Umbraco Package Program

A new initiative starts today - and you can join in

Written by Jacob Midtgaard-Olesen

Umbraco Packages has always been an important part of the Umbraco ecosystem. As Umbraco HQ has grown, this part of the ecosystem has not received the deserved attention and focus. Furthermore, as Umbraco CMS has evolved the general overview of packages, package documentation, best practices, package promotion etc has not evolved with it. We want to change this. And as a starting point, we’re introducing the Umbraco Package Program - and we invite you to take part.

What’s the purpose of the Umbraco Package Program?

The purpose of the Package Program is:

To continuously develop, build and facilitate the growth of the Umbraco package ecosystem - with a primary focus on open source packages.
To facilitate the friendly Umbraco sharing culture in relation to packages, where package developers and community members help each other.
To ensure predictability and transparency for package developers and package users as the Umbraco CMS and related initiatives evolve.
To ensure package developers experience that their efforts are recognized, supported and appreciated.

What is a Package?

Here’s the definition of an Umbraco package:

A package extends the functionality of Umbraco to provide additional functionality to editors, developers, site visitors, and all other types of users of Umbraco.

Types of Packages

There are many types of packages available and we wish to make it clearer which type of functionality a specific package contain by updating the package types currently available on Our.

This is our current list of suggested new package types:

Editor Enhancements - Property Editors, Content Apps, etc. that extends Umbraco with new ways of editing content.
Administration tools - Dashboards, Health Checks, etc. that helps administrators with a better overview of content.
Starter Kits - Complete websites or large features that enable both editors and developers to get a head start
Backoffice developer functionality - Productivity tools for developers that increase developer productivity and skills

Please share your thoughts on the list above and any ideas to expand it with additional categories at packages@umbraco.com

How do we make the Package Program work?

So, back to the Package Program.

We have identified the primary reason for our inability to deliver in the area of Umbraco Packages up until this point as being a lack of dedicated people. It is, therefore, a great pleasure to announce that our very own Jesper Mayntzhusen, in his new role as the Umbraco Package Steward (UPS), will be in charge of the Package Program at Umbraco HQ, with the clear task of pursuing the purposes as set out above.

Jesper has previous Umbraco experience working as a support warrior in the S.W.A.T team as well as managing 2nd level support in the D-team. Jesper also has Umbraco community experience in his previous work with Umbraco Documentation as part of the Documentation Curator team. A combination we believe makes a great fit for this new role.

How do we get started?

We know that implementation will not happen overnight and we understand that there are many many ideas both at Umbraco HQ and in the Umbraco community for how to improve when it comes to dealing with packages in the future.

To ensure we are off to a good start, we are going to start with the missing basics. This includes improving:

Package related documentation
Getting started guides
Information on best practices for packages.

Once in place, we can extend the initiative further. On Our Umbraco you can find more details on the Package Program - including an option to sign up for a dedicated Umbraco Package Newsletter.

We start today - and within the next three months, we expect that we can deliver on all points on the task list in the Package Program as listed on Our.

Would you like to take part? Yes, please!

We cannot do it ourselves nor do we want to.

Collaboration is key to success - we need your thoughts, ideas and assistance. We, therefore, call for volunteers from the community for a Package User Group similar to what we have today for helping out with Umbraco Documentation and pull-requests. Together with HQ, this user group will collaborate on what can be done to improve the package area for Umbraco. Further, these volunteers will have the opportunity to help us move this new initiative forward - together.

Please come forth or recommend a person that you think should be part of the user group working together with HQ on this program. We are looking for a variety of backgrounds and perspectives, we welcome both newcomers and experienced package developers. The only criteria is that you are passionate about the package experience and that you are willing to take part in improving it.

Let us know you’re interested in becoming a part of the package group by writing to packages@umbraco.com. - application closes on Monday the 14th of October.

Let’s get started

We are very excited to kick off this new Package Program and welcome Jesper in his new role. We invite you all to engage with us as we progress with any feedback, support or ideas for further improvements - reach out on packages@umbraco.com

To keep yourself updated on the package progress, please make sure to sign-up for the dedicated Packages Newsletter.