I think it is going to take a fair bit of discussion (and persuasion) to move from the current general stance of Plugin *enhancement* to one of allowing actual Plugin *dependence*.<div><br></div><div>The point about "niche" Themes is probably the most relevant with respect to potential need for Custom Post Types or Custom Taxonomies. I agree that we ought to have some way of accommodating such Themes, but at the same time, we need to ensure appropriate data portability.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Perhaps the answer is requiring the developer of such a Theme to implement the CPT functionality via Plugin, released in the Plugin Repo, so that users who wish to change Themes have some means of using their data outside of the original Theme. But, we'll need to consider, and mitigate, any intended/unintended consequences of such a requirement.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Chip<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 9:49 AM, Josh Stauffer <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:joshstauffer@gmail.com">joshstauffer@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div>Thanks for this, Ryan.</div><div><br></div><div>What about an admin notice with a link to the plugin repository. Something like... "The Whatchamacallit plugin is required for this theme to function properly. <a href="http://#" target="_blank">Install now</a>."</div>
<div><br></div><div>Anyone have any thoughts on this approach?</div><br clear="all">Josh<br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div></div><div class="h5">On Mon, May 2, 2011 at 10:02 PM, Ryan Hellyer <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ryan@pixopoint.com" target="_blank">ryan@pixopoint.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
</div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div></div><div class="h5">
<div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Date: Mon, 2 May 2011 09:42:59 -0500<br>
From: Josh Stauffer <<a href="mailto:joshstauffer@gmail.com" target="_blank">joshstauffer@gmail.com</a>><br>
Subject: Re: [theme-reviewers] Bundling Plugins<br>
To: <a href="mailto:theme-reviewers@lists.wordpress.org" target="_blank">theme-reviewers@lists.wordpress.org</a><br>
Message-ID: <<a href="mailto:BANLkTimh4ifTLqW_iw3qG5ydUFvEXHRECw@mail.gmail.com" target="_blank">BANLkTimh4ifTLqW_iw3qG5ydUFvEXHRECw@mail.gmail.com</a>><br>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"<br>
<br>
Just as Chip described is how I am going about it in my theme development.<br>
<br>
Although, I am interested to find out more about the "automatic install and<br>
activate" that Ryan is referring to. Any tutorials on this?<br>
<br>
Josh<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div>David Gwyer asked me about that a while ago:</div><div><a href="http://www.wptavern.com/forum/themes-templates/2120-installing-plugins-during-theme-installation.html" target="_blank">http://www.wptavern.com/forum/themes-templates/2120-installing-plugins-during-theme-installation.html</a>. The solution I posted there isn't optimal and I think copying the plugin directly from the plugin repository would make more sense to ensure only up to date versions are included.</div>
<div><a href="http://www.wptavern.com/forum/themes-templates/2120-installing-plugins-during-theme-installation.html" target="_blank"></a><br></div><div><br></div><div>I think allowing themes to install their own plugins is important to allow. Otherwise it creates a situation in which the theme authors are either limited in the scope in which they can build themes, or are forced to jerry rig plugins into the theme itself. Neither of which I assume anyone wants to see.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Imagine a theme which requires custom post-types to perform the task it was designed for. That theme would either be ineligible to be in the repository, or would be forced to put plugin functionality into the theme, despite it making far more sense for that custom post-type to be implemented as a plugin. That isn't a common situation, but I wouldn't like to see rare situations like that being blocked from the official theme repository. Another solution would be to require the user to manually download a plugin to use the theme, but then you have a situation where a theme on it's own will not function without forcing the user to dork around installing a plugin just to make it work.</div>
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