More open-source-goodness around XD from me in the next days

Just wanted to make a quick announcement here:

In the following days (I’m currently in the process of documenting things in preparation), I’ll release a lot of things open-source on GitHub:

  • My Lorem Ipsum plugin will become open-source and basically a showcase of using my libraries in real-life :tada: .
    On a side-note: I’ll do this under a GPL-3-License. While I hate the lengthy, complicated legal document this license is, I wouldn’t like for people to make money from slightly modified versions without doing it open-source, so: GPL it is :slightly_smiling_face:
  • Under the MIT license (my personal favorite :wink:), I’ll release a CLI tool that’s basically a network xdpm. It allows to develop on one machine (even on Linux, which for me, is great :nerd_face:), watch the folder for changes or run it once (like with xdpm), which then “deploys” the plugin to multiple clients, i.e., machines (macOS or Windows) running XD. This allows to quickly check if, say, it’s working on both Windows and macOS simaltaniously (or, maybe, deploy to multiple test-machines of testers in your company).

A maybe a little crazy idea I was thinking about the other day:

At least personally, while having limited time (doing plugin development as a personal side project), I’d be more than willing to provide code reviews (I’m not exactly experienced in providing code reviews, but something is better than nothing and I at least know basically about every aspect of the APIs since I implemented them in the typings) or maybe Skype-like (I don’t use Skype, but there are a lot of registration-free alternatives) one-on-one sessions for discussing problems, debugging etc.

Since XD plugin developers are still relatively sparse, creating a network of fellow plugin developers willing to do such things may be tremendously useful. So: if you’re also willing to do such things, maybe write it here, so we can create such a network and people know who to ask.

I’m willing (and would be happy to), so if you need code review on an open-source XD-related project or some sort of Skype-like session, feel free to DM me or write me here :slightly_smiling_face: .

As stated, this may be a crazy idea. However, the worst that can happen is that it won’t work out, in which case nothing is lost, so: Here we go :wink:.

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And… here’s the CLI tool I’ve announced: GitHub - pklaschka/xd-deploy: A toolbelt for easy and quick, iterative plugin development for Adobe XD allowing quick deployment to multiple test machines, making testing your plugin super easy..

I’m still working on the documentation (I’ll probably also write either a post on Medium or create a tutorial to explain how to use it), but it’s public and (while still officially in a prerelease-state) should (if I haven’t introduced new bugs in my refactoring, I’ll extensively test tomorrow/later today, depending on the timezone) be ready to use (or at least try).

To give you more of an understanding of how it works, I’ll attach the diagram that’s also present in the README:


PS: A happy new year, everyone! :tada:

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And, there we go: Lorem Ipsum is open-source: GitHub - pklaschka/lorem-ipsum-plugin: A small plugin for Adobe XD to insert placeholder text :tada:

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The network xdpm is amazing! Totally gonna use that :slight_smile:

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The CLI tool looks amazing! I will test.

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Thank you :blush:. Please bear in mind that it’s still in Beta. While personally, I already use it, there are still some rough edges here and there. I’m now working on the v1.0, which then hopefully will not only be functional, but also comfortable to use :slightly_smiling_face:

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Just FYI: I’ve just released v0.11.0, which fixes some critical bugs introduced in my efforts of releasing it open-source. While it had worked on my machine, before, it should now no longer have problems with file permissions and such things. Also, it now supports an encrypted connection using HTTPS (by using the -s or --https flag when starting the server).

Just got back from break – this is AWESOME! :slight_smile: Can’t wait to try it out myself :slight_smile:

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