[wp-hackers] Theme and Plugin Integration

[Dan Thrue]

I think we are seing past the obvious, I think we should add hooks in
the themes... Im rewriting all my plugins to use do_action and
apply_filters instead of special function calls...

for instance is my new Pages As Navigation plugin called like this
right now at my kubrick theme: (at http://www.rummanddan.dk/)

header.php
> <div id="menu">
>	<ul><?php do_action('rum_flat_menu', ''); ?></ul>
> </div>


The page plugins has subpages called like:
sidebar.php
> <?php /* wp_list_pages('title_li=<h2>Pages</h2>' ); */ ?>
> <?php do_action('rum_sub_pages', 'before=<li>&title=<h2>Sub pages</h2>&after=</li>'); ?>

This way the theme could have "integrated" the plugins allready if we
started to apply our own hooks the theme authors could start using...

I dont know if this is a good idea yet, but its functionality thats
build in allready and seems to work fine with the core hooks :)

Regards 
Dan

On Apr 3, 2005 11:25 PM, Robert Deaton <false.hopes at gmail.com> wrote:
> Well, my original intention with this was not for bundling other plugin
> author's work, but instead having a place that would function like a plugin
> so that theme authors could include some of their own special features that
> could only be done in a plugin without requiring the end user to go through
> extra work installing the theme. In the end, I suppose that this feature
> could hurt some plugin authors since their work would probably be forgotten
> and just passed off as a feature of the theme whose author didn't give props
> to the people who helped. I guess in the end something like this would
> probably be a matter of personal preference to the WP developers.
> 
> 
> On Apr 3, 2005 3:16 PM, Jeff Minard <jeff at jrm.cc> wrote:
> > Owen Winkler wrote:
> > > I've attached a core patch that will let theme developers add multiple
> > > "Requires:" header lines to themes.  This will allow WordPress to
> > > display what plugins are required for that theme and detect whether a
> > > function from that plugin (thus, the whole plugin) is available.  The
> > > format of the header line is:
> > >
> > > Requires: function_name plugin_url description
> > 
> > This is a great idea as it would allow us to continue the separation of
> > theme/plugin directories. However...
> > 
> > 
> > > Please take a minute to consider what including plugin code with a theme
> > > denies the plugin authors - the only real incentive for their work,
> credit.
> > 
> > You're totally correct. By packageing plugins within a theme, the theme
> > author is likely to recieve credit for a plugins functionality unless
> > they are very explicit in their declaration of who made what on the
> > download page.
> > 
> > And I don't care. (And I make plugins, not themes)
> > 
> > This is not about ego boosting plugin authors; the solution of bundling
> > plugins with themes is focused on the end user experience. One of the
> > overriding goals of WP as a product is that it's easy to use *for
> > anyone*. Allowing themes to package various plugins would allow theme
> > authors to take advantage of a lot of extra WP features, while still
> > making the process of using that theme very easy for the end user (at
> > any technical level).
> > 
> > Your proposition, however, has users getting a theme, reading a bunch of
> > technical info and bouncing from site to site to get the various things
> > they'd need and in the end quite possibly saying, "Fuck it" and going
> > back to Kubrick because it was "click and work".
> > 
> > *My* incentive for producing plugins is to give back to the WP community
> > which has given me so much.
> > 
> > 
> > Jeff
> > 
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> > 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> --Robert Deaton
> http://somethingunpredictable.com 
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