Automatically publish plugin after installation

Question

I've created a couple of small plugins that I install on most of my websites. But new plugins are (fortunately) disabled by default when installed. I know it's only a couple of clicks to enable the plugin, but is it possible to make my plugin enable itself once the installation is done?

Answer 1

What I would recommend doing is creating an install script that executes a postflight function. This function is built into Joomla and will get executed after the extension has installed.

You could use something like this:

function postflight($type, $parent)
{
    // We only need to perform this if the extension is being installed, not updated
    if (strtolower($type) === 'install') 
    {       
        $db = JFactory::getDbo();
        $query = $db->getQuery(true);

        $fields = array(
            $db->quoteName('enabled') . ' = 1',
            $db->quoteName('ordering') . ' = 9999'
        );

        $conditions = array(
            $db->quoteName('element') . ' = ' . $db->quote('plg_myplugin'), 
            $db->quoteName('type') . ' = ' . $db->quote('plugin')
        );

        $query->update($db->quoteName('#__extensions'))->set($fields)->where($conditions);

        $db->setQuery($query);   
        $db->execute();     
    }
}

For more information on the script file, have a read of the Joomla Documentation:

http://docs.joomla.org/J2.5:Managing_Component_Updates_(Script.php)

Hope this helps

Answer 2

You can create a plugin like this:

class plgExtensionEnableMyPlugins extends JPlugin
{
    public function onExtensionAfterInstall($installer, $eid)
    {
        if ($eid)
        {
            $db = JFactory::getDbo();
            $db->setQuery("UPDATE #__extensions SET `enabled` = 1 WHERE `extension_id` = $eid AND `type` = 'plugin'");
            $db->execute();
        }
    }
}

Install and enable the above plugin before installing your plugins.