Managing Plugins
A WordPress plugin is a type of third-party software that adds new functionality to WordPress. With WordPress Toolkit, you can install and manage plugins on one or more WordPress installations.
Installing Plugins
In WordPress Toolkit, you can install plugins on one or more WordPress installations.
You can search for and install plugins found in the wordpress.org plugins repository. You can also upload custom plugins, which is useful if:
-
You cannot find a suitable plugin in the wordpress.org repository.
-
You need to install your own plugin.
Note: Any plugins you upload become available for installation by customers.
To install plugins on a particular WordPress installation:
-
Go to WordPress, go to the “Plugins” tab of an installation card, and then click Install.
-
Search for plugins, and then click Install next to the plugin you want to install. Installed plugins are activated immediately.
To install plugins on multiple WordPress installations:
-
Go to WordPress > the “Plugins” tab, and then click Install.
-
Search for plugins, select the plugins you want to install, and then click Select websites.
Note: Selecting one or more plugins and then performing a new search without installing the selected plugins resets the selection.
-
By default, newly installed plugins are activated immediately. You can prevent this by clearing the “Activate after installation” checkbox.
-
Select websites on which you want to install plugins and then click Install.
To upload a plugin:
-
Go to WordPress > the “Plugins” tab, and then click Upload plugin.
-
Click Browse… and browse to the location of the ZIP file containing the plugin you want to upload.
-
You can add the uploaded plugin to a set. To do so, select the set from the drop-down list. If you do not want to add the uploaded plugin to a set, keep the “None” option. You can read more about sets in Managing Sets.
-
Click OK.
At this point, the uploaded plugin has become available for installation by customers. You can also install the uploaded plugin on your own WordPress installations.
To install an uploaded plugin:
-
Go to WordPress > the “Plugins” tab.
-
Click Install next to a plugin you have uploaded.
-
Select the WordPress installations on which you want to install the uploaded plugin.
-
By default, a newly uploaded plugin is not activated. You can activate it by selecting the “Activate after installation” checkbox.
-
Click Install.
Activating and Deactivating Plugins
You can activate or deactivate plugins installed on a particular installation or on all installations hosted on the server.
To activate or deactivate plugins for a particular installation:
-
Go to WordPress, and then go to the “Plugins” tab of an installation card.
-
Under “State”, turn on or turn off a plugin to activate or deactivate it, respectively.
To activate or deactivate plugins for all installations hosted on the server:
- Go to WordPress > the “Plugins” tab.
- Select the plugin you want to activate or deactivate.
- Click Activate or Deactivate.
Updating Plugins
If a plugin needs updating, you will see “Updates” next to the plugin on the “Plugins” tab of an installation card. You can update not only free plugins but also paid ones if they can be updated in the usual way in the WordPress admin dashboard.
Note: WordPress Toolkit can update paid plugins that require a license if the license is present. WordPress Toolkit cannot update paid plugins that use non-standard update methods.
You can do the following:
- Update plugins for one particular installation. Read how to do so in the “To update a WordPress installation manually” procedure.
- Update plugins installed on multiple installations.
- Configure auto-updates for plugins. Read how to do so in the “To configure auto-updates for a WordPress installation” procedure.
To update plugins on multiple installations:
-
Go to WordPress > the “Plugins” tab.
-
Click “Update to version …” next to the plugin you want to update. To learn more about the update, click “Changelog”. This will take you to the plugin’s page on wordpress.org.
-
Click Yes.
Removing Plugins
You can remove plugins from a particular installation or from all installations hosted on the server.
To remove plugins from a particular installation:
- Go to WordPress, and then go to the “Plugins” tab of an installation card.
- To remove one plugin, click the
icon corresponding to the plugin you want to remove. To remove several plugins, select them and click Remove.
- Click Yes.
To remove plugins from all installations hosted on the server:
- Go to WordPress > the “Plugins” tab.
- Select the plugins you want to remove, click Uninstall, and then click Yes.