PlugInstaller WP plugin
Current Version: 0.2.1
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Table of Contents
About PlugInstaller
PlugInstaller is a WordPress plugin-management plugin that eliminates the need to download a plugin archive, upload it to your FTP server and unpack it manually. With PlugInstaller, you can easily enter a plugin URL (e.g. directly from a plugin repository website like the WordPress.org plugin repository) within the admin interface which is in turn automatically downloaded and installed on your server or you can upload a file from your local file system which is also automatically installed. If you do no longer like one or more plugins that you previously installed, you can uninstall those plugins with a single click.
Additionally, PlugInstaller features automatic update checking and automatic update installation for plugins that are hosted and downloaded from the wordpress.org plugin repository.
With PlugInstaller you will no longer have to use any other software than your WordPress administration interface to install or uninstall plugins. In addition to that, plugin installation will hardly last more than 5 to 10 seconds with PlugInstaller, as there is no user interference required. You can also display the readme file provided along with any installed plugins with a single click from your plugin management page.
PlugInstaller now also supports the installation of non-standard directory plugin packages (e.g. where the actual plugin is contained in a subdirectory of the main plugin directory). Additionally, if that should fail, there is an option to discover and delete “broken” plugin installations.
Download
Download (Linux/UNIX OS only!):
pluginstaller.0.2.1.zip (12.80 KB) (from the wordpress plugin repository)
Installation
Prerequisites:
Make sure your server has the following tools installed and readily available within the search path: “tar”, “gzip” and “unzip”. Also, set your wp-content/plugins directory to world-writeable (chmod -R 777 plugins) or at least writeable to your httpd user.
Installation:
- Upload the plugin package to your wp-content/plugins directory
- Unzip the package (unzip pluginst.zip)
- Go to your “plugins” administration page and activate the PlugInstaller plugin
- Read the instructions provided on the “Plugins/Install” page and inside the readme.txt file.
Note: For wordpress installations on windows servers, I recommend the OneClick installer plugin by Anirudh Sanjeev (project page and download), it’s currently not as powerful as PlugInstaller, but should work on windows machines, too.
Uninstallation
If you don’t like PlugInstaller anymore, you can easily uninstall it. However, you should not use PlugInstaller to uninstall itself, but delete the PlugInstaller directory manually, in your FTP client.
If you have uninstalled PlugInstaller, you might be confronted with “stuck” or “locked” plugin directories you cannot delete in your ftp client. The reason for this behavior is, that any plugins that were installed using PlugInstaller don’t belong to the user you are using to FTP into your installation, but belong to your webserver’s user (usually www-data, httpd or apache). Don’t worry, there is an easy way to fix this. If you have root access to your server, you might run a chmod -R 777 * inside your plugin directory. If you don’t have root access (or if you don’t even know what “root access” means), please proceed as follows:
- Download the file “unlock.zip“.
- Install it using PlugInstaller or unzip it and upload it to your plugins directory.
- With your webbrowser, go to “http://your.blog.domain/wp-content/plugins/unlock.php”
- If you get a message saying “/path/to/your/wordpress/plugin/directory and all subdirectories have been unlocked”, you may delete the desired plugins.
- I strongly recommend you delete the unlock.php file from your plugins directory, as it may open a possible security leak.
Changelog
New Features (0.2.1)
- Fixed a severe bug that could lead to complete unusability of all your installed plugins
- Fixed a minor issue with the uninstallation confirm message box
New Features (0.2.0)
- Enhanced the update mechanism (will now work with almost all wordpress.org hosted plugins)
- Support to install non-standard plugin packages
- Support to discover and remove broken plugin installations
New Feature (0.1.95)
- Fixed two bugs regarding warning messages on the plugin management page and for non-standard-directory wp installations.
New Features (0.1.9)
- completely redesigned and cleaned up plugins management page
- install and uninstall plugins directly from the plugins management page
- check for updates for wordpress.org hosted plugins (see FAQ section in the readme file)
- bug fixes for people with a non-standard directory installation of wordpress
- Important information for upgraders: The installation/uninstallation feature is no longer found on a separate admin page but within the main plugin management page!
New Feature (0.1.7)
- cURL fallback for people without fopen_wrappers (fixed from 0.1.6, thanks to angrycamel)
New Features (0.1.5)
- automatic uninstallation of plugins
- display readme file after installation
- display readme files for already installed plugins
- guess file type when downloading from a redirect page (does not work with wp-plugins.net)
Wishlist
Planned features:
- Browse the wordpress.org repository from your admin interface and directly install plugins with a single click (0.2.x)
- i18n (0.2.x)
- “Activate all” button for disabled plugins (0.2.x)
- Support for the wp-plugins.net repository (0.2.x)
- Ability to self-update PlugInstaller (0.2.x)
Do you still miss a feature? Post your feature request here!
Problems or comments?
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