WordPress Toolkit

Uggghhhh.

It sounds great on paper, but Envato doesn’t exactly have a good track record with implementing changes to the marketplace. And to make matters worse, you’re making this mandatory as of tomorrow?!? What?!? Why not give it a month and allow authors time to test it and metabolize it into their themes?

Also, being presented with simple spelling mistakes in comments when opening the functions file of the “toolkit library” (and, why is that the name? That’s a horrible name for a theme sample. It’s not a library at all!) doesn’t inspire confidence that you’ve dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s on this.

Overall, it sounds great. But I have huge concerns.

Japh said

We now have a plugin for WordPress that will show you when a theme you’ve purchased from ThemeForest has an update available. You can then choose to automatically download and install the update. Even better than that though, the plugin will show you all the WordPress themes you’ve purchased on ThemeForest, and allow you to install them too.

Doesn’t this violate the license?

If I buy ten themes and install the plugin on ten sites won’t it appear that I can use install all themes on all sites? In reality you need 100 licences.

Seems like this will cause confusion. Buyers already don’t have to disclose the URL of their project so authors can verify legitimate license usage. I think this needs more thought.

Edit: nvm

dyspersion said

It sounds great on paper, but Envato doesn’t exactly have a good track record with implementing changes to the marketplace. And to make matters worse, you’re making this mandatory as of tomorrow?!? What?!? Why not give it a month and allow authors time to test it and metabolize it into their themes?

Thanks for your feedback! The WordPress Theme ZIP file has been available on ThemeForest for at least 6 months now for authors to test and metabolize into their themes, as mentioned in the post over 25% of authors have done so already. Now we’re finally just flicking the switch to make it a mandatory field, so we can roll out this toolkit to provide updates etc.

dyspersion said

Also, being presented with simple spelling mistakes in comments when opening the functions file of the “toolkit library” (and, why is that the name? That’s a horrible name for a theme sample. It’s not a library at all!) doesn’t inspire confidence that you’ve dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s on this.

Sorry about the grammatical error there in the comments of the functions.php file. You’ll be pleased to know that we’ve fixed it up :slight_smile:

Also, the name “Envato WordPress Toolkit Library” is because that code is a PHP library to be used when developing themes, that also contains a very basic theme usage example. It isn’t a theme sample, it’s merely a usage example for the library itself, as indicated in the readme.txt file.

dyspersion said

Overall, it sounds great. But I have huge concerns.

We’re glad to hear you’re ultimately positive about this, and we hope to reinforce that as time goes on. If you have huge concerns, we’d like to hear them so we can address them.

Here’s step by step process to repeat the error

  1. Go to this page https://github.com/envato/envato-wordpress-toolkit
  2. Download zip plugin
  3. Unzip the file "envato-envato-wordpress-toolkit-v1.1-0-gaeb6ed1.zip"
  4. Rename the folder from "envato-envato-wordpress-toolkit-aeb6ed1" to "envato-wordpress-toolkit"
  5. Upload the folder to my Wordpress "wp-content/plugins" directory
  6. Login to WordPress Admin "http://www.mysite.com/wp-admin/plugins.php" (WP version 3.3.1)
  7. Activate "Envato WordPress Toolkit"
  8. Go to the Envato Admin panel in Wordpress "http://www.mysite.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=envato-wordpress-toolkit"
  9. Enter my Marketplace username and API Key (I generated a new key)
  10. Hit "Save User Settings"
  11. Returns error "ERROR: options page not found."

@halogenic, thanks for a comprehensive report. We have identified the problem and there will be an update available shortly.

GravityDept said
Japh said

We now have a plugin for WordPress that will show you when a theme you’ve purchased from ThemeForest has an update available. You can then choose to automatically download and install the update. Even better than that though, the plugin will show you all the WordPress themes you’ve purchased on ThemeForest, and allow you to install them too.

Doesn’t this violate the license?

If I buy ten themes and install the plugin on ten sites won’t it appear that I can use install all themes on all sites? In reality you need 100 licences.

