Scott Kingsley Clark 11:31 pm on January 12, 2016
Tags: feature plugins ( 118 ), fields-api ( 21 ), options-meta ( 33 )

Fields API updates from Q4 of 2015

It’s been a while since I updated everyone here about progress on the Fields APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways.. I’ve been hard at work in the code and haven’t come up for air until now, but I’m planning on more regular updates in the coming weeks 🙂

Lots of progress since our last chat summary in early October, here’s a bird’s eye view of what we’ve been up to:

@sc0ttkclark built the User Profile implementation, replicating everything that the User Profile screen currently does but it’s through the Fields API, still some things left to do to complete it
@nicholas_io built the Widget form implementation, allowing for widgets to register their own fields and not have to build tedious custom form markup and saving, still some tweaks and a revision to make in the structure
@diddledan built the Nav Menu Item implementation, after reviewing my User Profile implementation
@idealien and @tomharrigan are still working on fleshing out a Post Editor implementation

Where can we use help right now?

Review our User Profile screen implementation, let us know if it makes sense to you as a developer. It’s the kind of code you’ll be looking at needing for any custom screens you want to implement in plugins or themes, and it’s the kind of code we’re looking at using for other WordPress screens too (Post editor screen, Term editor screen, etc..)
Help us create use-cases for each type of object (Custom Post Types, Custom Taxonomies, Users, Comments, Media, Widgets, Nav Menu Items, etc..) — we’re specifically looking for what custom fields you could create for these use-cases and how it could make sense in real world scenarios. You can start out with just the structure, we can help you build the code for it.
We’re getting ready to release this on WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ as a pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party, we could use some help to write up a good readme and ensure it directs people to the correct places for involvement

So who do you contact or where do you go to help?

Weekly Meetings are Mondays (Monday 20:00 UTC 2015) in Slack #core-fields
Hang out in Slack #core-fields and ask questions, get help, participate
Post issues and Pull Requests over on our GitHub
Post a comment on our status updates

Oh and did I mention that every minute you help us, you make someone really really really happy in the future? It could be your future self that gets to reap the rewards of your hard work!

#feature-plugins, #fields-api, #options-meta

eddr 12:47 am on January 13, 2016

Hi Scott – great stuff. That’s a good feeling to see all the people and community involved

Like many, I’ve been using custom fields intensively and probably one thing that comes to mind for some is the database structure / efficiency. Querying metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. fields/values is kind of a disaster for big sites with complex data. I know that most implementations create dedicated tables, but still – any thoughts about it?
- Scott Kingsley Clark 5:10 pm on January 13, 2016
  A few optimizations I do on bigger projects:
  - Separate large sets of data not needed across a site, but only within a specialized section of the site into it’s own multisitemultisite Used to describe a WordPress installation with a network of multiple blogs, grouped by sites. This installation type has shared users tables, and creates separate database tables for each blog (wp_posts becomes wp_0_posts). See also network, blog, site blogblog (versus network, site) tables
  - Add post_type column to wp_postmeta, add more indexes to wp_postmeta (post_id, meta_key(30), meta_value(30); and other combinations you may want), use custom SQL queries to do metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. lookups to SELECT post_id where the meta_key + meta_value match for post_type; and when inserting your meta via add_post_meta, take the return value of $meta_id and update post_type to the correct value)
  - Using a pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party like Pods, I can extend a post type to be a table for specific custom fields, this allows me to add indexes to that table and do more complicated lookups more easily without use of CAST() or LONGTEXT on custom fieldCustom Field Custom Field, also referred to as post meta, is a feature in WordPress. It allows users to add additional information when writing a post, eg contributors’ names, auth. WordPress stores this information as metadata. Users can display this meta data by using template tags in their WordPress themes. data (correctly have them MySQLMySQL MySQL is a relational database management system. A database is a structured collection of data where content, configuration and other options are stored. https://www.mysql.com/.-typed)
  - Use ElasticSearch / ElasticPress (or any other ElasticSearch plugin for WP) that allows you to do meta lookups more quickly than expensive SQL queries in WP_Query, some plugins like EP even integrate with WP_Query.
  - Kochhase 6:39 pm on January 13, 2016
    
    Using a pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party like Pods, I can extend a post type to be a table for specific custom fields, this allows me to add indexes to that table and do more complicated lookups more easily without use of CAST() or LONGTEXT on custom fieldCustom Field Custom Field, also referred to as post meta, is a feature in WordPress. It allows users to add additional information when writing a post, eg contributors’ names, auth. WordPress stores this information as metadata. Users can display this meta data by using template tags in their WordPress themes. data (correctly have them MySQLMySQL MySQL is a relational database management system. A database is a structured collection of data where content, configuration and other options are stored. https://www.mysql.com/.-typed)
    
    Hi Scott, why do we have not pods in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.? Many people need a tool to extend wordpress to an CMS as drupal. In combination with the field api this would make sence.
    
