Comments on: Wordpress Tip: How to Create a Plugin to Help Automate a Complicated Theme

By: Cal

Cal — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:40:34 +0000

Thanks Chris! I'm going to have fun playing with this tonight….. :)

By: Chris Cagle

Chris Cagle — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:50:29 +0000

@Cal - Thanks for doing my testing for me… :) I fixed it. It was that WP suggests that we wrap each update_option in the function function mythemeopt_update_options() in an if statement, but doing it that way doesn't validate null fields. I've updated the source code in the example and the tutorial.

What you want to do will be done from within the theme, and not the plugin itself. In your theme template file, where you echo the theme option value, do it like this:

< ?php
if ($mythemeopt_current_date)  {
   echo $mythemeopt_current_date;
} else {
   echo "This would be my default stuff";
};
?>

By: Cal

Cal — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:36:44 +0000

Hey Chris,
Trying it again, I delete the text in the field and press update but the text remains there, I get no error message or anything. So I guess the box has to have something in it at all times?

I was also curious if there's a way to put in the theme something like:
IF (box has something in it)
Echo what's in the box
ELSE
Output this default stuff I have

I'm a horrible programmer so sorry if that's a simple or silly question!

By: Chris Cagle

Chris Cagle — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:51:51 +0000

@Cal - Which field does this for you? I just did a quick look-through and i don't see any problems (that definitely doesn't meant that there aren't any ;)

By: cal

cal — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:14:04 +0000

Hey Chris, thanks for the article it helps non-programmers like me a lot. Using your plugin as-is I tried to delete my entry in the admin and it doesn't work. I insert some text like "blah blah" and it updates fine but when I try and remove "blah blah" and update it says it's unable to update…

Anyways thanks for the great article I'll be coming back to it often I'm sure.