WP Plugin Base

Powerful Boilerplate for WordPress Plugins.

Requirements

• PHP v7.4+
• Git
• Composer (globally installed as composer)
• WP-CLI (optional; only needed to generate the .pot file)

Install

Open your terminal and execute the script below in your wp-content/plugins to generate a new plugin:

wp_plugin_base_clone_dir=".wp_plugin_base_$(date +%s)" \
&& git clone --branch main --single-branch --no-tags --quiet \
  https://github.com/luizbills/wp-plugin-base.git $wp_plugin_base_clone_dir \
&& cd $wp_plugin_base_clone_dir && php .installer/install.php && sleep .1 \
&& cd $(cat install.log) \
&& chmod -R +x ./scripts \
&& rm -rf "../$wp_plugin_base_clone_dir"

Upgrade

You can update the core folder of your plugin running the command composer run upgrade-core.

Getting started

This boilerplace is organized into several files and folders. It is essential that you understand each of them.

/main.php

This is the main plugin file with its headers (plugin name, version, license, etc). Open the file and fill in some remaining information, like the Plugin URI and Description.

If you want to keep translation files inside your plugin, you should uncomment the load_plugin_textdomain function.

/config.php

In this file you can declare useful (and immutable) values that will be used in different places in the plugin. By default, values like the plugin's SLUG and PREFIX will already be declared (you can change them if you want, but you can't delete them).

Internally, the plugin will also declare the following keys:

• NAME: The plugin name.
• VERSION: The plugin version.
• FILE: The main file absolute path (/main.php).
• DIR: The plugin folder absolute path.

To get these values, you should use the config_get helper:

use Your_Namespace\Helpers as h;

// example: print your plugin name
echo h::config_get( 'NAME' );

/dependencies.php

In this file you must inform what your plugin needs to work. By default, the plugin will already check the server's PHP version (v7.4 or later).

Each dependency is an array that must contain the following keys:

• check: a function that should check if any requirements have been met.
• message: a string (or function that returns a string) that will be displayed if the requirement is not met.

Example: use the following code below to indicate that your plugin depends on the WooCommerce plugin to work.

$deps[] = [
	'check' => function () {
		// checks if the `WooCommerce` class exists
		// that class only exists when the WooCommerce plugin is active.
		return class_exists( 'WooCommerce' );
	},

	// the message that will be shown if WooCommerce plugin is not activated.
	'message' => 'This plugin depends on WooCommerce plugin to works.'
];

If any dependencies are missing, the plugin will not work and a notice will be shown in the admin panel informing the reason (with the messages you declared).

Open the /dependencies.php to learn more.

/loader.php

This file should return a array of classes that you want to run automatically, when the plugin is ready to work (if all dependencies in the /dependencies.php file are satisfied).

Each index in the array can be a class name or an array (with the class name and an integer to indicate priority). By default, each class has priority 10.

Example:

// loader.php
return [
	My_Class_1::class, // priority = 10
	[ My_Class_2::class, 20 ], // priority = 20
	[ My_Class_3::class, 5 ], // priority = 5
];

In the example above, the classes will run in the following order: My_Class_2 then My_Class_1 and finally My_Class_3. Classes with higher priority are executed first.

/uninstall.php

This file is automatically executed when your plugin is deleted. Use it to clean the database (if your plugin saved anything).

/core folder

This folder has the core of our boilerplace (classes that initialize the plugin, check dependencies, load classes from /loader.php, etc). You don't need to understand the core classes, but you can take a look, it's all pretty simple.

The /core/VERSION file stores the boilerplate version. So you can update the files in the core folder using the composer run upgrade-core command (without having to do it manually).

/classes folder

In this folder you will put the classes that control all features of your plugin: custom post types, settings pages, shortcodes, etc.

If you put a class in the /loader.php file, its __start method will be executed automatically when the plugin is ready to work. See the classes/Sample_Class.php to more details.

NOTE: You don't need to add all your classes in /loader.php. Only add the classes that need to run some code automatically or to listen WordPress actions and filters hooks.

The Helpers class

The classes/Helpers.php file contains several static methods that can be very useful in developing your plugin. To make it easier, I recommend that at the beginning of each class file you include use Your_Namespace\Helpers as h; to work as a shortcut h for the Helpers class.

