Notes

• The OOP approach and namespace used in this development should avoid name conflicts with other plugins.
• The development is done under https://innovriver.com/test-astra.
• Plugin name is “IVR – _m_m_”.
• Plugin root folder is named “ivr__m_m_”.
• Plugin main php file MUST be named as “ivr__m_m_.php”. That is the file base name must be the same as the root folder name.
• The pattern “_m_m_” should be replaced with the actual name of the plugin:
  • replace this pattern for all folder names, file names and file contents of the plugin.
  • The actual name should be as short as possible.
  • The actual name should be in lowercase and cannot have spaces and hyphen ( – ). Underscore ( _ ) is allowed.
• The ‘include’ folder is named as ‘inc_a101518’. Rename this folder as per the outline in Points to Note below. Find and replace in various files that refer to this folder.

Key Operations

• Load the relevant php files, including class files using the Composer autoload features.
• Load constants.php which defines the various Constants.
  • define(‘OPTION_NAME’, ‘ivr-_m_m_’)
    • ‘ivr-_m_m_’ is the field name for storing option settings in the wp_options db table.
  • define(‘PLUGIN_FILE_NAME’, plugin_basename(dirname(__FILE__, 2)). ‘.php’)
    • Extract the plugin main filename and define it as a constant.
    • The extracted result should be the root directory name. Since the file base name is same as the directory name, append ‘.php’ to it serves the purpose.
• Register the Activation function. Currently this function does nothing.
• Register the Deactivation function. Currently this function does nothing.
• Add_shortcode — this registers the shortcode name and points to the shortcode function.
• Call the static function Init->register_services(). This will instantiate the classes return from the static function Init->get_services().
  • The developer has to specify which classes need to be returned in the get_services( ).
  • After the class is instantiated, the function register() of the class is called to run.
• Init->get_services( ) currently returns these classes:
  • Base\Enqueue -> to enqueue the CSS and JS files
  • Pages\Admin -> to generate Admin main and submain pages, and set up the field in wp_options db table for storing the admin settings. This field stores a 2D array to contain all possible settings.
  • Base\SettingsLinks -> Setup the custom links for the plugin on the Plugin List page.

Points to Note

• The ‘include’ folder is named as ‘inc_a101518’. When the template is used for a real plugin, this should be changed to inc_aMMDDHH to indicate when the folder is created. This helps to prevent conflict with other plugins.
  • Where ‘a’ stands for 2021, ‘b’ for 2022, and so on.
  • MMDDHH stands for month, day and hour.
• The uninstall.php cannot access the global scope variables. Therefore this file has to require_once the ‘constants.php’ individually.
• The “return $this” in SettingsApi – > this returns the class object that allows the chaining of functions one after another in Admin->register( ) function.

Folders and Files

ivr__m_m_.php

• the main file of the plugin.
• Register the Activation and Deactivation functions
• Define the add_shortcode
• Instantiate concerned classes and run the register( ) functions of these classes.

uninstall.php

• During uninstall of the plugin, the records in the wp_options table created by the plugin are removed.

composer.json

• To map the primary namespace to the include folder.
• Autoload the classes in the primary and secondary namespaces using Composer.

assets/admin (Folder)

• Contain the CSS, JS and images for the Admin pages

assets/front (Folder)

• Contain the CSS, JS and images for the frontend pages

inc_a101518/constants.php

• Constants are defined here. The main file has to require_once this file.
• The uninstall.php cannot access the global scope variables. Therefore, uninstall.php has to require_once the ‘constants.php’ separately.

inc_a101518/Init.php

• The static register_services( ) function is called by the main plugin file. It get the classes returned from the get_services( ) function. For each of these returned classes, it instantiates the class and run the register function of the class.
• The static get_services( ) function returns these classes to the calling function:
  • Base\Enqueue
  • Pages\Admin
  • Base\SettingsLinks

inc_a101518/Api/SettingsApi.php

• This class supports the class inc_a101518/Pages/Admin.php
• Accepts variables on admin page, admin subpages, option settings passed from Pages/Admin.php and stores them as class properties.
• The register( ) function defines the add_actions for adding the Admin pages at the ‘admin_menu’ hook and adding Option settings at the ‘admin_init’ hook.

inc_a101518/Api/Callbacks/AdminCallbacks.php

• This class supports the class inc_a101518/Pages/Admin.php
• The functions return the html markups templates for the admin page and subpages.

Version History & Download

Ver.	Rel Date	Remark
1.0.0	2021-10-23	First release

Reference

1. Create a WordPress Plugin from Scratch by Alessandro Castellani (2017) – Parts 1 to 18
2. PHP – Autoload classes using Composer by TFW (2021)
3. WordPress uninstall.php file – The Complete Guide by Jeff Starr (2020)