I always wrap plugin functionality by using custom functions.

Basically, the Function checks wether a plugin is avalable in order of preference, and - if possible - tries to accomplish the same task with a number of Custom Functions. That way, the customer can opt for the faster plugin of his choice, but the solution will always work without as well.

This saves me a lot of time rewriting my solutions and keeps the code portable. Especially a good idea when you rely on free plugins like Abstrakt's shell plug, which has not been ported to MacIntel, while a successor like Zippshell is not available for all platforms.

In a worst case scenario, you just rewrite the CF and the solution works with a different plugin by changing just a couple of lines of code.

Christian Jaeger, Hannover

That is a very sensible approach, Christian. I recommended this idea in my plugin session at Devcon last year.

If you have time to post an example file sometime, I'd love to link to it from my website.