Tim Van Wassenhove

Today i’ve been cleaning up my code. All my plugins live in a directory %plugin_name% under the wp-content/plugins directory. Here is the code for %plugin_name%/%plugin_name%.php:

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: %plugin_name%
Version: %plugin_version%
Plugin URI: %plugin_uri%
Description: %plugin_description%
Author: %plugin_author_name% <%plugin_author_mail%>
Author URI: %plugin_author_uri%
*/

// Direct access is not allowed.
if (!function_exists('load_plugin_textdomain')) {
  exit;
} else {
  require('%plugin_name%.php');
  $plugin_name = substr(basename(__FILE__), 0, -4);

  // You can add optional parameters to the constructor, eg: the wpdb instance.
  $%plugin_class% = new %plugin_class%($plugin_name);
}
?>

Now it’s time to implement the %plugin_class%. Here is the template for %plugin_name%/%plugin_class%.php:

<?php

class %plugin_class% {
  var $_plugin_name;

  var $_localization_domain;
  var $_localization_path;

  function %plugin_class%($plugin_name = '%plugin_name%') {
    $this->_plugin_name = $plugin_name;

    $this->_localization_domain = $plugin_name;
    $this->_localization_path = 'wp-content/plugins/' . $plugin_name;

    // You can add additional hooks and filters here.
    add_action('activate_' . $plugin_name . '/' . $plugin_name . '.php', array(&$this, 'OnActivation'));
    add_action('admin_menu', array(&$this, 'OnAdminMenu'));
}

  function OnAdminMenu() {
    load_plugin_textdomain($this->_localization_domain, $this->_localization_path);
    add_options_page(__('%plugin_name% Options', $this->_localization_domain), __('%plugin_name%', $this->_localization_domain), 'manage_options',$this->_plugin_name . '/' . $this->_plugin_name . '-options.php', array(&$this, 'OnDisplayOptions'));
  }

  function OnDisplayOptions() {
    $%plugin_class% = "";
    require( dirname(__FILE__) . '/' . $this->_plugin_name . '-options.php');
  }

  function OnActivation() {
    // This code is executed when the plugin is activated.
    // I prepend all my option names with $this->_plugin_name.
    add_option($this->_plugin_name . '_somevar', 'foo');
  }
}
?>

The code above requires that you create a %plugin_name%/%plugin_name%-options.php file to administrate the options. Here is the template for that file:

<?php
// Direct access is not allowed.
if (!isset($%plugin_class%)) {
  exit;
}                                                                                                                     

load_plugin_textdomain($%plugin_class%->_localization_domain, $%plugin_class%->_localization_path);

// Handle post action.
if ($_POST['stage'] == 'process') {
  // All the names of form variables start with %plugin_class%_plugin_name.
  if (isset($_POST[$%plugin_class%->_plugin_name . '_somevar'])) {
    // Do processing here.
  }
}

?>
<form method="post" action="">
  <input type="hidden" name="stage" value="process"/>
  <input type="text" name="<?php echo $%plugin_class%->_plugin_name . '_somevar'; ?>"/>
  <input type="submit" value="<?php _e('Submit', $%plugin_class%->_localization_domain); ?>"/>
</form>

The only thing that we still have to do is generate a po file with xgettext, translate it and compile a %plugin_name%/%plugin_name%-en_EN.mo file.