WordPress Plugin Construction for the Non-Programmer: Part III

First, a couple of guidelines for getting the most out of this series:

How to Create a Very Basic WordPress Plugin

WordPress Plugin Creation for the Non-Programmer: Part II

Five Official “Cover my Butt” Statements

• At the time of this writing, the most up to date WordPress version is 3.4.1 It might be different by the time you read this.
• I’m assuming you already know how to install a basic WordPress site, if you’re unsure please see their www.wordpress.org.
• Please do NOT attempt anything in these tutorials on one of your live WordPress sites. Rather, set up a subdomain and a brand new WordPress installation to use for plugin testing purposes only.
• If you’re confused by any of the code or terminology above, please go back and read the first two posts in this series.

Recap of the Basic WordPress Plugin Structure

The following is the code the WordPress Plugin named “Basic” which we’ve been creating in these tutorials.

{code type=php}

<?php

/*/

Plugin Name: Basic

Plugin URI: www.yourwebsiteurl.com

Description: Demonstrates how a WP plugin works and how to create a unique class for your WordPress plugin.

Version: 101

Author: Your Name

Author URI:  www.yourwebsiteurl.com

/*/

// check for existing class //

if(!class_exists(“YourBrandWPBasic”)){

class YourBrandWPBasic {

function YourBrandWPConstructor {

}

}//close check for existing class//

//if the class exists, assign a handler to it//

If(class_exists(“YourBrandWPBasic”)) {

$your_brand_wp_basic = new YourBrandWPBasic();

}//close assignment of handler//

?>

Remember that the comments which are surrounded by the “//” characters explain exactly what the code is either about to do or has just done. These comments will not be read and processed by WordPress. They’re strictly in place to help you or anyone who will be working on your plugin in the future to keep track of what the code is doing

Step #1: Add Some More Tools (Methods) into Your Handler’s Toolbox (Class)

In the last tutorial, we talked about how your class was like your toolbox, the methods (also called functions) inside it were like the tools and the “handler” was like the magic WordPress elf who will be handling your class and going to work in the WordPress Workshop.

As you can see, the class (toolbox) “YourBrandWPBasic” only has one tool (method) in it right now, which is called “YourBrandWPConstructor.” So when your WordPress elf opens up his toolbox to go to work, he only finds one tool…not very efficient. So let’s add two new tools before we give your handler a task to perform in the WordPress Workshop.

The following code is the class which we created in the last tutorial, with two new methods (functions) added. The methods have been named “Brand Title” and “Brand Content.”

{code type=php}

<?php

if(!class_exists(“YourBrandWPBasic”)) {

// create class //

class YourBrandWPBasic {

function BrandTitle($title) {

$title = “<h1>Woah!</h1>”;

return $title;

} // close brand title method //

function BrandContent($content) {

$content = “<p>The Basic Plugin has taken over your WordPress site!</p>”;

return $content;

} // close brand content method//

function YourBrandWPConstructor(){

}//close constructor //

} // close class //

} //close check or existing class //

?>

Notice that we’ve followed the principles you learned in the first tutorial of this series and added a function which set the variable “$title” to equal “Woah!” and the variable “$content” to equal “The Basic Plugin has taken over your WordPress site!” The peculiar looking characters surrounded by “<” and “>” are not PHP, but html “tags.”

These html tags tell WordPress what type of content you want it to echo out. For example “p” stands for paragraph. So by putting <p> (the opening tag) at the start of your content and </p> (the closing tag) at the end, you’re telling WordPress to format that text using the font size and style it normally uses for paragraphs.

The “h1” stands for “Header 1” and it tells WordPress to format that text as it normally would the primary (first) headers on your site. So if you were to translate this method into plain English…

{code type=php}

<?php

function BrandContent($title) {

$content = “<p>The Basic Plugin has taken over your WordPress site!</p>”;

return $content;

} // close brand content method//

?>

…it would read like this:

“WordPress!  When I use the tool “BrandTitle” I want you to format the content inside <h1> like you would a primary header!”

