There is a directory for plugins in your wordpress installation. The location of this directory is important and its predictable for all wordpress setups. This article covers a few facts regarding how wordpress uses the plugins directory and the plugins within it.
DIRECTORY HIERARCHY
A wordpress installation has many folders in it. To find the folder with the plugins in it, you need to navigate through your server file directory. You are looking for the following layout – wp-content/plugins Before that could be any number of directories. It really depends on your server and how its setup. Many shared hostings will have something referring to their name and public_html before it, e.g. – testuser/public_html/wp-content/plugins Its important to also note that wordpress can be installed in any directory on your server. So the goal is to first navigate to where wordpress is installed and then navigate down through its folders to the plugin directory
PLUGIN DIRECTORY IMPORTANCE
If the directory folder is not there, wordpress may continue to run but will probably produce a white screen. Whatever the result, it will not allow the installation of any plugins. Also, any plugins that were previously, will be de-activated.
This is a great point to note when things are going badly. Sometimes you will install a plugin that uses too many resources or simply stops working correctly. This can have catastrophic results like your website not being available. A smart thing to do that that point, is to remove the plugin from the plugins directory. Once you reload the site, the plugin is automatically deactivated. You can put it back into the plugins folder if you want, it still wont work again until you re-activate it manually
VIEWING THE DIRECTORY
You can edit files in your wordpress directory in one of two ways. You can edit files via
- the wordpess editor under the admin menu appearance -> editor
- FTP login directly to your server
The first method is limited. It won’t show you all of the directory folders at the same time. Some times, it wont show you all of the files available in the folder. The admin editor is definitely for novices or those who have very simple changes to implement The second option is most popular. You can use a free program like filezilla to login to your server. At that point, you can drag and drop files between your server and your desktop. The application provides a graphical interface to your server directories allowing you to navigate the server like you do your own computer.
CONCLUSION
Understanding the directory architecture of wordpress is important for troubleshooting and expanding functionality. The plugins folder is very important to the proper functionality of wordpress. Luckily, this directory is in a predictable location on every wordpress installation. The only trouble is finding where on the server, wordpress was installed
