Upload or delete WP plugins without a FTP account?

Question

Is there a way to upload or delete plugins in WordPress without having a ftp account or credentials?

I would like to manage them through the WordPress interface.

Answer 1

You can do this by default, if you configure your WordPress installation just so. Typically, on a live server, it works out of the box - just hit 'delete' on a de-activated plugin. If it doesn't work, however, you'll get a page asking you for FTP credentials. In this case you need to check your CHMOD value on wp-content/plugins. I can't tell you exactly what it needs to be, and asking things 777 is generally a bad idea, but that should narrow it down. Start low (655 or so) and increase until it works, or wait for an exact answer on that part.

Answer 2

If you are the administrator, you should be able to delete or install plugins right from the admin interface. (assuming it's been setup correctly.) Some plugins will require FTP, but the majority of them are one-click installs. That's with the few most recent versions of WP anyways. If you have a very old install, you'll still need FTP.

Answer 3

For non-FTP ....Follow the link from D Lambert above for info on installing from within wordpress using a zip file (for non wordpress.org hosted plugins). Basically in plugins menu click Add new / Upload

Bear in mind the following though when using zip upload:

if the plugin has been zipped at the folder level, not at the lower file level, it will appear to install, but then you may get an invalid plugin header message. it is not invalid.. more details here: http://webdesign.anmari.com/2312/activation-error-plugin-does-not-have-valid-header-still-activates/

Also if upgrading zip file must be named exactly same as existing folder, else a new folder will be created with duplicate plugin.

Answer 4

It really depends on your server settings, I've dealt with this last year somewhere here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1113691/a-general-linux-file-permissions-question-apache-and-wordpress

I figured out that in order for the plugins, themes to get installed and updated automatically in WordPress, you can:

• Specify the FTP credentials explicitly in your WordPress config
• Run your PHP files using a su environment, with suPHP - this only works if you have root privileges on your server.

Hope that helped, cheers ~