Title: Developing WordPress Theme with plugins installed?
Last modified: August 21, 2016

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# Developing WordPress Theme with plugins installed?

 *  Resolved [fatty123](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fatty123/)
 * (@fatty123)
 * [12 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/developing-wordpress-theme-with-plugins-installed/)
 * I have a wordpress theme that I want to let people to download and use it as 
   their own theme.
 * The problems is, I have used few plugins inside the theme and those plugins will
   not be install when user switch to my theme.
 * How do I bundled the plugins together with my theme?
 * Thanks in advance

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  [Josh](https://wordpress.org/support/users/josh401/)
 * (@josh401)
 * [12 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/developing-wordpress-theme-with-plugins-installed/#post-3887628)
 * There really isn’t a way to “bundle” plugins with your theme. You would need 
   to require the user to download and install the plugins separately.
 * Alternatively, you can reverse-engineer the plugins… and add them as part of 
   your theme. You can manipulate the code… run it from your themes functions.php
   file.. and then it will be a part of the “bundle”.
 * I don’t know of any other way to “bundle” plugins with a theme. Other than making
   the entire thing a .zip file.. and providing instructions to the user to place
   the theme in the themes directory, and the plugins into the plugins directory.
 *  Thread Starter [fatty123](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fatty123/)
 * (@fatty123)
 * [12 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/developing-wordpress-theme-with-plugins-installed/#post-3887647)
 * Thanks for the info Josh, I think the best way for now is reverse engineer the
   plugins like you mentioned. Hope wordpress will look into this and develop a 
   better way to add plugins into our theme.
 *  [Josh](https://wordpress.org/support/users/josh401/)
 * (@josh401)
 * [12 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/developing-wordpress-theme-with-plugins-installed/#post-3887652)
 * Agreed.
 * I see a lot of theme developers use a metabox or sidebar widget on their admin
   pages to list “recommended plugins”, or “required plugins”. Perhaps this might
   be an option for you in the meantime??
 * Also, you can generate an admin notice after theme installation… prompting the
   user to then ‘search and install’ the suggested plugins.
 * You could keep the admin notice on the screen (along with a button to dismiss
   at anytime, of course) until the user has installed all the suggested plugins.
 * Just thinking out loud here… 😉
 *  Thread Starter [fatty123](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fatty123/)
 * (@fatty123)
 * [12 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/developing-wordpress-theme-with-plugins-installed/#post-3887678)
 * Thanks again for the tips :), I think for core plugins like ‘advance custom fields’
   or ‘Buddy Press’… I will try embed into my function theme.If it gets too problematic
   then will just leave a required plugins notice for them. Other non essential 
   plugins like slider or social networks button will leave it as a recommended 
   plugins.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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## Tags

 * [custom](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/custom/)
 * [development](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/development/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 4 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [fatty123](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fatty123/)
 * Last activity: [12 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/developing-wordpress-theme-with-plugins-installed/#post-3887678)
 * Status: resolved

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