choose right WordPress plugins – avoid conflicts

    What is a plugin? Why WordPress plugins conflict? 

    Plugin is a software to perform special  function developed by software developers to add functionality to an existing feature. Content management developers, bloggers, browser developers, application programmers require add-on features to their existing programs and plugins come handy. . Plugins are also called add-ons. or add-ins or extensions. Many programs , browsers, content management systems support plugins and when plugins are supported, customization is allowed. WordPress plugins are behave funny, if blogger install more than one plugin with same features. They conflict with each other and  cause serious damage to the blog or website. The damage sometimes is irrevocable. So the thumb rule to use WordPress plugins is

    • to take back up of your blog before installing plugins
    • deactivating or disabling exiting plugins and then intalling new plugin.
    • Once the blog functions fine activate  conflicting plugin.  

    WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language. A blogger or web developer or web-master can seamlessly integrate  WordPress plugins to suit the needs.

    wordpress plugins

    What are the distinct advantages of plugins? 

    Pligins are

    • easily configurable without any coding knowledge hence very useful to bloogers to add features to their blog. 
    • The coding is done by third parties and offered to bloggers. These plugins are verified and certified by WordPress.
    • Minimum required features are offered free while advanced features are offered for a price.
    • Plugins are add ons to theme features, coding features, widget features and menu features

    Look for 50000 plugins with around 1,361,310,009 total downloads at WordPress Plugin directory. 

    Conflicting plugins:

    I faced simillar problem many times with plugins. An example is – I decided to use separate a mobile theme for my blog to enhance the look and feel.  I decided to go for wp tuch, a WordPress mobile theme plugin. I installed, activated and configured on my multi-site network. When i tried to test with mobile test me emulator. it did not show the result. It only displayed the desktop view on mobiles. When I checked up with the developer he suggested two point

    1.  whether I am trying to test it in desktop view instead of mobile view
    2.  Whether I have pluigns like wp-security and/or compression plugins  and/or cache plugin and/or SEO plugins. The suggestion is to disable and configure wp-touch. test and the activate the other plugins one by one. His suggestion worked.  It was comet cache plugin that was creating the problem. The cache was not cleared and the mobile view was not visible.

    So before installing and testing a new plugin take back up, disable other plugins. Install the new plugin. Test the functionality of the installed plugin and then activate all other disabled pluing. This process of backing up, deactivating and activating plugins is tedious and time consuming and tedious. But blogger or developer has to do it in order to make blog function well. .

     

    Useful Links: Wikipedia on plugins