wbf/pluginsframework

An helper component for Wordpress plugin development

Plugins Framework

Plugins Framework component is an set of tools and extensible classes to help WordPress plugins developers., _(*1)

It supports a "convention over configuration" principle to keep the environment clean and maintainable., _(*2)

Getting started

You start the development of a new plugin either by extending BasePlugin or TemplatePlugin., _(*3)

The latter makes available a set of methods to add theme-overridable templates to the plugin., _(*4)

Simple plugin

You can check out here a barebone plugin., _(*5)

BasePlugin takes care of:, _(*6)

• Initializing useful vars like plugin_dir, plugin_path, plugin_relative_dir, ect...
• Setting up the localization domain
• Linking together a standard "convention over configuration" structure (see below)
• Storing actions and filters added by plugin

And provides a number of useful functions:, _(*7)

• A complete caching mechanism based on transients
• The ability to setup a custom update server
• and much more...

Plugin directories structure

WBF Plugin Framework supports an arbitrary standardized structure to enhance plugins maintainability., _(*8)

The most basic plugin structure is the shown below:, _(*9)

.
|-src/
|---includes/
|-----index.php
|-----wbf-plugin-check-functions.php
|---Plugin.php
|-index.php
|-waboot-sample.php

If you want to split the code for the frontend from the code for the dashboard, you can use a structure like this:, _(*10)

.
|-src/
|---includes/
|-----index.php
|-----wbf-plugin-check-functions.php
|---Admin.php
|---Frontend.php
|---Plugin.php
|-index.php
|-waboot-sample.php

The framework automatically recognizes the structure and links Plugin, Admin and Frontend class instances together., _(*11)

The Loader instance within Plugin will receive a reference to both Frontend and Admin, and those instances will receive a reference to Plugin in their constructors., _(*12)

A practical example can be found here., _(*13)

If you have a complex plugin with many classes and files, you can choose to further split the structure:, _(*14)

.
|-src/
|---includes/
|-----index.php
|-----wbf-plugin-check-functions.php
|---admin/
|-----Admin.php
|-----more-files...
|-----more-files...
|---frontend/
|-----Frontend.php
|-----more-files...
|-----more-files...
|---Plugin.php
|-index.php
|-waboot-sample.php

An example can be found here., _(*15)

Template plugin

Plugins that extends TemplatePlugin can inject their template into Wordpress "template_include" mechanism., _(*16)

Register common templates, _(*17)

You can add a common wordpress template (selectable through admin dashboard) with:, _(*18)

$this->add_template("Custom Page Template",$this->get_src_dir()."/templates/custom-page-template.php");

Register hierarchy templates, _(*19)

The hierarchy templates are loaded automatically. During 'init' the framework register any templates (not previously registered) under /src/templates as hierarchy template. Then during 'template_include' it will serve any registered templates not overridden by the theme from the plugin directory., _(*20)

You can manually register hierarchy template with:, _(*21)

$this->add_hierarchy_template("single-sample-post-type.php", $this->get_src_dir()."/custom_hierarchy_templates/single-sample-post-type.php");

An example con be found here., _(*22)

More features

Using built-in cache mechanism, _(*23)

BasePlugin has a built-in caching feature based on transients which allows to easily organize them in groups and nodes., _(*24)

The two main methods are: maybe_set_transient(<transient_name>) and maybe_get_transient(<transient_name>)., _(*25)

Any transient name added with set method will be prefixed with plugin name, for example, given "sample-plugin" as plugin name: maybe_set_transient("posts") will create a transient named: sample-plugin[posts]; "posts" will become a new "node type"., _(*26)

You can create node part by putting a colon between the node type name and the node part id. For example, let's say you have a gallery post type, and you want to cache the images in each gallery: you can achieve that with something similiar to:, _(*27)

//Somewhere in plugin:
$this->loader->add_action("save_post", $this, "cache_my_images")

//Somewhere else:
public function cache_my_images($post_id){
    //Checking... checking....
    $this->maybe_set_transient("gallery:{$post_id}");
}

Then you can selectively retrieve or delete the cache. For example:, _(*28)

//Delete the cache for the gallery with ID 12
$this->clear_transients("gallery",12)

//Delete the caches for all galleries
$this->clear_transients("gallery")

//Delete all transients
$this->clear_transients()

Adding custom links for the plugin in Wordpress plugins list, _(*29)

From constructor of the class that extends BasePlugin:, _(*30)

$this->add_action_links([
    [
        'name' => "New link"
        'link' => "/path/to/link"
    ],
    //more links
]);

Setting up an update server, _(*31)

From the constructor of the class that extends BasePlugin: [...], _(*32)

$this->set_update_server("my/end/point");

Endpoint must be compatible with CustomUpdater WBF component., _(*33)

For more info about CustomUpdater WBF component: click here., _(*34)

Register a license, _(*35)

From the constructor of the class that extends BasePlugin:, _(*36)

$license = new \My\License("my-license"); //a class which extends \WBF\components\license\License and implements \WBF\components\license\Licence_Interface
$this->register_license($license);

You can also link a license to the custom updater (the update will be blocked with invalid licenses), _(*37)

$license = new \My\License("my-license");
$this->set_update_server("my/end/point",$license);

For more info about License WBF component: click here., _(*38)