Being fairly new to Wordpress, I’m trying to understand how to implement a sequence of pages other than the sequence suggested by the template hierarchy.
Consider (as an example) a website where different products can be purchased. We have the custom post type “products”. Products can be selected and added to the cart. When the user wants to check out, he will be offered a sequence of pages for doing the checkout for one or more products.
What would be the best way to implement such a sequence? In normal websites, it is just a number of pages linking to each other. In Wordpress, at the time of writing the code the page id’s are unknown and will only be known after creating the pages in wp admin. After this, we can use the page id’s, but when rolling out to a different environment (for example from development to test or live), we have to create the pages again in wp admin, resulting in new page id’s. The page id’s will have to be altered in code. This is undesirable in my opinion, error prone, right?
Is there a way of dealing with this in Wordpress other than synchronizing databases? In other words, what is the best design for implementing a sequence of pages linking to each other, other than the normal wordpress template hierarchy flow?
As a solution I created a way to access permalinks based on logical id's both from php and javascript. When rolling out to a different environment only the mappings from logical id's to urls should be changed in one array in functions.php and you're done.
To enqueue your .js file in functions.php:
wp_register_script( 'aom_script', get_template_directory_uri() . '/script.js', array('jquery') );
wp_localize_script( 'aom_script', 'my_js_permalinks', aom_get_page_permalinks() );
wp_enqueue_script('aom_script');
Code in functions.php for storing and accessing the permalinks:
function aom_get_page_permalinks() {
$page_permalinks = array(
"home"=>get_bloginfo('url'),
"someurl"=>get_permalink(14),
"anotherurl"=>get_permalink(16)
);
return $page_permalinks;
}
function aom_get_page_permalink($page_id) {
$page_permalinks = aom_get_page_permalinks();
return $page_permalinks[$page_id];
}
Now if you need a permalink in php:
aom_get_page_permalink('someurl');
And if you need a permalink in javascript:
my_js_permalinks.someurl;
Related
I created a new navigation item on the left for my WP Admin:
add_action( 'admin_menu', 'addManagementMenuItem' );
function addManagementMenuItem(){
add_menu_page('Issue Management', 'Issue Management', 'manage_options', 'issue_management_slug', 'issue_management_building_function','',3);
}
function issue_management_building_function(){
if(!current_user_can('manage_options')){
}
else {
?>
...
...
So where I have the ellipsis ... is where my HTML begins and I write out some information to the page with various php echo statements to print some data out.
What I would like to do is now give the user the ability to enter in a filter and press submit. This would issue a POST to another page which would receive the post data, run some stuff, and spit out something else to the screen. I was just thinking this would take the user away from the WP-ADMIN area entirely (what I want to do is keep the user all within the right pane so it looks like it's natively happening on WordPress under my new admin area)
Something feels wrong about this approach above where I'm putting tons of html into functions.php - what is the way to create pages for a custom admin section where I can do things like post forms and go to multiple pages?
I was thinking the best solution would be to put an iframe in my injected HTML in functions.php, and then the pages can talk to themselves just like normal behind the scenes in WP-admin.
Could anyone point me in the right direction?
thanks!
Considering the user input/_POST features you'd like to add to this, you may want to consider building this functionality out as your own plugin. I've always kept custom functionality limited to non-user interaction in the functions.php file, but anything further would probably be better fit as it's own plugin.
For example, what if you created a plugin directory named nullhypothesis:
add_action( 'admin_menu', 'addManagementMenuItem' );
function addManagementMenuItem(){
add_menu_page('Issue Management', 'Issue Management', 'manage_options', 'nullhypothesis/file_to_do_your_bidding.php', 'issue_management_building_function','',3);
}
It's that fourth parameter that in the documentation mentions that you should include the menu_slug, but it doesn't necessarily need to only be a function - it can also be a file you define.
Then, in your file_to_do_your_bidding.php file (within your plugin), you can add whatever _POST functionality you'd need it to. It could also exist as the 'admin' page that the administrator/whoever interacts with.
Was that what you were looking for?
I am writing a WordPress plugin that has an AJAX element to it - blocks of HTML are fetched by the front end from the plugin using AJAX.
I am having difficulty joining up the pieces here, and I suspect it is just a terminology issue. How would I implement a page completely provided by the plugin?
The content of the page will be HTML - the plugin can generate this in response to POST or GET parameters.
