Proposal: Plugin Modernization Priority Index to Highlight High-Impact Plugins

Contributing GSoC
1

Hi everyone :waving_hand:

While exploring the metadata-plugin-modernizer dataset, I was thinking about a feature that could help both maintainers and new contributors quickly identify which plugins should be prioritized for modernization.

The idea is to introduce a Plugin Modernization Priority Index, which calculates a simple score for each plugin based on modernization issues already present in the dataset (for example: deprecated APIs, failed modernization runs, outdated parent POM, missing BOM alignment, etc.).

Using this score, the site could highlight:

  • Top plugins that need modernization the most

  • A ranked list or visualization showing high-priority plugins

  • A clearer way for contributors to find high-impact work

This would transform the raw dataset into actionable insights, aligning with the project goal of helping maintainers plan upgrades and helping newcomers find meaningful contributions.

If this sounds useful, I’d be happy to start with a small implementation that:

  • processes the dataset to compute a priority score

  • generates a ranked list of plugins

  • visualizes the highest-priority plugins on the stats site

I’d really appreciate any feedback on whether this would be a good direction.

Thanks!

2

Hi @mentors,

I spent some time exploring the datasets for the priority score proposal. I carefully reviewed:

  • aggregated_migrations.json
  • failed_migrations.csv
  • usage-by-plugins.json
  • metadata-plugin-modernizer JSON files

I compared attributes across all plugins, including:

  • totalMigrations
  • failedMigrations
  • failedMigrationsCSV
  • parentPOMOutdated
  • missingBOM
  • testFrameworkOutdated
  • deprecated_apis_used

What I found:

  • Most attributes are empty, default, or identical across the 400+ plugins
  • As a result, any calculated score would be almost the same for every plugin
  • There is no strong signal in the current data that could produce a meaningful ranking

Given this, I think continuing the original scoring PR wouldn’t provide actionable insights.

I’m pivoting to a more impactful PR that focuses on a dashboard highlighting plugins needing modernization, using the signals that are actually meaningful. This will produce a visible, actionable artifact for maintainers.

Thanks for your understanding!