How do I add a plugin dependency to my customized theme?

My client bought a theme on themeforest and I need to customize it to add a like button on the top and bottom sections of to each blog post. I have decided to use this:

So far to develop HTML / CSS changes locally, I have uploaded the themeforest theme through the /wp-admin section and then updated the code accordingly and refreshed the page. This has worked.

Now I want to add the heart-this plugin, but I want to use the heart_this_hearts() template tags because I want the hearts to be in 2 specific locations.

However, if I just add the plugin as a dependency of the blog and not the theme itself, that means the theme wouldn't function by itself since it would be missing a plugin if I import it to another blog that doesn't have the hearts plugin.

My guess is that I should put it in this folder? /Users/edmundmai/Sites/mysite/wp-content/themes/mytheme ? But when I did that and refreshed the admin dashboard, it didn't show up in my list of plugins.

Do I just need to reupload the theme? Will I lose any data?

My client bought a theme on themeforest and I need to customize it to add a like button on the top and bottom sections of to each blog post. I have decided to use this: https://wordpress/plugins/heart-this/#description

So far to develop HTML / CSS changes locally, I have uploaded the themeforest theme through the /wp-admin section and then updated the code accordingly and refreshed the page. This has worked.

Now I want to add the heart-this plugin, but I want to use the heart_this_hearts() template tags because I want the hearts to be in 2 specific locations.

However, if I just add the plugin as a dependency of the blog and not the theme itself, that means the theme wouldn't function by itself since it would be missing a plugin if I import it to another blog that doesn't have the hearts plugin.

My guess is that I should put it in this folder? /Users/edmundmai/Sites/mysite/wp-content/themes/mytheme ? But when I did that and refreshed the admin dashboard, it didn't show up in my list of plugins.

Do I just need to reupload the theme? Will I lose any data?

• plugins
• themes

Share Improve this question edited Dec 7, 2018 at 16:18 bigpotato asked Dec 7, 2018 at 16:12 bigpotatobigpotato 33522 gold badges66 silver badges1717 bronze badges 1

• 2 You shouldn't tie a theme to a plugin just for a little feature like that. Just check function_exists() for the plugin function before using it in the template. Then the theme will work with or without it. – Jacob Peattie Commented Dec 7, 2018 at 16:33

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You can add such dependencies using TGM plugin activation: http://tgmpluginactivation/