New action wp_after_insert_post in WordPress 5.6.

The new action wp_after_insert_post has been added to WordPress 5.6 to allow theme and 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 developers to run custom code after a post and its terms and 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. data have been updated.

The save_post and related actions have commonly been used for this purpose but these hooksHooks In WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same. can fire before terms and meta data are updated outside of the classic editor. (For example in the REST APIREST API The REST API is an acronym for the RESTful Application Program Interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data. It is how the front end of an application (think “phone app” or “website”) can communicate with the data store (think “database” or “file system”) https://developer.wordpress.org/rest-api/., via the blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editor, within 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. and when an auto-draft is created.)

The new action sends up to four parameters:

  • $post_id The post ID has been updated, an integer.
  • $post The full post object in its updated form, a WP_Post object.
  • $updated Whether the post has been updated or not, a boolean.
  • $post_before The full post object prior to the update, a WP_Post object. For new posts this is null.

By default WordPress fires this hook at the end of wp_insert_post(). A third parameter has been added to the function to allow developers to prevent the hook from firing automatically:

  • $fire_after_hooks Whether to fire the after insert hooks, a boolean. Optional, default true.

The same parameter has been added to wp_update_post() as the third parameter and wp_insert_attachment() as the fifth parameter.

In the event a developer calls any of these functions and prevents the hook from firing, it is expected they will manually call the new function wp_after_insert_post() to trigger the new action. This new function requires three parameters:

  • $post The post ID or object that has been saved, ether an integer or WP_Post object
  • $update Whether the post has been updated (true) or inserted (false).
  • $post_before null for new posts, the WP_Post object prior to the update for updated posts.

For the history of this change, see ticketticket Created for both bug reports and feature development on the bug tracker. #45114. The changes were committed in [49172] and [49731]. A discussion on the approach took place in Slack during a dev chat.

An example when inserting a post.

In the event you are calling wp_insert_post() or one of the related functions listed above, if you are then updating the post’s terms or meta data separately it is recommended you prevent the hook from running and call it manually. For example:

$post_id = wp_insert_post(
    array(
        'post_title'   => 'My post title',
        'post_content' => 'My post content',
        'post_type'    => 'my_cpt',
    ),
    false,
    false
);

add_post_meta( $post_id, 'my_meta_key', 'my meta value' );

wp_after_insert_post( $post_id, false, null );

When updating a post, you will need to store the WP_Post object’s state before running the update. Due to the way PHPPHP The web scripting language in which WordPress is primarily architected. WordPress requires PHP 5.6.20 or higher passes objects and the get_post() internals, it is recommended you get the post via its ID.

$before_post = get_post( $post_id );

wp_update_post(
    array(
        'ID'           => $post_id,
        'post_title'   => 'My updated post title',
        'post_content' => 'My updated post content',
    ),
    false,
    false
);

add_post_meta( $post_id, 'my_meta_key', 'my meta value' );

wp_after_insert_post( $post_id, true, $before_post );

Props to @planningwrite, @timothyblynjacobs and @chrisvanpatten for reviewing this dev notedev note Each important change in WordPress Core is documented in a developers note, (usually called dev note). Good dev notes generally include a description of the change, the decision that led to this change, and a description of how developers are supposed to work with that change. Dev notes are published on Make/Core blog during the beta phase of WordPress release cycle. Publishing dev notes is particularly important when plugin/theme authors and WordPress developers need to be aware of those changes.In general, all dev notes are compiled into a Field Guide at the beginning of the release candidate phase..

Edit: The $post_before parameters were committed after this dev note was first published. This has been updated to reflect those changes.

#5-6, #dev-notes