Seems like this will cause confusion. Buyers already don’t have to disclose the URL of their project so authors can verify legitimate license usage. I think this needs more thought.

Hey GravityDept, the plugin itself does not violate the license in any way. As it has always been, it is a user’s responsibility to ensure they do not install a WordPress theme on more sites than they have license to do so. That still applies, whether they are using this plugin or not.

Japh said
GravityDept said
Japh said

We now have a plugin for WordPress that will show you when a theme you’ve purchased from ThemeForest has an update available. You can then choose to automatically download and install the update. Even better than that though, the plugin will show you all the WordPress themes you’ve purchased on ThemeForest, and allow you to install them too.

Doesn’t this violate the license?

If I buy ten themes and install the plugin on ten sites won’t it appear that I can use install all themes on all sites? In reality you need 100 licences.

Seems like this will cause confusion. Buyers already don’t have to disclose the URL of their project so authors can verify legitimate license usage. I think this needs more thought.

Hey GravityDept, the plugin itself does not violate the license in any way. As it has always been, it is a user’s responsibility to ensure they do not install a WordPress theme on more sites than they have license to do so. That still applies, whether they are using this plugin or not.

But then, if someone shares his login and API key with 20 people they will all have access to all themes purchased with this account. I suppose this is one of the reasons for 50 downloads limit for each file on Envato marketplaces? Or does the 50 downloads limit apply here too?

Anyways, I’m glad you guys finally made it, I’ve been waiting for this feature for a long time! Now we only have to market this tool - possibly on the downloads page! :slight_smile:

pogoking said

But then, if someone shares his login and API key with 20 people they will all have access to all themes purchased with this account. I suppose this is one of the reasons for 50 downloads limit for each file on Envato marketplaces? Or does the 50 downloads limit apply here too?

Anyways, I’m glad you guys finally made it, I’ve been waiting for this feature for a long time! Now we only have to market this tool - possibly on the downloads page! :slight_smile:

It would certainly be a good idea to keep your API key to yourself and think carefully about how you use these tools. Also, keep in mind that you can generate separate API keys, and revoke them if necessary, to maintain security and control.

Japh said
pogoking said

But then, if someone shares his login and API key with 20 people they will all have access to all themes purchased with this account. I suppose this is one of the reasons for 50 downloads limit for each file on Envato marketplaces? Or does the 50 downloads limit apply here too?

Anyways, I’m glad you guys finally made it, I’ve been waiting for this feature for a long time! Now we only have to market this tool - possibly on the downloads page! :slight_smile:

It would certainly be a good idea to keep your API key to yourself and think carefully about how you use these tools. Also, keep in mind that you can generate separate API keys, and revoke them if necessary, to maintain security and control.

Japh, look at my badges, I’m an author, I know about all this stuff and I won’t pirate my own themes. I’m talking about the same people that ‘share’ our themes on warez sites.

pogoking said

Japh, look at my badges, I’m an author, I know about all this stuff and I won’t pirate my own themes. I’m talking about the same people that ‘share’ our themes on warez sites.

I see your badges (and you’re from Poland! I’ve always wanted to visit Poland!)

I think people who pirate themes are most likely quite happy with their own methods rather than using our plugin and handing out a trackable API key. At least if they pirate with an API key, we can simply revoke it.

Well, updating pirated theme used to be somewhat of an issue for illegitimate users, now you are basically making it easy for them, and also provide no incentives for “legitimate” users to actually honor license terms and buy multiple licenses if they need to deploy on several sites. I think this can definitely be a source of author’s concern. Also, given the amount of customizations users generally perform, overwriting all files seems like a bad idea anyway.

For those who were having problems with the their username and API key in the plugin, this issue has now been fixed. If you download the plugin again from GitHub, at version 1.2, everything should work for you.

