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phpwordpressadvanced-custom-fields

WordPress: Check if plugin is installed (ACF)

I want to prevent fatal error in my theme if the ACF plugin is deactivated or not installed.

The main function of the plugin is get_field(). I wrote this code in my functions.php to check:

if ( !function_exists('get_field') ) {
  function get_field() {
    echo '<span>plugin ACF is not installed</span>';
  }
}

Please tell me this is acceptable practice?

Solution

  • First of all, this is not the main plugin function, just one of them. Probably, most commonly used by a plugin user in a theme. Another one is the_field(), which actually prints value (get_field() returns it).

    Regarding practice of defining your custom function - it's fine. However, I would not print that long message in every place where ACF field is expected - some of them may be short (numbers), and this message will break the layout. Printing something shorter is better, imo.

    Also, function_exists is proper check, not is_plugin_active, because ACF can also be shipped as a library with a theme framework or other plugin.

    Another option is to remove ACF dependency on the frontend completely. You can output the contents of the fields with get_post_meta() and prevent ACF plugin from loading on the frontend entirely. See these two posts for details:

    http://www.billerickson.net/code/disable-acf-frontend/

    http://www.billerickson.net/advanced-custom-fields-frontend-dependency/