Just a quick question for the staff at Buzztouch. If a developer is working on a plugin and he sees that another plugin was submitted that is the same idea by a different developer. Is it stepping on other developers toes to submit that plugin if the developer believes its a better and richer version? How does that work? I was working on a in-app purchase plugin and Easy iAP Plugin came out. WHICH IS BY FAR BETTER THAN what I was working on. But for future reference, lets say I thought mine was better (which is not this time around) would that be a problem if you had two plugins with the same idea (but different functionality)? Thanks and looking forward to your replies.... EDIT: Another good idea would be if we had a part of the forum for developers, maybe they could announce what they were working on, what was in review, and the completion time (approx). My next project was to attack an RSS reader but heck who knows someone might be almost done or even have it in review :) You know what I mean?

Great idea. I would love to see this so that I could plan out as well.

Second that. Would hate to spend days/weeks on a plugin only to see the same/similar thing appear on the marketplace first.

Hi coderx, What you just explained is what happened to me already exactly on a few plugins. This is why I announce the plugins I have in review ;p I discontinue my plugins if the ones out there are first and better, as there are plenty of more ideas to make plugins from - it's too early for someone like me to step on toes when there is so much land - make sense? BT has talked about this before, if I remember correctly, it's OK - as long as your plugin is DIFFERENT and not the same code, there's no reason to say no (unless it's literally the same) - they are not the plugin police. Cheers, David https://buzztouchmods.com

Hi @MrDavid: Thanks for the response..:). I do appreciate your announcements in regards to plugins and I wish everyone did them. What are the odds that another user was working on a "in-app" purchase? Or to give you a better example. RSS Reader, no one has done, its a very common plugin and you could have 5-6 people working on it as we speak. No one knows though? It is a bit annoying, I realize that is much land, but many could be working on the same land... I'm hesitant to start, as I'm almost certain someone has started on it, or heck had completed it. As @raveyd mentioned you could be wasting a good month of work, probably another reason why many developers are hesitant to get down to work on the plugins :) As for police:), technically they are the police since they approve or disapprove whats in the market place ;)

hehe I get where you're coming from @coderx! BT has hinted in forums or a place to see pending in review plugins. The market is new, they'll get the tweaks and changes in as it goes along. Problems like these are to be expected. :) As for wasting time now... it could happen yup, I would suggest that if you do spend a month or few weeks on a plugin, and see a similar one get approved - to then continue developing the one you're making into something better, more feature enriched, etc - giving it a unique presence in the market. I guess they are the police! They just don't want to be I think ;p Cheers, David https://buzztouchmods.com

Five plugins for me, 2 in review 1. Game Center highscore button - Instead of having to complete a quiz to see high scores press a button brings up game centre. 2. Social Plugin - integrates facebook and twitter on one page two buttons populate mesage, pic an d link in one screen populates both twitter and facebook post. Even uses a xib so we can resize buttons move them about to go well with your chosen back ground. 3. RevMob splash screen for iOS - Integrates revmob into app through splash screen. Input revmob ID show or hide banner and full screen ads. I've got it working well. 4. Aurasma - Augmented reality although this is killing me and looks like the compilers clash 5. Calendar it's a bit buggy but getting there I'm wanting to complete a fully integrated game centre quiz with multiple leaderboards and achievements, I'm about to blow up with variables on that one but it's a work in progress.

@kittsy, where the heck did you come from?! :-) I hear a few people working on Calendar, I myself even did a few test runs on it - looking forward to releases. Cheers, David https://buzztouchmods.com

Well I made a quiz app and features such as the first 2 weren't there and no one could help or understand what I wanted so I had to create them. I'm having more fun lately integrating sdk's to make plugins these days to actually making apps. David and the buzztouch gang must be chocker as the first one has been in review for like forever. Somebody has probably beat me to the 2nd one. Good fun though

@Kittsy: Thank you for sharing. haaha. Oddly I have a calendar on the go as well (just like @MrDavid and prolly many others). I have it working fine within a couple of apps, its just the matter of packaging it up and getting it to work like a proper plugin. I was assured someone beat me to it as well. haha. But I must admit @Kittsy very nice plugins you have queued up. AGAIN, thank you so much for sharing.

Yup plugin market is slow but coming, I have finished 4 (3 really after investigation of my calculator) plugins in review, 1 for over a month and another heading for 4 weeks. It's only a 3 man team, and all 3 have *real life* responsibilities and other work to do that comes with buzztouch and business - it's a good thing they are taking their time, we don't want broken plugins in the market? It is definitely fun yup! Learn something every day doing it.. I'm trying to move away from XIB for now and learn connections between the control panel, and then venture into SDK's like you :-) David https://buzztouchmods.com

@coderx all these Calendar plugins! I don't care who's making it, I just want to see ONE of you get it on the market! My clients would love it! I think aside from me, that's 3 people making one now ;p David <a href="https://buzztouchmods.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">https://buzztouchmods.com</a>

the control panel is surprisingly easy after that seminar David did. The big problem I had was figuring out the if else statements to get the strings to do things ha ha you'll pick it up in no time.

