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Pressbits 005: Donв t delete plugin options on deactivation

2012-02-03 16:55
In this episode of Pressbits I discuss my pet peeve of plugin developers deleting my options settings on deactivation, rather than upon uninstallation.You should listen to it, especially if you 8217;re a plugin developer.If you would rather download it directlyВ you can do that too, or subscribe to this showВ via RSSВ orВ on iTunes. If you would prefer a written summary, you can also read that just after the jump.Deactivating and uninstalling a plugin are not the same thingLet 8217;s talk about plugin options. Specifically, what I expect as a user when I deactivate a plugin, versus uninstall one. WordPress has some hooks built in that help enable plugin others to do things, namely register activation hook, register deactivation hook, and register uninstall hook. The deactivation hook and uninstall hook are great places to trigger certain things. Unfortunately, too many plugin authors unset options in the wrong one.When I deactivate a plugin, I 8217;m not really trying to totally remove the plugin from my site, but rather just turn it off. So when a plugin author deletes all of the options I 8217;ve selected on a plugins 8217; settings screen on the deactivation hook, it makes me angry that I have to go and reset them when I turn it back on. So angry that I might just find another solution for what your plugin is doing.What they should be doing instead, is removing these options, and everything else, with the uninstall hook. When i uninstall a plugin completely, it is safe to assume I am finished with it, and it is the appropriate place to take such action. But when I simply deactivate, in all likelihood I 8217;m just debugging something in my theme or another plugin, or maybe backing up or upgrading something.So consider this a friendly message to plugin developers, and future plugin developers - remove options on the uninstall hook, and not the deactivation hook.You just finished reading Pressbits 005: Don t delete plugin options on deactivation on WPCandy. Please consider leaving a comment!
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