There needs to be a route to this page. The route does not have to be user-friendly or a REST style - just some kind of URI that gets to the plugin. Is there perhaps a way to register a custom page with an arbitrary name, without having to create it as a WP post?
I would like all this to be self-contained in the plugin, so should not involve the administrator having to create posts or pages, or have to add anything to the theme.
Ideally I would avoid any URLs that go into the wp-admin directory. End users don't belong in here.
I would strongly suggest referring to https://codex.wordpress.org/AJAX_in_Plugins#Ajax_on_the_Viewer-Facing_Side
You need to have a php script in your plugin directory that returns what you request, and you need to determine that url at run time for reference in your ajax. The above link gives an example for enqueuing and using wp_localize_script() to provide the url for your custom php script.
wp_enqueue_script( 'ajax-script',
plugins_url( '/js/my_query.js', __FILE__ ), array('jquery') );
// in JavaScript, object properties are accessed as
// ajax_object.ajax_url, ajax_object.we_value
wp_localize_script( 'ajax-script', 'ajax_object',
array( 'ajax_url' => plugins_url( '/php/myapi.php' ));
Your javascript file will be included on every page and will listen for events on the page which require a block of HTML, as you've described it.
Your file myapi.php then needs to take a request, probably using a query string, get the appropriate content from the wordpress api, and respond with said content, which your javascript will put into place.
To have access to the wordpress api as well though, you have two options:
Force wordpress to run starting with your file, by including wp-load.php. This is probably not the cleanest way.
Set up a custom page or slug to direct to your plugin.
I would advise the second option, and advise a slug, in which case you may find this post helpful: wp_rewrite in a WordPress Plugin
From Jason's comment, based on the link above:
The rewrite rules are mentioned a lot, but are really a distraction -
they just help to make URLs look more "friendly", which was not an
objective here. The key is: register a custom GET parameter; look for
that parameter early in the page rendering process; if you find the
parameter is set, then output/echo stuff and die(). There are a
number of hooks that can be used to look at the parameters, chosen
dependin on how much you want WP to set up and process first.
In my plugin i have created a custom template that prints a requested sidebar. and for running the code of this template i assigned a custom page to it (by calling update_metadata) .
Is it a good idea for getting content of a specific sidebar into Ajax call ?
Now my problem is that WORDPRESS shows it in the dashboard and front page , and after searching i have not found any easy to understand solution for Hiding a page completely so only can be accessed by its id .
Can any one tell me how to do that ?
you are going about this the wrong way. You can create a function that can create anything that can be created on a wordpress page.
But if you really must you can create a page outside of the database, etc:
add_action('init', 'add_rewrite_rule');
function add_rewrite_rule(){
// add_rewrite_rule(REGEX url, location, priority (i.e. top is before other rewrite rules)
// I created a custom post type for this plugin called market -- replace post_type with whatever you want
//basically tell wordress to add a query var if sidebar is added to url.
add_rewrite_rule('^sidebar?','index.php?is_sidebar_page=1&post_type=market','top');
}
// register a query var
add_action('query_vars','market_set_query_var');
function market_set_query_var($vars) {
array_push($vars, 'is_sidebar_page');
return $vars;
}
// associate a template with your quer_var
add_filter('template_include', 'market_include_template', 1000, 1);
function market_include_template($template){
if(get_query_var('is_sidebar_page')){
$new_template = (theme or plugin path).'/pages/yourpage.php'; // change this path to your file
if(file_exists($new_template))
$template = $new_template;
}
return $template;
}
This will not be a page that will be in the admin section or in any query that relates to pages but someone could of course navigate to this page. But as i said above you would be better to create a function to create your sidebar. If you want a seperate file to handle the "view" you use require_once 'filename'; a file and keep your functions area free of html.
If you are creating functions in a wordpress plugin dont forget many functions may not be available until later in the load process. Use add_action() if you run into any undefined functions
edit:
you are loading wordpress before you get to the template so you have all the functions. (google wp load for more info) + get_header() / get_footer() will also load a few things like css, etc. I had a small typo in the code above, fixed that but basically what you are doing is telling wordpress if someone lands on www.example.com/sidebar to apply a query_var (rewrite rule). Wordpress will look up its saved vars (final function) and return the template assoc. The 2nd function just registers the var.
You also have wp_functions in any file you create and include in a plugin, etc hence why you can create a file that does exactly the same as this page.
