Handy Tool for WordPress Plugin Developers: Readme File Generator

If you’re a plugin developer, you may want to check out the WordPress Plugin Readme File Generator.

This convenient tool lets you go through a checklist of fill-in-the-blank boxes to help you make up your readme files for your plugin.

Required Fields

The generator’s first section presents a list of required fields.

The required fields include the following:

• Plugin Name
• Contributors
• Tags
• Requires at least (lowest version the plugin will work on)
• Tested up to (highest version plugin has been tested on)
• Stable Tag  (the Subversion “tag” of the latest stable version)
• Short Description (150 characters max – the generator conveniently keeps track of how many characters you’ve used)

Optional Fields

After the required fields, the generator presents numerous optional fields. A simplified WYSIWYG editor is provided for most of the options.

The options fields include the following.

• Long Description
• Donate Link (a space to put donation links)
• Installation Instructions (a default description is included, but you can add your own)
• Frequently Asked Question
• Change Log
• First Screenshot Description
• Second Screenshot Description
• Video (options for YouTube, Vimeo, and WordPress.tv)
• Arbitrary section (space for extra information)

The Completed File

And then you get the completed file.

You can find the generator here.

Photo: Gears from BigStock