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1. cognitions
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   I know how to do stuff, but I need to do it only once when a theme is activated.

   In my theme's functions file, I want to put something that says:

   when this theme is first activated {

   DO THIS STUFF ONCE

   }
   and do no tdo it again.

   I have searched hooks, filters and forums and am stuck.

   Any help appreciated.

2. Simon Fairbairn
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   Yeah, I had a bit of trouble with this one too. Although functions.php is supposed to act like a plugin, some of the plugin actions ( like the key register_activation_hook) don't work.

   One workaround I used was to check for a database variable, if it's not found (which it wouldn't be if the theme was just installed), then do all your actions, else do nothing. The code was something like:

   $check = get_option('theme_name_activation_check');
   
   if ( $check != "set" ) {
     // DO INITIALISATION STUFF
   
     // Add marker so it doesn't run in future
     add_option('theme_name_activation_check', "set");
   }

   Then, to make sure that it all happens again should the theme be de-activated and re-activated, you can use the theme_switch action.

   function delete_stuff() {
     delete_option('theme_name_activation_check');
   } 
   
   add_action('switch_theme', 'delete_stuff');

   Not pretty, but it works. If anyone has any better suggestions, I would also really love to hear them...

3. Simon Fairbairn
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   Note that the switch_theme action is only triggered when you switch away from a theme, not into it...

4. cognitions
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   I wanted to try everything with your code before replying.

   Please forgive me if this is my fault...but:

   No matter how I code it, the code seems not to distinguish between:

   $check != "set"

   and

   $check = "set"

   And it returns the same whether or not the theme_name_activation_check is in the options database table or not.

   If I could get this solution to work it would be great.

   Any comments would be appreciated.

   Many thanks.

5. Simon Fairbairn
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   Apologies, I missed out this important part: You need to wrap the first part of the code I wrote into an action so that it gets loaded. E.g.

   function first_run_options() {
     $check = get_option('theme_name_activation_check');
   
     if ( $check != "set" ) {
       // DO INITIALISATION STUFF
   
       // Add marker so it doesn't run in future
       add_option('theme_name_activation_check', "set");
     }
   
   add_action('wp_head', 'first_run_option');

   Sorry for not making that clearer. This should work now.

6. cognitions
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #

   This now works perfectly.

   Thank you so much for following this through!

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