[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #43882: Introduce slug-specific hooks to manage plugin loading order

[WordPress Trac]

#43882: Introduce slug-specific hooks to manage plugin loading order
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 Reporter:  schlessera   |      Owner:  (none)
     Type:  enhancement  |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |  Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Plugins      |    Version:
 Severity:  normal       |   Keywords:
  Focuses:               |
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 As already discussed in #41346, I'd like to propose a simple mechanism
 that can solve the loading order problems that inter-dependent plugins can
 have.

 The main mechanism just adds an action that is named after the plugin that
 was just loaded. In this way, other plugins are able to initiate actions
 based on when another plugin was loaded.

 A similar mechanism has been used in WP-CLI to solve the problems in the
 loading order of commands that rely on each other. You can read more about
 how commands can control their loading order here:
 https://make.wordpress.org/cli/2017/05/03/managing-command-dependencies/

 Furthermore, this also allows for a small extension that can automatically
 resolve loading order, provided it knows about the dependency to look for.
 This is used in WP-CLI as well, where it is easy to deduce the parent
 command to look for, as described here:
 https://make.wordpress.org/cli/2017/05/31/command-dependencies-revisited/.
 For plugins, this could be solved by adding a simple plugin slug to the
 plugin header. I'll introduce a separate ticket to that regard.

 I will upload a patch that adds the above-mentioned action, together with
 `pre_plugin_loaded` and `post_plugin_loaded` actions that give further
 control to plugins.

 In case anyone wonders whether that might open the door to abuse and have
 plugins block loading of other plugins: that is already easily possible
 right now. A plugin can just remove whatever plugins it dislikes from the
 list of active plugins on activation hook.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/43882>
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