[wp-hackers] Auto Update Plugins

[Stephen Rider]

On Feb 17, 2009, at 4:20 PM, Jess Planck wrote:

> Now it's confirmed as a "plugin extension" and not a user upload.  
> Then a proper location like even wp-content/spam-karma would be  
> appropriate as well. Buddypress uses wp-content/member-themes and of  
> course WPMU uses wp-content/mu-plugins.
>
> I thought the entire purpose of /wp-content was "site centric", but  
> if a consensus appears with plugin extensions and extra non-user  
> data then I wouldn't mind.
>
> As mentioned originally, auto-updating plugins can destroy plugin  
> extensions if they reside in the /wp-content/plugins/plugin-name/  
> directory.

Actually, you've just made a point that pushes me more strongly toward  
my original suggestion of /plugins/plugin-data/<plugin-name> rather  
than /wp-content/plugin-data/...

Different blogs may share /plugin/ directories, but are probably less  
likely to share an entire /wp-content/ directory.  Thus files that  
directly relate to plugins are best located in the plugins directory,  
IMO.

FYI -- a few examples of plugins that could use this structure:

Spam Karma -- for SK plugins
JavaScript Pull-Quotes -- (one of mine) for custom pull-quote styles
Core Control -- (Dion's I think...) will eventually accept plugins.

Basically any plugin that has a modular structure.

Note again, ***none of this*** requires changes to WP core.  It's more  
about just setting a standard to which plugin authors can write their  
plugins.  Of course right now any plugin author who chooses to can set  
their plugin to use /wp-content/myplugin/ or /plugins/myplugin-data/  
or what have you.  The point here is to simply encourage them to be  
tidy and place such things in the "official" location.

Down the road, we might be able to work in a plugin hierarchy system  
by which users can activate/deactivate such items via an Ajax-enhanced  
Manage Plugins screen.  That is, imagine the Manage Plugins screen but  
some plugins have a small "open" icon that opens up a submenu of that  
plugin's sub-plugins.

But that last is for down the road, I think.  (focus, Steve-o, focus!)

Stephen

-- 
Stephen Rider
http://striderweb.com/