Easy Digital Downloads, which is my take on an eCommerce plugin for selling digital products, has been growing rapidly over the last couple of months. In just over three months, it has passed 11.4 thousand downloads and has grown from just 24 downloads per day to nearly 200 per day. Due to this growth, and the sheer number of awesome things I have in mind for the plugin, I’m finding it difficult to maintain the entire thing myself, so I’d like help.

There is a lot to do in terms of development on the plugin. As it sits right now, there are 38 open bugs and enhancements in Github, and that does not include the countless number that I have sitting around that haven’t been added into Github’s Issue tracker.

Along with bug fixes and general improvements, there is also a lot of development needed for extensions to the plugin. There are currently 26 published add-ons for Easy Digital Downloads, and I have at least 15 to 20 additional ones that I would like built. There are add-ons to be built for payment processors, newsletter systems, CRMs, and many, many more.

Graph showing daily downloads

On top of bug fixes, enhancements, and extension development, there is also theme development and design. In order to truly promote Easy Digital Downloads, having a nice selection of themes that have been optimized for the plugin is extremely important. At this time there are five published themes that boast complete support / integration with EDD. I’d love to see this number grow exponentially in the coming months.

Whether you are a hard core developer, just starting out, or even just a designer, I’d love your assistance. The plugin itself is distributed for free, so I am mostly looking for users who wish to volunteer some of their time and get credit for their work. If you are looking for a great way to help gain exposure in the WordPress development world, this could definitely help you in that area.

If you want to jump into theme or add-on development, there are some good opportunities to bring in some real cash. Extensions sold through the Easy Digital Download’s website are sold on a commission basis, with the developer (you) getting 70% of every sale. Add-ons are priced (currently) between $12 and and $59 USD.

Here’s a list of some of the enhancements EDD is in need of:

  • Import / Export system for products and customers
  • Conditional discount codes that can be applied to individual products
  • Recurring payment options
  • Advanced error logging system for payment gateways
  • Improved file security
  • Improved out-of-the-box templating

Here are some add-ons that need built:

  • Dropbox integration for storing source files in a Dropbox account
  • Highrise CRM integration
  • InfusionSoft CRM integration
  • PDF Invoice and report generation
  • Text message sales notification
  • bbPress integration with purchase verification
  • Zombaio payment gateway
  • Amazon payment gateway
  • SagePay payment gateway
  • Constant Content integration

Interested in any of this? Head over and check out the Developer’s Intro, and/or leave a comment below!

Plugin Website EDD on Github

  1. Karlene (@KCTeck)

    I am novice at this wordpress plugins, bu I am an old programmer. We have spoken before. I’d like to help you out if I can and you are willing. Give me a shout. Kctecknologies@gmail.com. Great work BTW

    • Pippin

      Of course, Karlene. Do you have anything in particular that you would be interested in?

    • Doug Klinedinst

      I am using your plugin extensively on my website. I love it.

      A few suggestions for the plugin:

      1. Enable the ability to customize paypal “Page_Style” in the paypal code so we can customize the checkout process.

      2. add “rate this product 5 star system”

      3. A play 30 second sample option

      4. 2-3 download page templates

      5. customize or enhance the purchase button and checkout button , i.e more style!

      6. social share button options built in

      Really enjoying the plugin … I hope you get lots of help with developing, its the best thing I found so far to integrate shopping cart for downloads.

      DOug K

    • Pippin

      1. That is a great idea, I will add it to the list.

      2. If this is done, it will likely be released as an add-on. I’ve definitely considered it a few times, but have not had a chance to build it.

      3. Have you seen the Audio Player add-on?

      4. This is something I have considered, but for now have decided to make largely dependent upon the theme.

      5. This is already in progress 🙂

      6. This will not happen as there are dozens of other plugins that do this for you.

    • Pippin

      Thanks for sharing 🙂

  2. shawn

    My next theme will absolutely have full support for easy digital downloads. I plan on both a free vs. and a paid vs. I’ll let you know when it’s far enough along to review.

    • Pippin

      Awesome, I look forward to it 🙂

  3. I’m in! I don’t want to commit to a specific addon before reviewing the code and APIs first, but it will be a fun challenge!

    • Pippin

      Sweet! Let me know if you have any questions or want guidance or anything of the sort.

  4. Tom McFarlin

    Would love to do what I can to contribute. Got a handful of contract projects going right now, but once two of the smaller ones are up, I’ll fork this and issue any pull requests can I can.

    Dig getting the community in on this :).

    • Pippin

      It’d be great to have you on board Tom.

      I think truly involving the community is one of the best things that can be done for a WordPress plugin. It helps ensure quality and aids it in being built with what the users need, not just what the main developer thinks it should have.

  5. KCTeck

    Dropbox integration may be the easiest for me to work on at this point. I have a lot of catching up to do with coding. What would I need to know? I find this cool to collaborate like this.

    • Pippin

      Great! Obviously first of all you will need to know how to use the Dropbox API (which I assume you do), and after that you just need to decide the best way to integrate it. I would suggest you take a look at the demo video for the Amazon S3 add-on. It is fully integrated into the media library. If you can achieve that, fantastic, but it is certainly not required.

