[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #47427: deleted pages for a plugin prevent page creation during re-installation of plugin

[WordPress Trac]

#47427: deleted pages for a plugin prevent page creation during re-installation of
plugin
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 Reporter:  nbi1               |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  defect (bug)       |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal             |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  General            |     Version:  5.2.1
 Severity:  normal             |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  reporter-feedback  |     Focuses:
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Comment (by nbi1):

 It's a Wordpress policy decision as to whether or not to enforce good
 plugin behavior. I think it's in Wordpress best interest to prohibit
 plugin behaviors that make Wordpress difficult to use. With the current
 implementation if a plugin fails to create pages the user is left
 wondering what happened and how to rectify the situation. That's not a
 very user friendly system.

 "wouldn't concurrent trash/live pages be very confusing for users?"

 Why would they be? During normal usage/operation the user has no reason to
 think about the contents of 'trash'. The only reason to access 'trash'
 directly is in the event that something was accidentally deleted and needs
 to be restored. It is far more confusing to let plugins install without
 successfully completing all the required installation steps such as
 running a page creation wizard. Right now Wordpress treats such a plugin
 installation as a valid install which in fact it is not because most
 plugins cannot function properly unless all installation steps were
 successfully completed.

 "can't the plugin make sure to remove the pages it created...."

 Yes it could and that would be a good way of dealing with the situation
 *iff* plugins could reliably identify and remove files that they were
 responsible for. How to enforce this behavior though?

 Although clean installation and un-installation are equally important I'm
 more concerned about the former because that can be a showstopper that
 prevents plugin use. With the current implementation why are plugins
 looking at the contents of 'trash' in order to decide whether or not to
 run the page creation wizard? No assumptions should be made about the
 contents of 'trash' so this is a logic error. Is this simply an error on
 part of the plugin or is this a consequence of some Wordpress
 restriction/enforcement? In either case it's wrong, makes Wordpress
 difficult to use, and should be corrected.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/47427#comment:2>
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