Micro-Vertical solution Packages

[megphillips91]

I'm really passionate about the idea that some of the most shining genius in the WordPress community lies with 'builders' who don't necessarily write plugins and extensions, but they have a good handle on which ones do the one thing really well. I could imagine a way to build a plugin which would act as a solution manager to provide a solution package to micro-veritical problems.

I don't know if that makes sense, but sometimes the right solution is the combination of other solutions. To me, that is the beauty of open source in a sense...like a pantry of ingredients. The chef isn't growing the vegetables and herbs, but he certainly knows how to cook a great meal.

I know there is no discussion of including a theme here, but can themes require plugins? I'm just rubber ducking, but my solution for charter boat captains is theme + plugins + other plugins = a whole solution. Anyway, just wanted to start that conversation as we consider how we consider creating elegant solutions to real world challenges :)

[afragen]

I have actually written a group plugin installer plugin. It would be extremely simple with this feature as all that needs to be done is add plugin slugs to a header. The installer plugin doesn't even need to do anything, however that wouldn't utilize some of the best features being discussed.

• ensure all dependencies are installed and active before allowing the requiring plugin to activate
• Once the dependency is installed and active make it a bit more difficult to deactivate and delete

Plugin requirements for themes will come in the future. It's out of scope for the initial feature. I hope to get you to a place where your user only needs to install your theme and then all the other dependencies will be put in front of them to install without additional effort on your part and only minimal effort on their part.

Yes, something like this can be abused but those abusing it to have "recommended", not "required", plugins will likely feel the users wrath. This is not designed for "recommendations". It's not a place to upsell your user.

[megphillips91]

Great job. Thanks Andy.