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I'm creating a plugin I would like to use from other different plugins. This plugin declares classes and functions. So, I am thinking about the best way to include, from one plugin, a php file present in another plugin.

I think this should work:

require_once WP_PLUGIN_DIR . "/the-other-plugin/required-file.php";

But I am not sure; is it a good solution? I think this would work even if the-other-plugin is not enabled, and probably that is not a good idea.

This can be done also by using Must Use Plugins. Is this a best practice, or is the other solution better?

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  • Why do you need to do this? and what is this other plugin your are borrowing functions from? Commented Apr 25, 2013 at 16:38
  • If your plugin is installed as 'must use' in a multi-site installation then that constant is WPMU_PLUGIN_DIR. Commented Dec 29, 2015 at 17:40

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In your plugin add a custom action to let other plugins start after your basic code has done the work:

// load basic classes do_action( 'my_library_loaded', plugin_dir_path( __FILE__ ) );

Other plugins can start their work now like this:

add_action( 'my_library_loaded', 'other_plugin_init_handler' );

They will never do anything if your base plugin is not active.

The other plugin’s start function gets the correct path now as parameter:

function other_plugin_init_handler( $base_path ) { require_once $base_path . 'classes/Template_Handler.php' ); $template = new Template_Handler; }

You could also offer a custom class load function in the base plugin. The basic idea here is: Do not let other plugins guess a path.

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