Automatically publish plugin after template installation

Question

I want to bundle my template with a plugin, and I want the plugin is automatically published after template installation. I know this is possible with component or plugin installation, but is it possible to do that with template installation? How can I do that?

Answer 1

You need to create a package installer. A package can bundle template, modules, plugins, etc. in the same installable file.

See the Joomla docs for details of creating packages.

Currently, there is no native method for automatically enabling a plugin on installation, but you can do so with an additional script. Details of the scripted approach and a lengthy discussion of the pros and cons of adding a feature to auto-enable plugins can be found in this Joomla Developers thread on G+.

The scripted approach requires you to link to an additional script in your package manifest and then using that to enable your plugin:

Adding a scriptfile to the manifest:

<scriptfile>script.php</scriptfile>

Do this in your script.php:

class PlgSystemPluginnameInstallerScript
{
 public function install($parent)
 {
  // Enable plugin
  $db  = JFactory::getDbo();
  $query = $db->getQuery(true);
  $query->update('#__extensions');
  $query->set($db->quoteName('enabled') . ' = 1');
  $query->where($db->quoteName('element') . ' = ' . $db->quote('pluginname'));
  $query->where($db->quoteName('type') . ' = ' . $db->quote('plugin'));
  $db->setQuery($query);
  $db->execute();
 }
}