Why are some of the plugins locked ?

Question

I just notice that several of the plugins are locked and will not let me disabale them I cant un check them any ideal what can cause that ?

Comments

That's right, I also wonder why this is the case!!

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Well atleast  iam not the only one having the problem

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Just change Metadata Json

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Do  not understand what you mean?

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Still waiting for a fix to this problem

Answer 1

If you go to the folder of a plugin and take a look at the metadata.json file, you see that some have the option "load_order" "after_db_init". Plugins without this option are always loaded and cannot be disabled. So, if you want to change the behavior you have to set this values in the metadata.json

Comments

I do not believe that Had this problem before the upgrade just what exactly am I suppose to change to what in the  metadata.json  file ?

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This argument was added in 1.8, so it is a new behavior. Just add the line

"load_order": "after_db_init"

to the metadata.json files. You find more information at the bottom of the page https://docs.question2answer.org/plugins/

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Where exactly would I add it and is that with or without the quotes ?

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As an example, here is the content of metadata.json for the Tag Cloud Widget that is shipped with question2answer (https://github.com/q2a/question2answer/blob/master/qa-plugin/tag-cloud-widget/metadata.json):

{
    "name": "Tag Cloud Widget",
    "description": "Provides a list of tags with size indicating popularity",
    "version": "1.0.1",
    "date": "2011-12-06",
    "author": "Question2Answer",
    "author_uri": "http://www.question2answer.org",
    "license": "GPLv2",
    "min_q2a": "1.4",
    "load_order": "after_db_init"
}

The last option is what is needed to make a plugin checkable.

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Additional note:

Some older plugins do not have a metadata.json file. In those cases, all these information are in the beginning of qa_plugin.php. You can create your own metadata.json file by copying the values from qa_plugin.php to the metadata.json

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Do I have to do that for all the plugins not letting me un check ?

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Alternatively just remove the respective plugins from the plugin directory, if you don't want them loaded in the first place.

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@ ddemuth✊
Thank you for your detailed explanation. I have made the necessary modifications as you indicated and now all the old plugins can be activated or deactivated from admin banel .☺️

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Note that some plugins require initialization before DB init, in order to work.
If that's the case, you'd be better off by creating a sub-option that serves as a plugin activator/deactivator, and wrap the plugin's code like this. (Some coding will be required):

if(qa_opt('is_my_plugin_active')) {
    // The plugin's code goes here..
}

Here's an example, in a plugin, where this is implemented:
https://github.com/GATEOverflow/q2a-qnumbering/blob/ce2be0dc4207e39a931ccf72aba489a394316df4/qa-qnumbering-layer.php#L8