Lesson 9 – Create the Featured Page Widget

The Structure and Function of our Widget – Watch the Video

• What the widget will do

  • Display a widget title
  • Display the featured image
  • Display the page title
  • Display the page excerpt
  • Display a link to the page

• Functions we need to create

  • Define the featured image
  • Create the widget structure
  • User input
    • Display the title
    • The page ID
    • Display the featured image
    • Display the page title

Understanding the WordPress Widgets API – Watch the Video

• 2 tasks

  • Extend the Widget Class
  • Register the widget

• 4 sections of the widget class – 4 functions

  • Setup the widget – __construct()
    • name
    • id
    • class
    • description
  • Create the widget settings form
    • Setup defaults
    • Create the input fields
  • Update the widget settings
    • get the new settings
    • sanitize the data
    • change the old settings to new
  • Display the widget
    • get the settings
    • process the functions
    • write the html

Create a Basic Text Widget – Watch the Video

• Create the widget file

  • include the file

• Extend the Widget Class

• Setup the widget

• Create the settings form

  • Set up the variables
    • sanitize
      • esc_attr()
      • esc_textarea()
    • ternary operators (short hand if/else)
      • (condition) ? TRUE : FALSE
  • Text input
    • label
    • id
    • name
    • type
    • value
  • Checkbox input
    • label
    • id
    • name
    • type
    • value
    • checked
  • Textarea
    • label
    • id
    • name
    • rows
    • columns
    • content

• Update the settings

  • sanitize checkbox
  • sanize the text input
  • sanitize the text area

• Display the widget

  • Extract the args
  • Set the variables
    • widget title filter
  • If there is some text
  • if the title should be displayed
  • Write the html

• Register the Widget

Data Sanitization in a WordPress Widget – Watch the Video

• What is data sanitization?

  • Prevent malicious code from acting in the database or on the website.
  • Why is it necessary?

• Approaches to data sanitization

  • Removing functionality from the code
  • Whitelisting data
  • Securing access to data
  • Type casting

• Sanitize the form variables

  • esc_attr()
  • ternary operation
  • esc_textarea()

• Sanitize the update variables

  • strip_tags()
  • ternary operation
  • if(current_user_can())
  • stripslashes()
  • wp_filter_post_kses() – strips evil scripts
  • addslashes()

Internationalization in a WordPress Widget – Watch the Video

• What is internationalization?

  • I18n – abbreviation

• How does it work?

  • a text domain is declared
  • data is prepared
  • translation files are created linked to the text domain

• Prepare simple output for translation

  • _e() function
    • string
    • text domain
  • __() function

Add Featured Image Support to Thesis – Watch the Video

• Add theme support for featured images
• Define the image size
• Call the featured image

Create the Featured Page Widget – Watch the Video

• Create the new widget and structure

• Create the widget settings form

  • Display widget title
  • The page ID
  • Display featured image
  • Display page title

• Update the settings

  • Sanitize the page id
  • Sanitize  checkboxes

• Display the widget

  • if a page id is entered
  • if a title is entered & if the title should be displayed
  • Create the loop
  • Add the necessary html
    • wrapping div
    • wrap image in p tag
    • wrap title in h5
    • wrap the link in a div

• Reduce the excerpt length on the front page

  • excerpt_length() filter
  • Call from the if(is_front_page()) function

• Eliminate the excerpt ending

  • excerpt_more() filter
  • Call from the if(is_front_page()) function