Title: Checking for plugin install status?
Last modified: August 18, 2016

---

# Checking for plugin install status?

 *  Resolved [LostInNetwork](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lostinnetwork/)
 * (@lostinnetwork)
 * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/checking-for-plugin-install-status/)
 * I need to modify a plugin to suit my needs. To achieve this I need to check if
   another plugin is installed. How do I do that?
 * I tried to search the forums and codex, but somehow I could not find any instructions.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

 *  [Chris_K](https://wordpress.org/support/users/handysolo/)
 * (@handysolo)
 * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/checking-for-plugin-install-status/#post-636948)
 * How about `function_exists()`?
 * for example:
 *     ```
       if (function_exists('UTW_ShowTagsForCurrentPost')) {
          //do stuff
       }
       ```
   
 * That’s one I used to use before 2.3 came out
 *  Thread Starter [LostInNetwork](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lostinnetwork/)
 * (@lostinnetwork)
 * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/checking-for-plugin-install-status/#post-636962)
 * I need to assign $variable=$post->language;
    There is no function involved, obviously.
   I could of course pick a function at random, and test it. Then I would be testing
   the wrong thing, though.
 * The variable can be empty or contain data, but I don’t want error messages. I
   haven’t learned php enough to discard error messages, so I was looking for a 
   simple existence check as a quick fix.
 *  [Chris_K](https://wordpress.org/support/users/handysolo/)
 * (@handysolo)
 * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/checking-for-plugin-install-status/#post-636963)
 * So the plugin that you want to check for doesn’t have _any _functions of it’s
   own?
 * I hadn’t run into one like that. Sorry to have consumed bits. :-\
 *  Thread Starter [LostInNetwork](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lostinnetwork/)
 * (@lostinnetwork)
 * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/checking-for-plugin-install-status/#post-636965)
 * I’m trying to make Gengo work with Eventcalendar3.
 * Gengo delivers the data structures I need, but it doesn’t have the functions 
   I need (or the documentation that I would need). Either I hack Gengo, or access
   the data without building functions of my own.
 * Gengo has lots of functions such as the_language, the_translations, the_translator…
   Let’s assume that I do a function_exists(the_language) check. The existence of
   that function does not necessarily mean that Gengo would be installed. It could
   be just about any plugin that has a the_language function. I want to make sure
   that the language that is read from the post, is indeed valid data, and that 
   it doesn’t cause any errors.
 * Anyway, if there is no is_installed() function or similar, then I must just pick
   some random function. Maybe I’ll find some function that has a unique name, does
   not get renamed or dropped 🙁 Or make my own (allready did, but that’s really
   unorthodox way of doing things)
 *  [Chris_K](https://wordpress.org/support/users/handysolo/)
 * (@handysolo)
 * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/checking-for-plugin-install-status/#post-636997)
 * What about something like [this](http://mu.wordpress.org/forums/topic.php?id=322&page&replies=8#post-1740)?
 *  [brockangelo](https://wordpress.org/support/users/brockangelo/)
 * (@brockangelo)
 * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/checking-for-plugin-install-status/#post-637018)
 * Granted, I’m not a pro coder – but wouldn’t an active plugin show up in the Plugins
   panel?
 *  Thread Starter [LostInNetwork](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lostinnetwork/)
 * (@lostinnetwork)
 * [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/checking-for-plugin-install-status/#post-637180)
 * Thank! That was just what I was looking for.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

The topic ‘Checking for plugin install status?’ is closed to new replies.

 * 7 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [LostInNetwork](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lostinnetwork/)
 * Last activity: [18 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/checking-for-plugin-install-status/#post-637180)
 * Status: resolved

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