A wordpress dev – a talented bloke who’s made over 30 free plugins – has just posted code on Matt Mullenweg’s web hosting platform that basically locks down themes and plugins from being used.
A well known wordpress plugin developer has just made some code available for other plugin and theme developers to use – and its sole purpose is to stop users from being able to access their plugins and themes on Matt Mullenweg’s WordPress.com commercial web hosting platform.
The Code – What does it all Do
This plugin code was written specifically so that other theme and plugin developers can stop their stuff being activated or used on WordPress.com hosted sites . The code quietly checks to see if its being used on WordPress.com, and if so – it tells the user that the functionality is blocked. The developer has also gone out of his way to leave a detailed explanation of how its all supposed to work and has essentially gone through the code step by step for anyone who wants to know.
What the Code Does – in a nutshell
- it checks the environment to see if its internal to the WordPress.com their site
- it deactivates the plugin (makes it unusable)
- it only does that on the admin side – so users wont see any issues on the front end
Why the code was written
Robert DeVore, the developer , tweeted that the code is a way for him and possibly other devs to basically “stick it to Matt” – a way to send a message of disapproval to Matt Mullenweg about some of the stuff hes been doing – and in particular whats been going on with the way hes been running the show
You can grab the code off his website here if you want to take a look*
How to Stop Your Plugins & Themes from Being Used on WordPress.com Hosting