Thanks again for the detailed error report, and please let us know if you have any further issues :slight_smile:

Hey Guys,

Sorry for any frustration I caused with the API connection bug! During the name changes made in v1.1 I inadvertently made a very small alteration to the register_settings arguments. I was not aware of the bug because I had already made an API connection previous to the update. It’s been fixed and you will not have trouble connecting to the API with a proper username and api-key now.

Many thanks. It’s working for me now.

It’s a great idea - makes updates so much easier.

I run a multisite network and when I install the plugin and click Save User Settings on the Envato Toolkit page I get the following error:

The requested URL /wp-admin/network/options.php was not found on this server.

Japh said
GravityDept said
Japh said

We now have a plugin for WordPress that will show you when a theme you’ve purchased from ThemeForest has an update available. You can then choose to automatically download and install the update. Even better than that though, the plugin will show you all the WordPress themes you’ve purchased on ThemeForest, and allow you to install them too.

Doesn’t this violate the license?

If I buy ten themes and install the plugin on ten sites won’t it appear that I can use install all themes on all sites? In reality you need 100 licences.

Seems like this will cause confusion. Buyers already don’t have to disclose the URL of their project so authors can verify legitimate license usage. I think this needs more thought.

Hey GravityDept, the plugin itself does not violate the license in any way. As it has always been, it is a user’s responsibility to ensure they do not install a WordPress theme on more sites than they have license to do so. That still applies, whether they are using this plugin or not.

I agree that this will cause extra confusion on an already confusing issue for some buyers. I believe that a large number of customers are unaware of licensing restrictions (either because they don’t take the time to read them, don’t understand them, or make inaccurate assumptions based on the licensing options from other theme vendors which may be more lenient), and for those customers it will seem that this plugin gives them tacit permission to install the theme on any of their sites, as many times as they want (it’s reasonable to conclude that if a piece of software provided by a company allows me to do something - i.e. download a product to multiple sites - that I’m within my rights to do so. Otherwise, it would be restricted, right?)

For the customers who understand the license, they will either choose to follow it or not - and there’s nothing we can do about that (via this plugin at least), so it doesn’t concern me. What does concern me is confusing buyers who are already unsure of their usage rights after purchasing a license. I have had plenty of customers using a product on several sites, and once I asked for their licenses, they were surprised to hear that they were doing something wrong.

Basically, I think it’s a mistake to assume that all customers understand the licensing; and therefore it’s a bigger mistake to indirectly (and inadvertently) imply that multiple installs of a single-use license is acceptable. I think some basic DRM needs to be implemented before this becomes official - even if it’s just a simple alert rather than a programmatic restriction: “You have already installed this theme on another site, please note that each license is single-use”. Not trying to be negative, but I think it’s important to have this conversation before things are made “official” :slight_smile:

Also, separate question: is this compatible with plugins (CodeCanyon)? If not (I assume it’s not), is that an intended feature down the road?

Thanks for your hard work, guys! We all just want to make sure that these solutions don’t have too many negative side-effects :slight_smile:

To address another point, I believe there is some confusion here (re: @dyspersion) - I think that uploading the separate theme file will now be mandatory, however integrating the library is not yet a requirement. Is that correct? The former makes sense, the latter wouldn’t.

Thanks!

Chris

It would be helpful if you can clarify what is mandatory if anything.

I estimate I’ve had 10 requests in the last 3 years for automatic updates. As far as I’m concerned this is not even close to a top priority for the marketplace. It feels a lot like a waste of resources unless there are future plans related to this which I’m not aware of.

The current system protects against overwriting modifications. Not to generalize too much, but most WP users aren’t all that knowledgeable when it comes to coding. If they make a customization it’s likely they won’t realize it can be wiped out by 2 clicks to update the theme. This is further exaggerated when a developer uses a theme and turns it over to a client.

For the time being, if we’re not forced to participate in this, I would rather not. Over time I might test it with new themes but currently I feel the system we have is working. Put an automatic backup/restore system in place along with the update and I’m all in. :slight_smile:

outerspice said

I run a multisite network and when I install the plugin and click Save User Settings on the Envato Toolkit page I get the following error:

The requested URL /wp-admin/network/options.php was not found on this server.