NOTE: The Helpers class is not used in the boilerplace core, so you can modify or even delete it without any problem.

Take a look at some helper methods that you will enjoy using.

➞ h::config_get( $key, $default = null )

Returns the values ​​you declared in the /config.php file. The first argument is the key and the second is a default value that will be returned if the key does not exist. However, if you don't want to declare a default value, the plugin will throw an exception (to help avoid typos).

➞ h::config_set( $key, $value )

Temporarily save values, an alternative to global variables (no need to worry about prefixes). To get the saved values, just use h::config_get.

➞ h::get_defined( $constant, $default = null )

Checks whether a constant (declared with define or const in a class) exists and returns its value. If it doesn't exist, returns a default value (the second argument, which is null by default).

➞ h::filled( $var )

Returns false ONLY IF $var is null, empty array, empty object or empty string.

Note: h::filled works differently than empty.

use Your_Namespace\Helpers as h;

h::filled( null ); // false
h::filled( [] ); // false (empty array)
h::filled( new \stdClass() ); // false (empty class)
h::filled( "" ); // false (empty string)
h::filled( "     " ); // false (strings are trimmed)
h::filled( false ); // true (it is filled with a boolean)
h::filled( 0 ); // true (it is filled with a number)

// ... Any other values ​​returns TRUE

➞ h::prefix( $string, $sanitize = true )

Prepends the plugin PREFIX (defined in /config.php) in the $string. By default, the $string is sanitized (only numbers, letters and underlines)`.

use Your_Namespace\Helpers as h;

echo h::prefix( 'foo bar baz' ) // "your_prefix_foo_bar_baz"
echo h::prefix( 'foo bar baz', false ) // "your_prefix_foo bar baz"

➞ h::dd( ...$vars )

Useful to quick debug something. This helper will print all arguments with var_dump and immediately stop PHP execution with die( 1 ).

h::dd( $var ) // print the $var content and exit

➞ h::log( ...$vars )

Useful to quick logs something in debug.log (if your WP_DEBUG and WP_DEBUG_LOG are enabled).

use Your_Namespace\Helpers as h;

h::log( $var ) // logs the $var in wp-content/debug.log by default

➞ h::throw_if( $condition, $message, $class = \Error::class )

If the $condition is falsy, throws a exception (by default a \Error instance) with the $message.

use Your_Namespace\Helpers as h;

h::throw_if(
	is_null( $my_var ),
	'My exception message'
);

// it is the same as
if ( is_null( $my_var ) ) {
	throw new \Error( 'My exception message' );
}

// also, you can use other exception classes (3rd argument)
h::throw_if(
	is_null( $my_var ),
	'My exception message',
	Your_Namespace\CustomException::class,
);

Other helpers

See the /core/Traits folder to learn the helpers. They are all very simple codes to read and understand. If you think some that helpers could be even simpler, please open an issue.

/assets folder

Put your frontend stuffs there: JavaScript, CSS, images ...

/.wordpress-org folder

Put WordPress SVN repository stuffs there: Plugin icon, banner and screenshots.

NOTE: If you are not planning to publish your plugin, you can delete this folder.

/scripts folder

This folder contains some scripts that are used in the commands explained below:

• composer run make-pot creates a .pot file inside of /languages directory.
• composer run build creates a .zip file inside of /wp-build directory. Easy way to share or install your plugin on other WordPress.
• composer run upgrade-core will update the /core folder of your plugin, pulling the latest changes from this Github repository.
• composer run deploy updates your SVN repository and release a new version on https://wordpress.org (you need setup the /scripts/svn-push file first). This script also update your plugin assets (icon, banner and screenshot) when necessary in the /.wordpress-org directory.
• composer run update-trunk updates the /trunk of your SVN repository on https://wordpress.org (you need setup the /scripts/svn-push file first). This script also update your plugin assets (icon, banner and screenshot) when necessary in the /.wordpress-org directory.

Recommended Tools

• CPT Model
• Git Updater
• PostTypes
• Carbon Fields
• WP Customizer Framework

Contributing

• Create an issue for questions, suggestions or bugs.

LICENSE

This repository is licensed under MIT.

The generated plugin source code will have GPLv3 by default (feel free to change).