This is a question/concern I had from the beginning also. A few things to remember (which I learned after many conversations with David) 1. Plugins don't always have to be for sale - if you're working on a plugin that fits a need for yourself, and someone beats you to it, you can finish it up for your own control panel, and decide later if it deserves to be put into competition with others. 2. In the long run, the "cream" will rise to the top. Just because someone makes a "dohickey" plugin today, and starts selling well with it. Down the road, it may be abandoned, or the developer focuses more on newer plugins. If you can create a better "dohickey" and keep it up to date, and improve it when needed, you might come out on top later down the road. 3. Announcing your plugin ideas won't (can't) protect you from competition. This early in the process, we are all "friends" and no one wants to step on toes. But as things progress, we may get to the point where developers (either new, or long-time members) may disregard any announcements and push forward with a similar plugin. 4. "In review" here at buzztouch is not the same as "in review" at apple. It doesn't mean anyone is currently looking at it and processing it for the market. It simply means the plugin developer has uploaded a zip file for a plugin. It may be a long time before it gets reviewed/processed for the market. David has been talking about some ways to speed this process up, but for now it just takes time. 5. I can speculate that the more "complete" your plugin is when it gets submitted, the quicker it may be processed. This is just a guess, but if you can submit something that "just works" (as David says), then its easier for the team to get into the market. Long story short (I'm well past 2 cents...probably up to 40-50 cents now): If you have an idea for a plugin and can make it - make it! Whether its for yourself or for the market, you'll have complete control over new features, bug fixes, options, etc. AND you can start using it in your own projects even if it isn't ready for sale yet.

@Stobe very well put. Here's where my frustration is though, and I'll try my best to explain it... I'll use the calendar components as an example. I have it working, and its great. I'd love to share it with the rest of the buzztouch community and enhance the buzztouch app creation experience. However, most of my component addons are not Plugin ready. They are usually linked inside of a project. Therefore to get it to the package format and make it work as a proper plugin takes time. It falls under a catch 22 than, do I hoard and not worry about my peers at buzztouch or do I work on a release and hope to hell someone doesn't beat me to it and if they do, I just wasted a couple of weeks...deterring me to even attempt another plugin for the community. Like really, I dont need the RSS Reader plugin, but I see lots of people wanting it. But I'm certainly not going to go out of my way to make it if its already in the works. Its a tough one.

I fully understand. I'm a slave to three masters (I develop apps, I develop apps for clients, and I develop "things" for other developers (plugins, tools, etc)). (almost forgot to close my outter parenthesis). The only thing that keeps me sane (ok, that's a lie, I'm not really sane) is that I prioritize my ideas. For me, I always make tools/plugins that serve my purposes first. It they help others, then that's just a bonus. And the only devil's advocate I will pose to your dilemma is: If someone develops a plugin that trumps your idea and/or ability (in the case that someone makes something better/simpler/faster than you do), don't let that deter you. Let it drive you to make something better/simpler/faster on your next go!

Great topic and even better discussion. I can sympathize with all of these thoughts. Without sounding like a total ass, consider how much I have to balance giving away / sharing what "I make" versus keeping it to myself and to my clients. Crazy hard sometimes. Ultimately it's up to each of us to decide where our satisfaction is created. For me, I enjoy helping and offering up things I've coded, regardless of how cool, uncool, wonderful, or lame they are. In 99% of the cases folks appreciate the effort and it's a non issue when somebody comes along and trumps the original idea. Just kinda part of it I think? Regarding the "whats being worked on" challenge. Like @MrDavid mentioned, we are nowhere near capitalized enough to have an office full of programming ninja's waiting to help get a plugin from "submitted" to "approved in the market" in a day or so (as some expect). Heck, in some cases these mini-projects (each plugin) sit for weeks at a time while we get pulled away to put out other fires. A giant juggling game. The good news it that plugin submissions are slowly arriving "more complete" and this speeds up the process. It's been about 7 weeks since the market opened when the plugin approval process began. It's already a better process. But, some folks that submitted early are stuck in the doldrums (so to speak) and continue to wait for us to catch up. About all I can say to that is that we're happy that these earlier submissions (that are sill not in the market) are from friends of ours, which makes it much better for all of us. We "get it" - collectively. Lastly: We have been working on a ton of stuff you guys don't see, this takes boatloads of time away from the stuff you do see. The most exciting thing is the soon-to-be-released "plugin development" screen where folks like you can tell the community what you're working on. This should help curb some of the anxiety expressed in this post. Off to a webinar....

Yo David I know your busy and I hope it didn't sound like I was rushing you lol. In the end as long as the plugins do what I want them to do for me, the public can wait ha ha.

Thanks David for the insight! I think most of us understand that Buzztouch is still in its infancy - our patience (or lack thereof) just gets the better of us sometimes! :) Here's a suggestion for "down the road" - it may not work out at all, but I'll throw it out there just in case: Once you get the system up and running to let plugin developers say what they have in the works, let the community vote on plugins they'd like to see come out sooner rather than later. (I'm thinking something like uservoice.com where users get so many 'votes' to spend on whatever ideas they see fit). That way, you and the BT team have a better idea of where to spend your time when reviewing plugins, and we feel like we have more of a stake in the process.