Thank you for reporting this. We’ll look into it and get back to you.

sevenspark said

I agree that this will cause extra confusion on an already confusing issue for some buyers. I believe that a large number of customers are unaware of licensing restrictions (either because they don’t take the time to read them, don’t understand them, or make inaccurate assumptions based on the licensing options from other theme vendors which may be more lenient), and for those customers it will seem that this plugin gives them tacit permission to install the theme on any of their sites, as many times as they want (it’s reasonable to conclude that if a piece of software provided by a company allows me to do something - i.e. download a product to multiple sites - that I’m within my rights to do so. Otherwise, it would be restricted, right?)

For the customers who understand the license, they will either choose to follow it or not - and there’s nothing we can do about that (via this plugin at least), so it doesn’t concern me. What does concern me is confusing buyers who are already unsure of their usage rights after purchasing a license. I have had plenty of customers using a product on several sites, and once I asked for their licenses, they were surprised to hear that they were doing something wrong.

Basically, I think it’s a mistake to assume that all customers understand the licensing; and therefore it’s a bigger mistake to indirectly (and inadvertently) imply that multiple installs of a single-use license is acceptable. I think some basic DRM needs to be implemented before this becomes official - even if it’s just a simple alert rather than a programmatic restriction: “You have already installed this theme on another site, please note that each license is single-use”. Not trying to be negative, but I think it’s important to have this conversation before things are made “official” :slight_smile:

I really appreciate your feedback. We’ll give this some further thought and see if we can come up with a good solution.

sevenspark said

Also, separate question: is this compatible with plugins (CodeCanyon)? If not (I assume it’s not), is that an intended feature down the road?

Thanks for your hard work, guys! We all just want to make sure that these solutions don’t have too many negative side-effects :slight_smile:

Currently this only works for themes on ThemeForest, but yes, we do intend to add support for plugins from CodeCanyon down the road too.

sevenspark said

To address another point, I believe there is some confusion here (re: @dyspersion) - I think that uploading the separate theme file will now be mandatory, however integrating the library is not yet a requirement. Is that correct? The former makes sense, the latter wouldn’t.

Ah, well picked up. You are correct, it is only uploading a separate theme file that is now mandatory. Use of the plugin and/or library is not mandatory.

Parallelus said

It would be helpful if you can clarify what is mandatory if anything.

I estimate I’ve had 10 requests in the last 3 years for automatic updates. As far as I’m concerned this is not even close to a top priority for the marketplace. It feels a lot like a waste of resources unless there are future plans related to this which I’m not aware of.

The current system protects against overwriting modifications. Not to generalize too much, but most WP users aren’t all that knowledgeable when it comes to coding. If they make a customization it’s likely they won’t realize it can be wiped out by 2 clicks to update the theme. This is further exaggerated when a developer uses a theme and turns it over to a client.

For the time being, if we’re not forced to participate in this, I would rather not. Over time I might test it with new themes but currently I feel the system we have is working. Put an automatic backup/restore system in place along with the update and I’m all in. :slight_smile:

Hopefully I’ve clarified this above on what is mandatory.

Perhaps we could implement some kind of warning for users when an update is available to let them know any customisations will be lost. I think this needs some more thought also.

Japh said

Ah, well picked up. You are correct, it is only uploading a separate theme file that is now mandatory. Use of the plugin and/or library is not mandatory.

Good, I have similar thoughts about this as Parallelus.
I’m happy something moved on with that problem, I just prefer to wait until this will be 100% ready and bulletproof.

Also I’m not sure it’s the best solution, I always thought that simple notification by sending email to buyers after theme is updated would be enough. As most of themes are bought by developers and then sold to their clients, it would be their job to update it, and they would be the ones who get email with update info. With my limited imagination I can’t think of solution good enough to not confuse many users.