      I the end, the user needs the ability to select a source file from Dropbox (and possibly upload directly to Dropbox) and set it as the source file for a digital product.

  6. palimadra

    Hello,

    I’m a WordPress developer and I would like to volunteer. I have started a small website design and development firm based out of India after working in the industry for 14 years.

    My skills are

    * I have good understanding of the core WordPress code.
    * I have Photoshop (web design) experience
    * I have created 1 basic WordPress theme intend to get some free ones out soon.
    * I’m also working on a WordPress plugin I would release soon.
    * I have strong SEO skills including social media marketing
    * I’m a keen learner.

    Reasons for volunteering.
    * To enhance my WordPress skills (there cannot be a better school that this!)
    * To gain exposure in WordPress development in a team environment.
    * To be associated with Pippin Williamson (The WordPress Developer) and learning from him.
    * Opportunity to work with WordPress developers around the world.
    * Perhaps make some money (but it is not essential).

    What I’m interested in working on.
    I’m open to work on any assignment. However, since you did ask other commentators about their choices I thought I would spell them out (nor in order of preference).

    * Themes for Easy Digital Downloads
    * Enhancements for EDD
    * Plugins for EDD. I have very little experience of payment gateways but as I said I’m willing to learn and put in the extra time if needed.
    * Any EDD community related projects like forums, documentation and other stuff.

    As I said I’m open to volunteer for any role. I can assure you that I will be able to put in at least 20 hours a week.

    Hoping to hear from you soon.

    Skype: palimadra

    • Pippin

      Palimadra,

      Thanks for the enthusiasm. If you’d like to work on themes specifically for EDD, that would be great. I’d suggest you take a look at both the Digital Store and Starter themes. Both of their source codes are openly available on Github and are free to download.

      I look forward to seeing what you can create 🙂

    • palimadra

      Thanks.

      The way I understand it is that you want me to go ahead and start working on the theme. Before starting off I would be going through the documentation and then study the Starter and Digital Store theme.

      May I request you to help me define a timeline (based on your experience, but please note that not everyone is as prolific as you are when it comes to churning out the code) for the project.

      Since there are going to be many people who are going to work on this project are you planning to build any system or platform that can be used by the EDD volunteer community to understand the task they are working on and the milestones they are expected to achieve.This would mean a lot of extra work but you do not need to do that as I’m confident that volunteers like myself will help in managing this system. Some guidance would be needed from you specially in the start. However, I’m sure that this eco-system (if I may say so) will help in creating some sort of road map, structure, clarity for everyone and a dedicated community of WordPress developers which will result in you getting clarity on what is coming in the future for EDD. I’m also sure that you are the best person to judge if such a system can be helpful or not.

      Meanwhile I will get started on developing a theme and see how it goes.

      Thanks.

    • Pippin

      In this case, for the theme, no such system is needed, since the theme itself is completely separate from EDD. It’s not specifically a part of EDD, it’s just a theme that has full support for EDD.

      If you wish to contribute to the core EDD plugin, then everything is managed from Github.

  7. palimadra

    I added a comment a few minutes earlier but when I submitted it something went wrong as the next page did not load. Please let me know whether the comment has been received or not?

    Thanks.

  8. Sunny Ratilal

    I’m only 15 but would love to be a part of EDD. I have a really good and firm understanding of PHP and WordPress. I’m interested specifically in the PDF generation. What would I need to have prior knowledge of for this?

    I’m also really interested in theme development for EDD too. Would the themes have to run on a specific framework or have to be child themes?

    • Pippin

      Age is not important 🙂

      I’d love to see PDF report generation get built, either into the core plugin or as an add-on. In terms of prior knowledge, you really just need to familiarize yourself with how EDD is structured and how it works so that you know the best ways to implement the new feature.

      You can write themes in any way you want, as child themes or stand alone. If you’d like to go the child theme route, then I’d love to see you use Digital Store as the parent theme. The Starter Theme is also available and works a good starting point.

  9. Sunny Ratilal

    I’m beginning to start the PDF report generation and was just wondering, what reports would you like? I’m currently thinking of:

    * PDF reports of current graphs on Reports Page
    * Purchase History report

    • Pippin

      I would like to see the following:
      1. sales reports for the current year (broken into months) for all products
      2. sales reports for the current (or any) month for all products
      3. sales reports for year/month for individual products

      That should about do it.

  10. Downloadtaky

    Actually I don’t think that I have enough experience to help you with the plugin but if you are in need of a translator (From Eng to Italian) I can help you.

    • Pippin

      EDD has already been translated into Italian, though thank you very much for your offer.

  11. Bryce

    With premium themes developed for EDD, do you want to sell them directly through the EDD site and then pay developers the 70% commission? As I saw the photo theme just being linked to by EDD, not sold by EDD. Also, what kind of pricing do you think premium themes for EDD should have?

