Chris Taylor

If you are a WordPress plugin developer the chances are your plugins are available for download from the WordPress plugin repository. As part of that service the nice guys at WordPress show you how many downloads of your plugin you get per day. Very useful, and if you’re like me you check your downloads numbers very often.
However what these stats don’t show you is where your plugin is in use – which sites it is actually being activated on. Seeing that information would allow you to see exactly which sites are using your plugin, when they installed it, and what version the site is running. That is exactly what Plugin Register does.
By including the Plugin_Register class and calling it with some simple code in your plugin, your plugin will prompt the user to register your plugin when they activate it. When they register the plugin, the Plugin Register database on your site will be updated with the name and version of your plugin, and the site name and URL where that plugin has just been activated. A simple call is made to your website to save these details in the Plugin Register table, and you get some great statistics on which site is installing what versions of your plugins.
So, what do you need to put in your plugin? This example code hows you everything you need:
`// include the Plugin_Register class 
require_once( “plugin-register.class.php” );
// create a new instance of the Plugin_Register class 
$register = new Plugin_Register(); // leave this as it is 
$register->file = FILE; // leave this as it is 
$register->slug = “pluginregister”; // create a unique slug for your plugin (normally the plugin name in lowercase, with no spaces or special characters works fine) 
$register->name = “Plugin Register”; // the full name of your plugin (this will be displayed in your statistics) 
$register->version = “1.0”; // the version of your plugin (this will be displayed in your statistics) 
$register->developer = “Chris Taylor”; // your name 
$register->homepage = “http://www.stillbreathing.co.uk”; // your WordPress website where Plugin Register is installed (no trailing slash) 
$register->Plugin_Register(); // set Plugin Register to be called when the plugin is activated
The reports you get include:
<ul>
<li>Graphs showing how many registrations have been made for the last 24 hours, 14 days, 12 weeks and 12 months</li>
<li>A list of all plugins registered, with how many unique versions and unique sites</li>
<li>A list of all versions of a particular plugin, with the number of unique sites</li>
<li>A list of all sites which have registered any of your plugins</li>
<li>Details of what plugins were registered on a particular day</li>
<li>A search, so you can see what sites have got version X of plugin Foo_Bar installed</li>
</ul>
<h3>Privacy</h3>
Registering a plugin is completely up to the user who has just activated it. Plugin Register does NOT automatically send any data back to your website without the user manually clicking a link. Some text is displayed which invites the user to register the plugin, by default it says:
“Please consider registering your use of [your plugin name] to tell [your name] (the plugin maker) you are using it. This sends only your site name and URL to [your name] so they know where their plugin is being used. No other data is sent.”
It is possible to override this default text on a per-plugin basis.

Plugin Register

For Wordpress plugin developers: keep a register of when and where your plugins are activated.

David Gewirtz

adiant

Beyond what the name implies, the Reveal Network Activated Plugins plugin can display all Plugins that WordPress would normally hide: WordPress only displays Network Activated and Must-Use plugins, as well as Drop-ins, on the Installed Plugins Network Admin panel; even there, they can be easily missed. Under the control of any Super Administrator, Reveal Network Activated Plugins allows Network Activated and Must-Use plugins, and Drop-ins, to be displayed on each site’s Installed Plugins Admin panel, with “Network Activated”, “Must-Use Plugin” or “Drop-in” displayed below the plugin name where “Activate” or “Deactivate” is displayed for other plugins. In addition, the plugin’s Network Admin panel, available only to Super Administrators, and the Delete Plugins panel, show which Plugins are activated on which Sites within the WordPress Network.
In a WordPress Network, i.e. – a single WordPress installation that provides multiple sites (“Multi-site”), Plugins can be activated on one or more individual sites or they can be Network Activated, which means they are activated on all sites. In addition, Must-Use plugins are automatially activated if present and Drop-ins are activated Network-wide by a Constant set in wp-config.php. Confusion can result because WordPress does not display any of these plugins on each site’s Installed Plugins Admin panel, a confusion that this plugin hopes to eliminate.
A warning Notice is displayed if this plugin is activated on a WordPress installation that is not (yet) a WordPress Network.
Every effort has been made to not interfere with plugins that create or modify their own entry on the Installed Plugins Admin panel.
<h4>Settings</h4>
A Settings page for this plugin is available to Super Administrators on both the Plugins and Settings submenus within the Network Administration panels. It determines which plugins are visible on the Plugins Admin panel of each site within the Network.
A “Who Sees Them?” table of choices can be used to set who sees Network-Activated and Must-Use plugins, and Drop-ins. It can even be used to hide any or all of them from everyone.
The Plugins row of the table actually controls the same Setting as the “Enable administration menus – Plugins” checkbox at the bottom of the Network Settings Admin panel. It is provided here to avoid the confusion that otherwise exists when Super Administrators cannot figure out why their Site Administrators do not even have a Plugin menu on their Site Admin panels.
Within the “Who Sees Them?” table, the column entitled “Site Administrators” also refers to anyone else with the “activate_plugins” Capability for the Site.
A “Show/Hide Plugins” table of choices can be used to always Display or Hide specific plugins for Site Administrators. This is especially useful for Super Administrators developing or testing new plugins that are not yet ready for use by Site Administrators. It can be also used when only a few of the many plugins installed are to be made available to Site Administrators.
<h4>Definitions</h4>
Super Administrator – controls the Network (multi-site) settings and setup, as well as settings and setup for all individual Sites within the Network, through access to all Admin panels for the Network and all Sites.
Site Administrator – has no access to Network settings and setup, but does have access to Admin panels for any Site for which he has the Role of Administrator.
“activate_plugins” Capability – one of many settings for a User for a specific Site, i.e. – each User either has or does not have the “activate_plugins” Capability for a given Site. Anyone with the Role of Administrator for a Site automatically has the “activate_plugins” Capability and it cannot be removed. However, it can be disabled through the “Enable administration menus – Plugins” Network setting described above.

Reveal Network Activated Plugins

Displays Network-Activated and Must-Use (MU) plugins, and Drop-ins on the Installed Plugins Admin panel for individual sites of a WordPress Network.

Plugin Register vs Reveal Network Activated Plugins