Adding WordPress Plugins From The Dashboard
WordPress plugins add features to or enhance the functionality of your WordPress blog. There is now an easy way to install WordPress plugins directly from within the WordPress dashboard.
Yes WordPress plugins are one of the best features of using WordPress as a blogging platform or CMS. But I do believe you should try to avoid plugin bloat and keep WordPress plugin use to a minimum. The use of too many plugins can cause issues if not a first, when upgrading to new versions of WordPress. So remember to try to keep the use of plugins to only the essential, and try only to use those that are on the WordPress Plugin Directory.
The built-in feature to add WordPress plugins from the dashboard can be found under the main Plugins module. Click Plugins then Add New. There you will be presented with options to add a new plugin. The search option is to search and install a plugin directly and only from the WordPress Plugin Directory. You can search the term, tag or author of the plugin, or use the other options to browse for what you want. I suggest that you find the exact plugin you want to use by searching Google or other research methods and then use the plugins exact name in the search box in the WordPress dashboard.
The other option is to upload the plugin from your own computer. This option will not limit you to the WordPress Plugin Directory so you can download the plugins from any source you want. Once the plugin is downloaded keep the file in a .zip format and use that option to upload the .zip file.
Once the plugin is successfully added click Plugins, Installed to activate it or click its title to read more about it. Be advised that some more complex plugins can’t be added using this feature and will need uploaded to your plugins directory with an FTP client. These are usually plugins that require files to be placed in multiple directories.
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Comments
Hi
Thanks for this information – I wasn’t aware that you could upload plugins directly in this way. I will have to make sure I avoid the temptation to upload too many!
Neil
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Great write up. I wasn’t aware that plugins could cause issues when uploading new versions of Wordpress. I may need to declutter my Wordpress a bit.
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Thanks for the article, helped me a lot actually.
How many plugins is too many then?
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Jeff Replied:
May 6th, 2009 at 8:49 am
There isn’t really a numeric limit on plugins. One more than you actually need is too many.
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Its very easy to add plugins from the dashboard.
It will help a lot of people who are afraid to use FTP.
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nice post, i think that adding plugins from the dashboard is really easy now and i don’t think i’ll do it any other way in the future. thanks for the info. i’ll spread it around.
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I saw a one great post about advantages of using WP. And one of them was ability of using plugins, which are awesome, actually!) So I wich all of us good luck in such uneasy and amazing work of blogging!) Hope, everybody will heed Jeff`s advice
Wisp.
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Plug-ins are indeed wordpress’s best feature, specially with 2.7, the plug-in install (and upgrading) from admin dashboard has made life much easier.
You are right about being selecting in installing plug-ins not only they can cause trouble with WP version is upgraded, they can be a nightmare for you when migrating the blog from one blog to another or in taking good backup.
Without plug-ins that use their on DB tables, it’s really easy to take a backup of posts and comments with one click (no need to go to mysql for that), but as soon as you have a plug-in with data tables you are forced to take an sql dump.
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OH this is not good!
I’m going to have so many plugins now, I can’t help myself
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I agree with “Jeet”s comment. I’m very happy with WordPress 2.7 simply because it allows you plug-ins and a much easier way to install them.
-Sheldon
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It is useful for my wordpress blog,thanks
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Thank you. I didnt know about this..Useful
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Wordpress plug-ins are wonderful add-ons that really make the site more functional, effective, and customizable. Definitely gives them an advantage. Thanks for sharing this post on adding plug-ins from the dashboard, a really helpful one!
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OK, I don’t consider my self to me not smart but I don’t see ANYWHERE on my dashboard the option for plug-ins. I have been through every link and don’t see it. Will someone please tell me where it is. (So I can feel stupid!)
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Jeff Replied:
May 25th, 2009 at 7:06 am
If you are using a free WordPress.com blog and not a self-hosted WP blog that could be why.
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Hey, thanks for the info, though I’ve known about this variant before, I still have problems with uploading plugins. Maybe the problem is in my comp?
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