ExtDN is active with various initiatives. Some of the initiatives lead to meetings, others lead to practical code. Often, these initiatives are supported by specific working groups. In short, we are busy bees. Here is an overview of what we are currently working on.
Building Magento 2 modules involve a lot of hard work when you want to do it right. While Magento supplies documentation, guidance and obviously the code to work with, the community itself comes often with best practices. These practices should be followed to minimize the chance of bugs, conflicts or other trouble. For instance, composer.json files should list their dependencies in such a way so that a module doesn’t break the entire application when the core is upgraded.
A practical way of guaranteeing extension quality is by validating code using a tool like PHP CodeSniffer. On GitHub, ExtDN has started a PHP CodeSniffer project that is meant to create rules, through in-depth discussions with valuable members of the community, guided by proper documentation. Any help that is needed to discuss possible rules and/or creating the PHPCS rule itself, is more than welcome.
While a Magento extension on its own might be free of bugs, the combination of modules might lead to issues. Often, a system integrator finds out that the functionality of two separate modules conflicts. It is the goal of ExtDN to minimize conflicts between extensions offered by ExtDN members. This includes technical issues that might arise. But it also covers the need for specific features that might pop up when you combine two extensions of high-quality. ExtDN strives to make the working together of ExtDN extensions as easy as possible.
In the field of development, best practices are formed to guarantee the functionality of modules and shops. But these best practices change over time. And they might not be reflected in the Magento devdocs. Even experienced Magento 2 developers are sometimes struggling with this. This is why ExtDN wants to step in and spread the word on best practices.
ExtDN and Magento share a lot in common, but sometimes there might be different agenda’s as well. ExtDN communicates closely with various departments at Magento to guarantee the needs of ExtDN, ExtDN members but also the community as a whole. This involves the Magento teams dealing with Magento Marketplace, Community Engineering and PWA Studio.