[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #22316: Plugin Dependencies (Yet Another Plugin Dependencies Ticket)

[WordPress Trac]

#22316: Plugin Dependencies (Yet Another Plugin Dependencies Ticket)
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 Reporter:  Viper007Bond                         |       Owner:  afragen
     Type:  enhancement                          |      Status:  assigned
 Priority:  normal                               |   Milestone:  6.3
Component:  Upgrade/Install                      |     Version:  3.4.2
 Severity:  normal                               |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  dev-feedback has-patch needs-        |     Focuses:
  design-feedback needs-dev-note has-unit-tests  |
  2nd-opinion                                    |
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Comment (by afragen):

 Replying to [comment:277 azaozz]:
 > Generally I like the approach of having "manual" plugins and themes
 dependencies (manual in the sense that nothing is installed or activated
 automatically, instead there are messages making it easy to install the
 requirements).
 >
 > Having some "second thoughts" about the UI and workflow here.
 >
 > - Not sure the global "Dependencies" tab is a good idea here. The other
 tabs are for popular, recommended, favorite, etc. plugins that are
 selected by the plugins repository. The tabs are (mostly) shortcuts when
 searching for new or replacement plugins. Dependencies are predetermined
 and required. A "Dependencies" tab doesn't belong there imho.
 >
 The workflow is about installing plugins. Where else would we do that but
 on the Add Plugins page?
 The Dependencies tab is really just a view (or prefilled search) that
 groups these plugins, just like any other view. It provides for a single
 source/location to view all the plugin dependencies for every installed
 plugin. The current implementation does display the plugin that requires
 the dependency within the plugin card.
 > - Thinking that perhaps the dependencies will be shown separately for
 each theme/plugin. Seems this can be in the plugin's "Install/View
 details" dialog (popup/card). Installing dependencies should be from there
 too imho.
 While it may be possible and beneficial to display the plugin dependencies
 in the "View details" modal I've never seen an example of installing a
 secondary plugin from this modal, only the primary plugin. It seems that
 this would be an entirely new workflow for plugin installation.

 I can see this as part of a phase 2 where the Plugins API also returns the
 `Requires Plugins` header content and this is displayed in the modal's
 meta data. Not sure about how the display will look. But it's doable.
 > - It is unclear how incompatibilities between different versions of
 themes/plugins and their dependencies can be handled.
 Version checking was discussed much in the ticket and felt to be out of
 scope at this time. Plugin Dependencies was not looking to create a
 "Composer for WordPress", which seemed to be where the discussion always
 led.

 Plugin incompatibilities are handled the same way they are currently
 handled by core, which is to say by the user. If a new plugin were to
 cause a fatal on activation, core does not activate it. If the auto-update
 would cause a fatal on activation we are working on a solution to that
 within the Rollback feature plugin.

 I think testing the feature plugin and utilizing the test plugins in the
 plugins `test-plugins` folder is a great way to see the UI and workflow. I
 encourage everyone to do this.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/22316#comment:281>
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