Show warning if plugin is missing

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Sorry if this question is a bit to trivial, but I’m writing a theme that depends on a plugin to be installed. It’s a multilingual theme, so I absolutely need the user to have Polylang installed. I thought about just copying the plugin files into my theme, but that would mean my theme users won’t get Polylang updates.

So I hope you agree the best solution is to force the user to install polylang. Now, I would like to know what is the best way to let the user know he needs to install polylang? Is it possible to install a plugin automatically? What should happen if the user uninstalls polylang afterwars, just break the theme, or fall back to twentyeleven theme?

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I would really love to hear some other people’s ideas on this.

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2 comments

  1. sample code that you can addopt and chage… to check is plugin installed.
    // addition check on init hook.

    add_action('admin_init', 'wpse_73859_init');
function wpse_73859_init(){
    // if - we in wp-admin
    // if - we class of polylang not found
    // and if we can manage_options (there a lot of different 
    //     capabilities you can use install_plugins for example...)

    if (!class_exists('Polylang') && current_user_can('manage_options')){
        // message function created on a fly... 
        $msg = create_function('', 'echo "<div class="updated"><p>require polylang plugin</p></div>";');
        // and finaly notice! 
        add_action('admin_notices', $msg);
    }
}

    You actually can install plugin ( do silent download / unziping / actiavation) but its SO unacepted that you can’t imaging. You basicly breaking privacy of person who use your theme.

  2. // The is_plugin_active() function is only included by default in the admin,
// load it on the front-end too if needed.
if ( ! function_exists('is_plugin_active'))
{
    include_once ABSPATH.'wp-admin/includes/plugin.php';
}

// Check if a certain plugin is activated
if ( ! is_plugin_active('plugin-directory/plugin-file.php'))
{
    // It's probably too drastic to simply exit, but do whatever you want here
    exit('Plugin X requires plugin Y. Please, install plugin Y.');
}

    Codex: is_plugin_active()