The same principle applies for the second method which you named “BrandContent.” Of course, the immediate question is how these tools are going to be used to make things happen in the WordPress Workshop.

Step #2: Give Your New “Tools” to Your Handler and Have Him Go to Work

Once you’ve got your methods created, assigning them to your handler is easy. You simple use WordPress filters, as we talked about in the first tutorial of this series to tell your handler where the tools will be used. So here’s what your handler assignment (instance) will look like with the two new methods applied:

{code type=php}

<?php

//if the class exists, assign a handler to it//

if(class_exists(YourBrandWPBasic)){

$your_brand_wp_basic = new YourBrandWPBasic();

// use brand title method to change title //

add_filter(‘the_title’,array($your_brand_wp_basic, ‘BrandTitle’),1);

// use brand title method to change content //

add_filter(‘the_content’,array($your_brand_wp_basic, ‘BrandContent’),1);

}//close assignment of handler//

?>

Notice the two lines which start with “add_filter,” those functions tell WordPress to pass its content through the filters you assign between “(“ and “)” before displaying that content on your blog. Remember that WordPress uses “hooks” to determine what type of content to filter.

The hook which is used in the first line is “the_content” and the second uses the hook “the_title.” The only difference between this example and the example of how we used this filter in the first tutorial is that instead of your function, you have some code which says “array($your_brand_wp_basic, ‘BrandTitle’) after your first comma.

This appears confusing at first, but notice that you’re simply telling WordPress that your handler ($your_brand_wp_basic) is grabbing the tool named “BrandTitle” out of his toolbox (the “YourBrandWPBasic” class) and using that tool to manipulate the title of your WordPress site. That PHP function which says “array” simply tells WordPress that instead of a single function name, you’re passing it an array of data to represent the function you want to filter the content through.

It’s the same principle with the filter for ‘the_content,’ so what you’ll end up with is a post title and post content which reads like this:

That last little “1” that you see simply tells WordPress to make that filter it’s #1 priority. So if you were to translate this code into plain English:

add_filter(‘the_content’,array($your_brand_wp_basic, ‘BrandContent’),1);

…it would read like this:

“WordPress!  This is “$your_brand_wp_basic.” I’m the official handler for the Basic Plugin and I want you to use the tool named “BrandContent” to filter all your post content so that reads The Basic Plugin has taken over your WordPress site! “ This will be a #1 priority, so let’s make it happen!”

If any of the terminology here is confusing, please check out the first two tutorials in this series, but it should be fairly simple when you read it in English commands.

If you’d like to test out the code we’ve written so far, I’ve left the entire plugin code below:

{code type=php}

<?php

/*/

Plugin Name: Basic

Plugin URI: www.yourwebsiteurl.com

Description: Demonstrates how a WP plugin works and how to create a unique class for your WordPress plugin.

Version: 101

Author: Your Name

Author URI:  www.yourwebsiteurl.com

/*/

// check for existing class //

if(!class_exists(“YourBrandWPBasic”)) {

// create class //

class YourBrandWPBasic {

function BrandTitle($title) {

$title = “<h1>Woah!</h1>”;

return $title;

} // close brand title method //

function BrandContent($content) {

$content = “<p>The Basic Plugin has taken over your WordPress site!</p>”;

return $content;

} // close brand content method//

function YourBrandWPConstructor(){

}//close constructor //

} // close class //

} //close check or existing class //

//if the class exists, assign a handler to it//

if(class_exists(YourBrandWPBasic)){

$your_brand_wp_basic = new YourBrandWPBasic();

// use brand title method to take over title //

add_filter(‘the_title’,array($your_brand_wp_basic, ‘BrandTitle’),1);

// use brand title method to take over content //

add_filter(‘the_content’,array($your_brand_wp_basic, ‘BrandContent’),1);

}//close assignment of handler//

?>

I suggest experimenting with this by changing the actual content of the title and post or perhaps by trying a few new filters. Just be sure that you’re working on a WordPress testing site instead of a live one. In the next tutorial, we’ll start working on making your plugin do things within the WordPress admin panel.

Comments and questions are welcome.

-Till next time, Seth C