    I hope for that in WP 4.6
    
    regards Henryk
    - Scott Kingsley Clark 6:41 pm on January 13, 2016
      
      Some things don’t belong in WP coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., and that’s alright. WP can’t be everything to everyone. Plus Pods does a whole lot more than just that one thing 🙂
Ahmad Awais 7:57 am on January 13, 2016

Hey, Scott!

I was thinking, what if we could have mini customizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings. instances?
E.g. I created a form and I want to design it different from all other forms. In theory, I’d click a Customize button that will redirect me to the front end with customizer instance (only with the options that are needed to design that particular form). After I am done designing it, I’ll get to save it and get back to where I was in the form pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party.

Right now, this UXUX User experience and flow doesn’t exist. Customizer’s class is defined as final, there is not much we can do. But with Fields APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways., what if instead of creating forms inside widgets, we could get such mini customizer instances?

Did it make any sense at all? I hope it does.
- Scott Kingsley Clark 5:11 pm on January 13, 2016
  
  Sounds pretty cool and interesting, just about anything is possible with the Fields APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. as it can be applied to a number of different types of objects and extended for multitudes of purposes. I can’t really help you on the approach or how it’d all work though, unfortunately you may be better off extending the CustomizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings. API itself there with custom panels.
- Weston Ruter 5:14 pm on January 13, 2016
  
  This sounds very similar to what @ericlewis has worked on. He researched using the CustomizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings. in more contexts, embedding it in adminadmin (and super admin) pages for example. But he ended up taking a different approach which you can see here:
  
  http://slides.com/ericlewis-1/customize-anything
  https://github.com/ericandrewlewis/wp-custom-css-per-post
  - Scott Kingsley Clark 5:15 pm on January 13, 2016
    
    Perfect, great info here! Thanks @westonruter
  - Ahmad Awais 4:18 am on January 14, 2016
    
    That’s interesting. I will study the source code. It would still help to have the ability to instantiate mini CustomizerCustomizer Tool built into WordPress core that hooks into most modern themes. You can use it to preview and modify many of your site’s appearance settings. instances. More focused and efficient.
leemon 10:08 am on January 13, 2016

Great to see this moving forward! Thanks!
Hans-Helge Buerger 11:00 am on January 13, 2016

Hey Scott, I just did a quick read up about the Field APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways. b/c I didn’t know what it is or what it’s about. Great stuff. I’m looking forward to see this in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress..
Najum Rahim 12:44 pm on January 13, 2016

Ahmad,You have great idea
- Ahmad Awais 4:19 am on January 14, 2016
  
  Thank, Najum. Would love to read your input about it.
Marcus 5:03 pm on January 13, 2016
Looking forward to seeing the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. The specification and structure looks good to me at a glance.

r.e. use cases, what about a simple skeleton plugin/snippet creating some generic set of custom fields, so we can modify that? for example, users:

section – address
- address 1 (text)
- address 2 (text)
- town/city (text)
- county/state (text)
- Zip (text)
- country (DDM)
you could go further and showcase every field type, maybe ditch a use case like the above and just create fields named literally e.g.

section – custom form
- text field
- textarea
- checkbox
- etc.
- Scott Kingsley Clark 5:16 pm on January 13, 2016
  
  That’s what we want, examples of use-cases, like what custom fields you’d use for a Member Directory, or which custom fields you’d use for a Book post type, etc…
  
  Please post those to our GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/, we can take them from there:
  
  https://github.com/sc0ttkclark/wordpress-fields-api/issues/22
  - Marcus 6:47 pm on January 13, 2016
    
    Done 🙂
Tran Ngoc Tuan Anh 8:58 am on January 22, 2016

Very nice idea. From years working on Meta Box pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party, I see the APIs are very different when implement fields for posts, terms, settings pages. It’s really helpful when everything is merged into 1 common APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and share data in limited, clearly defined ways..

I also want WordPress does this in coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress., e.g no another layer of abstraction code. Right now, plugins like MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. Box, ACF, Pods already add a layer for users/developers to work with custom fields. I just don’t want more layer in between.

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Fields API updates from Q4 of 2015

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