WordPress Plugin Library

Adds some structure to your WordPress plugins.

Requires PHP 8.0+.

Installation

To use this library in your project, add it to composer.json:

composer require cedaro/wp-plugin

Creating a Plugin

A plugin is a simple object created to help bootstrap functionality by allowing you to easily retrieve plugin information, reference internal files and URLs, and register hooks.

<?php
/**
 * Plugin Name: Structure
 */

use Cedaro\WP\Plugin\PluginFactory;

if ( file_exists( __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php' ) ) {
	require( __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php' );
}

$structure = PluginFactory::create( 'structure' );

$stucture is an instance of Plugin and implements the PluginInterface, which provides a basic API to access information about the plugin.

Hook Providers

Related functionality can be encapsulated in a class called a "hook provider" that's registered when bootstrapping the plugin.

Hook providers allow you to encapsulate related functionality, maintain state without using globals, namespace methods without prefixing functions, limit access to internal methods, and make unit testing easier.

For an example, the Cedaro\WP\Plugin\Provider\I18n class is a default hook provider that automatically loads the text domain so the plugin can be translated.

The only requirement for a hook provider is that it should implement the HookProviderInterface by defining a method called register_hooks().

Hook providers are registered with the main plugin instance by calling Plugin::register_hooks() like this:

<?php
$structure
	->register_hooks( new \Cedaro\WP\Plugin\Provider\I18n() )
	->register_hooks( new \Structure\PostType\BookPostType() );

The BookPostType provider might look something like this:

<?php
namespace Structure\PostType;

use Cedaro\WP\Plugin\AbstractHookProvider;

class BookPostType extends AbstractHookProvider {
	const POST_TYPE = 'book';

	public function register_hooks() {
		$this->add_action( 'init', 'register_post_type' );
		$this->add_action( 'init', 'register_meta' );
	}

	protected function register_post_type() {
		register_post_type( static::POST_TYPE, $this->get_args() );
	}

	protected function register_meta() {
		register_meta( 'post', 'isbn', array(
			'type'              => 'string',
			'single'            => true,
			'sanitize_callback' => 'sanitize_text_field',
			'show_in_rest'      => true,
		) );
	}

	protected function get_args() {
		return array(
			'hierarchical'      => false,
			'public'            => true,
			'rest_base'         => 'books',
			'show_ui'           => true,
			'show_in_menu'      => true,
			'show_in_nav_menus' => false,
			'show_in_rest'      => true,
		);
	}
}

Protected Hook Callbacks

In WordPress, it's only possible to use public methods of a class as hook callbacks, but in the BookPostType hook provider above, the callbacks are protected methods of the class.

Locking down the API like that is possible using the HooksTrait developed by John P. Bloch.

Plugin Awareness

A hook provider may implement the PluginAwareInterface to automatically receive a reference to the plugin when its hooks are registered.

For instance, in this class the enqueue_assets() method references the internal $plugin property to retrieve the URL to a JavaScript file in the plugin.

<?php
namespace Structure\Provider;

use Cedaro\WP\Plugin\AbstractHookProvider;

class Assets extends AbstractHookProvider {
	public function register_hooks() {
		$this->add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'enqueue_assets' );
	}

	protected function enqueue_assets() {
		wp_enqueue_script(
			'structure',
			$this->plugin->get_url( 'assets/js/structure.js' )
		);
	}
}

Another example is the I18n provider mentioned earlier. It receives a reference to the plugin object so that it can use the plugin's base name and slug to load the text domain.

Classes that extend AbstractHookProvider are automatically "plugin aware."

License

Copyright (c) 2017 Cedaro, LLC

This library is licensed under MIT.

Attribution is appreciated, but not required.