Here's my issue. My company needs a vendor database added to our wordpress website. None of the existing plugins will even come close to what we need, and we already have a mysql database with all of our information, so we need to create a plugin or something to do what we need.
These urls need to be direct-accessible and have SEF urls. So, for example:
mysite.com/vendors/
mysite.com/vendors/pipe-manufacturers/
mysite.com/vendor/bobs-pipes/
And, the custom content needs to appear inside the wordpress template.
There are really 2 options:
1) Find a way to write our application outside of wordpress, but find a way to bootstrap wordpress to show the header, footer, and sidebar.
2) Run the app from inside wordpress.
So I went for option #2. I created a new template file named "vendor.php", and began working. I added this code to my functions.php of my theme:
add_filter( 'template_include', 'xyz_template_check' );
function xyz_template_check() {
global $template;
$rqst = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
$ra = split("/", $rqst);
if ($ra[1] == "vendors") {
$template_file = get_stylesheet_directory() . '/vendors.php';
return $template_file;
}
return $template;
}
So what the above code does, if it sees the word "vendors" as the first part of the url after the site name, it sends you to vendor.php. This works PERFECTLY....
except...
Wordpress believes that the page is not found. It returns a 404 header, and NOT FOUND into the page title and breadcrumb.
Adding a PAGE called "Vendor Database" with the permalink "/vendors/" fixes the main page. But there will be literally hundreds of vendors and different categories. I cant be creating a custom page for each one. This needs to be dynamic.
So, how do I make wordpress give a 200, and supply an acceptable page title, breadcrumb, etc.
Don't even get me started on the danged wp_title filter. This did NOT work as documented. Although, it just occurred to me that this might be an issue with Wordpress SEO (the wp_title filter issue).
Anyone got an idea on this?
Ok got this. The solution was to use the rewrite api, as mentioned above, to look for the pattern /vendors/, letting it know that it was a valid URL. Coupled with my existing template override, this is what I needed.
BACKGROUND
I have used WordPress custom post types to create a newsletter section for my website. Newsletters consist of Articles (dm_article), which are grouped by the Issues taxonomy (dm_issues).
1) I have created an index of all of my newsletter Articles. I am using a template called taxonomy-dm_issues.php to loop within a selected Issue and display each Article's title, excerpt and a link to the full content, which is managed by single-dm_article.php. This is working great.
2) I would also like to create second taxonomy-based template for Issues. This is going to act as a print-friendly option: "print entire newsletter". I would like the template to loop through and display each Article title, excerpt, and long description. Some of the look and feel will also be different.
For #2, let's assume I've created a template called print-dm_issues.php. It currently looks identical to taxonomy-dm_issues.php, except it has the additional long description data for each Article and contains some different styling.
I want to setup this "print friendly" option without making the WordPress admin have to jump through any hoops when Issues and Articles are created. I also do not want to have to create a new template each time a new Issue is created.
CORE QUESTION:
What I am asking for may boil down to this: How can I create my own WordPress template outside of the expected hierarchy of templates and feed a query to it? Do note I am using the "month and name" common permalink structure, so I'll have to muck with my htaccess.
ALTERNATIVES:
1) My fallback is to have taxonomy-dm_issues.php contain the information for both variations and use style to handle the different view states. I know how to do this. But, I'd rather not do this for sake of load times.
2) Using Ajax to fetch all of the Article long descriptions (the_content()) with a single click is an option, but I don't know how.
3) ???
With or without clean URLs, you can pass variables based on your taxonomies through the links query string if you want to only return a single taxonomy term and style the page differently depending on the term.
$taxonomyTerm = $_GET['dm_issues'];
$args=array(
'post_type' => 'dm_article',
'dm_issues' => $taxonomyTerm,
'post_status' => 'publish',
);
There is reference to this int he Wordpress 'query_posts' documentation by passing variable into your query parameters: http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/query_posts#Example_4
For instance in the link below, the title is generated based on the sting in the URL.
http://lph.biz/areas-we-serve/service-region/?region=Conestoga
You can set up a parameter that will return a default value if the page is reached without the variable being defined. See below:
if (empty($taxonomyTerm)) {
$taxonomyTerm = 'Default Value';
}
You can create a separate page template. Define the template name at the top of your PHP document:
<?php
/*
Template Name: Printed Page Template
*/
Place your custom query, including all of the content that you need output in this page template... In your WP admin, create a new blank page and assign your new 'Printed Page Template' template to this page. Save it and view the page.