    • Pippin

      It’s entirely up to you. If you want to sell them through the main EDD site, you receive 70% of every sale. You are also more than welcome to sell them anywhere you want, and in that case, I will simply link to the place the theme is sold. This has been down with two of the themes on the EDD site currently.

      In terms of pricing, it’s entirely up to you. I would say it depends largely on how complex the theme is. If you build it as a complete ecommerce theme that is specifically designed to work with EDD and offer all of its features, then $50-$70 is easily justified. If it’s a lighter theme that merely includes support for EDD, then something closer to $40 is probably best.

  12. Mike

    Hi Pippinn,

    I’d love to see a bit of a roadmap plan for the EDD core. There are a few bugs on git hub, but to help developers wanting to assist, it might be good to know more about your plans\ideas for the future.

    I’d be willing to help but reluctant to do work that might conflict with you plans or your methods for that matter. And you want to spend as little time as possible adapting\rewriting code;).

    It might be an idea to develop a short article on how EDD is technically structured. I notice you have a well named files for particular functions and presentation. The code is easy to read and work with, but listing your primary hooks and functions could still really help. Also referencing and upholding WP code standards as well as your own along with providing support and mentoring to more novice developers will help with quality control as well as providing safe inclusive environment that allows all to contribute.

    Do forget the contributions that can be made in documentation, interface design of in other non development areas.

    I hope my comments are useful. looking forward to your success in this.

    • Pippin

      A roadmap is definitely something I need to put together. At the moment, a lot of things are still undecided, so nay idea(s) you have, I’d load to hear.

      A developer’s manual is something I definitely need to put together. I have some of the developer docs written, but nothing that developer’s who are just getting started can use. I’ll try and get started on that today.

      Maintaining coding standards is extremely important to me, which is why I monitor / moderate every piece of code that goes into the plugin. I think Github really helps with this since developers can easily submit pull requests and those can then be commented on and modified, all before they ever actually get applied to the core plugin.

      I would love contributions to documentation, design, etc 😀

    • Pippin

      MIke, it’s not a complete road map or anything like that, but I have just written up a quick Developer’s Intro to EDD.

  13. Mike

    Thanks I think that will prove very useful.

  14. Naoshad Nayeem

    Hi Pippin,

    I am interested to work on the InfusionSoft CRM integration and Constant Content integration. Do you have any specific development plan to share?

    Please feel free to let me know. I would be glad If you give me the opportunity!

    Thanks,
    Naoshad.

    • Pippin

      No, I don’t have a specific development plan for things like this, but do take a look at the Developer’s Intro.

      I have a developer possibly working on Constant Contact, so I’d love to see InfusionSoft 🙂

  15. Dee

    hi pippin,

    i just got your plugin in it’s looking great. is there a way to limit downloads to like 1 or take codes from a database or something. i’d like to sell beta keys and game codes. so when someone buys a unique code it shouldn’t be available anymore. is it implemented yet?

    thanks!

    • Pippin

      I’m glad you like the plugin, but no, this is not possible. At least not at this time.

  16. Dee

    aww that’s to bad. I’ll work great for my other planned products though! thanks!

  17. Barry Carlyon

    Hello there!

    A friend of mine pointed me over here.

    I’m a expert in the Zombaio Gateway, so can look at developing the integration/add on for this.
    And have built a Zombaio Specific Membership plugin for WordPress and currently work on Your Members (a Payment Gateway agnostic Membership Plugin)

    I’m going to have a nose about the source code on github and the developer intro and post again.

    Yours in advance

    Barry

    • Pippin

      Sounds great! Feel free to get in touch with me directly if you’d like to build an extension.

    • Profikamera

      Hi, if you developed Zombaio gateway for EDD, it will be great and I will be first customer of this plugin for EDD. Please, please, do it! 😉

    • Pippin

      It is on our todo list.

  18. artem

    I need help with addons. till Saturday May 10th i need to get done following things:

    * In the EDD tax settings we need to double the Rate Column and make the first the “default” and the second value the “reduced tax rate”.

    * In the new marketplace editor, there are 2 possible location where the tax setting would make sense… either inside the pricing field. As tax is always enabled by default I should be able to select the rate. Default is 19% and should always be pre-selected. Changing should be easy as clicking a (square) select box. But maybe it makes the most sense to include it in the sidebar.

    * These changes should not touch the EDD core since we need to make regular updates for EDD.

    * Changes should not mess the EDD taxes logic and should not break any other EDD add-ons like Comissions.

    please email me at artandvor@gmail.com. THank you

  19. Jason Seabolt

    Hi Pippin! I first want to say I love your products. I have been learning and developing plugins and writing code snippets for WordPress for a few years now. I mostly do work in PHP for WordPress and Genesis for clients of mine. Usually small projects. But I learn better with practical experience.

    I would love to help out on tracking bugs and writing fixes (volunteer basis) for EDD and other projects you got going and maybe even write a plugin or two when I feel up to the challenge.

    If you can use me, please point the way. The link below is broken.

    I also work for Eric Hamm with Dynamik Website Builder on occasion, mostly responding to trouble tickets.

    Thank you in advance!

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