## Abandoned plugins/themes detection by local file date by laukatudev · Pull Request #906 · mainwp/mainwp

laukatudev · 2026-10-01T11:04:00Z

Abandoned plugins/themes detection by local file date

Issue #901

This needs the matching MainWP Child pull request: mainwp/mainwp-child#506

The setting does nothing useful until the child can act on it, and the child has nothing to show here until this dashboard sends the flag and renders the result.

Premium and custom plugins (and themes) never get a last updated date from WordPress.org, so the abandoned check has always skipped them. I added an optional fallback that uses the modification time of the main file on the child when WordPress.org has no date for that item.

The existing tolerance still decides how old is old enough. I kept that as one number on purpose, so there isn't a second days setting to keep in sync with the first.

The check stays off by default. I didn't want existing installs to start flagging premium plugins the moment they update.

What I changed

New toggle under Settings → Updates, right under Abandoned plugins/themes tolerance: Abandoned check by local file date. Default off. The tooltip says it only applies when WordPress.org returns no last updated date, and that the age is compared with the tolerance above.
On sync I send that flag to the child as abandonedCheckByLocalDate, next to the tolerance we already send.
The same option is readable and writable through the v2 settings REST API, and it shows up on the Server Information page.
When a row was detected from the file date, the abandoned lists say Main file modified X days ago instead of Updated X days ago. I wanted that distinction visible, because "updated" would be misleading when we never got an update date. WordPress.org rows keep the old wording. This is on the per site, per plugin/theme, per group, and single site update views.

Happy to change the wording if something else reads better.

How to test

Use this dashboard build together with the child build from the other PR.

Install a plugin that is not on WordPress.org (premium, or a dummy plugin with a made-up slug) on the child. Age its main PHP file past the tolerance. With the default of 365 days, 400 days is a safe value:

touch -d "400 days ago" wp-content/plugins/<slug>/<slug>.php

For a theme, age style.css the same way.
Turn on Abandoned check by local file date, save, and sync the child.
The row will usually not be there yet. See Forcing a scan below. After that second sync, the plugin should show under Abandoned plugins as Main file modified N days ago.
A plugin that WordPress.org does date should still say Updated N days ago, same as before.
Turn the toggle off, sync again, and the file-date row should drop off. WordPress.org abandoned rows should stay.

The child has to be able to reach api.wordpress.org. If that request fails, the child skips the plugin instead of treating it as undated. (Was already how MainWP worked, I did not change that.)

Forcing a scan for testing

I'm fine with production waiting until the next regular scan (the MainWP child caches this for up to a couple of days, I did not modify that). For immediate review I had to force it, and reviewers will too.

The child only asks WordPress.org in a background job, and it skips that job when a finished cache is already stored. A plugin you install for the test, or a site that already completed a scan before this build, will not be looked at until that cache is thrown away.

Change Abandoned plugins/themes tolerance by one day (365 → 364), save, and sync. That tells the child to drop the cached scan and queue a new one.
On the child, let WP-Cron run. Visit the child site a few times, a few seconds apart.
Sync again from the dashboard. 1-2 times was enough for my testing.

Open to feedback on any of this.

Summary by CodeRabbit

New Features
- Added a General Settings option to check for abandoned plugins and themes using their local file date when WordPress.org has no last-updated date. The setting is also available through the settings API and appears in server information.
Improvements
- Abandoned plugin and theme notices now clarify whether the reported age is based on the last update or when the main file was modified.

coderabbitai · 2026-10-01T11:04:17Z

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pages/page-mainwp-server-information-handler.php

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pages/page-mainwp-server-information-handler.php

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Walkthrough

A default-off option controls whether child sync requests enable abandoned checks by local date. General Settings, the REST API, and the settings report expose the option. Abandoned plugin and theme views use detection-specific age wording.

