Show HTML form before WordPress plugin deletion

Question

I want to show interface to admin on plugin deletion, having choices (radio buttons) with a question - "Please let us know why are you deleting the plugin?"

I know about register_uninstall_hook but I cannot use HTML code in it.

Answer 1

This isn't going to be possible, primarily because for anything in your code to execute it needs to be activated, but if you're deleting a plugin it has already been deactivated.

You can't ask on deactivation because there are a lot of cases were the plugin may be automatically deactivated, e.g. updates

Most of the scenarios where you would have those hooks such as register_uninstall_hook etc would not occur on an admin page but inside an iframe.

To be able to do this, you would need the following:

• A second plugin to watch for the first plugins deactivation
• Javascript to watch for the deletion/uninstall links being clicked

This will fail if:

• The second plugin isn't installed ( people probably won't bother installing it if the only purpose is to provide you with feedback )
• The first plugin is removed from the filesystem rather than the GUI
• The second plugin is deactivated

Also consider what happens when the plugin is ran on a multisite and network activated/deactivated

My recommendation would be to not bother. Aside from the technical issues implementing it, it's bad user experience, and I can't see how it would do anything other than annoy your end users ( encouraging them to never install the plugin again )