do not already have an SVN client, you will need one. I am using RapidSVN. However, if you are unsure of which to pick (or want some alternatives/choices), please go to this page.

Select the RapidSVN-0.9.6.exe file

Adding a Repository

Step 3. Once installed, fireup RapidSVN. Right click on Bookmarks, and select: “Add Existing Repository…”

Step 4. Now, enter the URL that was given to you in your confirmation email. In my case, I was given the following: http://svn.wp-plugins.org/content-icons/. Again, URL will be found in the email that WordPress sent you, when you submitted the SVN Account Setup request.

Step 5. Next, double click the URL you just entered, which will be displayed under “Bookmarks”. RapidSVN will try and connect to the repository now.

Step 6. Double-click the “trunk” folder.

Step 7. Now, click on Repository (on the Toolbar Menu) [Shortcut Key: CTRL+I]. The “Repository URL” should already be filled for you. For the “Path” field, click the “…” button to navigate to the folder that has your plugin (keep the rest of the options unchanged). Once the directory is selected, click the OK button. RapidSVN will ask for your username and password credentials. Enter the relevent information and click OK. That’s it! You have just UPLOADED your latest/first (of, hopefully, many to come) plugin to the WordPress Plugins Directory. Below is a snapshot of our final results!

Final SnapShot of what you should see

I hope this step-by-step was helpful to you. Please provide feedback/critique to this post in the comments section below, so that I can better write the next time. Thank you!!

Hope this has helped you!

-RushiKumar

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