Changes: Abandoned Check by Local Date

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Configure and transmit the setting `pages/page-mainwp-settings-indicator.php`, `pages/page-mainwp-settings.php`, `includes/rest-api/controller/version2/class-mainwp-rest-settings-controller.php`, `pages/page-mainwp-server-information-handler.php`, `class/class-mainwp-sync.php`	General Settings saves the option as `1` or `0`, with a default of `0`. The REST API accepts and returns the integer field, and the settings report displays it as Yes or No. Child sync requests include the option normalized to `1` or `0`.
Display detection-specific age notices `class/class-mainwp-manage-sites-update-view.php`, `pages/page-mainwp-updates-per-group.php`, `pages/page-mainwp-updates-per-item.php`, `pages/page-mainwp-updates-per-site.php`	Abandoned plugin and theme notices say “Main file modified” when `detection` is `file_mtime`. Other or missing detection values retain the existing “Updated” wording.

Priority: Normal

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~10 minutes

Change: Feature

Merge Risk: Minimal · up to 8f86f

The reporting change appears mergeable after normal checks.

Security architecture risk: Low · up to e4095

The setting is optional and defaults off. The reviewed dashboard paths retain existing access checks and escaped output, with no demonstrated increase in attacker authority. Compatibility and cleanup after disabling the setting remain unverified because the matching Child implementation is not included.

Retained concerns
No architecture-level concerns identified.

Security review details

Security Blast Radius

inferred — An authorized dashboard policy write can affect connected sites as they synchronize. Returned abandoned metadata is stored under the selected website and feeds dashboard reporting; the inspected path does not give that metadata control over a different website identity.

Trust Boundaries and Controls

observed — The settings REST read and edit routes retain their existing permission callback, which delegates to the shared authentication permission check. The added field introduces no separate route or permission path.
observed — The form-save path checks the Settings nonce and requires is_admin before writing dashboard-global settings. Rendering the settings form separately requires manage_dashboard_settings.
observed — Across single-site, per-site, per-item, and per-group notices, Child-provided detection values select between fixed translated strings, and the resulting notice is HTML-escaped. The discriminator is not emitted as raw markup.

Resilience and Maintainability Implications

inferred — The inspected dashboard handler replaces supplied abandoned datasets but leaves existing values untouched when those fields are absent. Consequently, the new reporting mode inherits the existing sync-state model; complete convergence after failures, overlapping syncs, or policy reversal cannot be established without the Child contract and recovery behavior.

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✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly summarizes the main change: abandoned plugin and theme detection using local file dates.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

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Actionable comments posted: 2

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Inline comments:
Review comments at @class/class-mainwp-sync.php:
- Line 227: The Dashboard sends the `abandonedCheckByLocalDate` setting, but the
Child-side check does not consume it. Update the Child handler that reads
`$_POST['which']` to also read and apply `abandonedCheckByLocalDate` when
running the plugin or theme check, so the Dashboard option affects the check.

Review comments at @pages/page-mainwp-server-information-handler.php:
- Line 1489: Change the format_boolean_label() call in
get_general_settings_report_rows() from late-static binding to self-binding so
subclasses cannot redirect the call to a private method; keep the existing
argument and result behavior unchanged.

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Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between ca4eb35 and e409583.

📒 Files selected for processing (9)

class/class-mainwp-manage-sites-update-view.php
class/class-mainwp-sync.php
includes/rest-api/controller/version2/class-mainwp-rest-settings-controller.php
pages/page-mainwp-server-information-handler.php
pages/page-mainwp-settings-indicator.php
pages/page-mainwp-settings.php
pages/page-mainwp-updates-per-group.php
pages/page-mainwp-updates-per-item.php
pages/page-mainwp-updates-per-site.php

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This was referenced Oct 1, 2026

## Abandoned plugins/themes detection by local file date mainwp/mainwp-child#506

Merged

Abandoned plugins/themes: detect premium and unlisted items that are not on wordpress.org #901

Closed

coderabbitai Bot requested changes Oct 1, 2026

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Comment thread class/class-mainwp-sync.php Resolved

Comment thread pages/page-mainwp-server-information-handler.php Resolved

coderabbitai Bot approved these changes Oct 7, 2026

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laukatudev closed this Oct 26, 2026

laukatudev force-pushed the main branch from 35d6120 to 9cf3b8f Compare October 26, 2026 11:28

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## Abandoned plugins/themes detection by local file date - #906

## Abandoned plugins/themes detection by local file date#906
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