[wp-hackers] What Should A Plugin Author Do To Make Plugins Extensible?

[Mike Schinkel]

On Aug 31, 2010, at 12:57 AM, Andrew Nacin wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 12:34 AM, Mike Schinkel <mikeschinkel at newclarity.net
>> wrote:
> 
>> That's very useful functionality and I agree with the approach.  But that's
>> not the same use-case I was referring to.  Instead I'm referring to a system
>> where a plugin A could identify that it needs plugin B, C and D and that it
>> can then automatically download and install B, C and D (with user
>> permission, of course.)
> 
> Ah, that's another story. The ticket wasn't about installation, it was about
> how to tie them together once both installed.

Right.  But Raj's question and my response was about installation.  

It's so easy to scan emails and miss the gist, eh?   I know, I do it all the time... :-(

> This is something we need to consider soon (probably 3.1) in the context of
> child themes. If you want to install a nice-looking child theme, the parent
> theme should also be downloaded.
> 
> But, if you want to download a plugin that requires BuddyPress, I'm not sure
> it follows that you necessarily want BuddyPress downloaded... But there are
> some plugins such as taxonomy metadata that are API things, that you *would*
> want downloaded.
> 
> In either case the directory would keep track of dependencies and alert core
> via the API what the requested download is dependent on.

A big +1.  :-)

-Mike