Post format plugin template

Plugin template for defining a custom set of default blocks on new posts/pages/inventory.

Usage

Do not use this plugin directly; it is intended to be customised for a particular logbook installation. Instead, open up your favourite IDE and make some changes:

1. Decide on a 'slug' for your plugin. This is a namespace used for function names, constants, slugs, etc. in WordPress so that plugins do not interfere with each other. This plugin's slug is ssl-post-template, so for example you might want to just change the prefix ssl to something else like abc-post-template.
2. Replace the default slug with the one you decided to use above. Here we will assume you're using abc-post-template. (Hint: in Visual Studio Code, you can press Ctrl+Shift+H to open the replacement dialog). Ensure your searches are case sensitive.
   • Replace ssl-post-template with abc-post-template (slugs).
   • Replace Ssl_Post_Template with Abc_Post_Template (class names).
   • Replace ssl_post_template with abc_post_template (function names).
   • Replace SSL_POST_TEMPLATE with ABC_POST_TEMPLATE (constants).
3. Rename the ssl-post-template.php file to abc-post-template.php, and the ssl-post-template directory to abc-post-template.
4. Update the plugin metadata in the top (comment) section of abc-post-template.php. Set the name, URI, author, etc.

Once you've customised the plugin scaffolding, you can now customise the default post template itself. The post template is entirely defined in the file abc-post-template/includes/class-abc-post-template-post-templates.php. The code in there by default defines a custom template for the ssl-alp-inventory post type provided by Academic Labbook Plugin, specifically the function add_inventory_item_post_template. The first line retrieves the object used by WordPress to represent the post type:

$post_type_object = get_post_type_object( 'ssl-alp-inventory' );

If you wish to customise a different post type, such as the (default WordPress) post or page post types, then change ssl-alp-inventory to one of these.

This later line defines the blocks displayed by default on new ssl-alp-inventory posts:

// Add template.
$post_type_object->template = array(
    array(
        'core/heading',
        array(
            'level'   => 2,
            'content' => 'Documentation',
        ),
    ),
    array(
        'core/heading',
        array(
            'level'   => 3,
            'content' => 'Schematic',
        ),
    ),
    array(
        'core/file',
        array(),
    ),
    array(
        'core/heading',
        array(
            'level'   => 3,
            'content' => 'Inputs and outputs',
        ),
    ),
    array(
        'core/paragraph',
        array(
            'placeholder' => 'Describe the item\'s inputs and outputs. Useful information to include could be for example signal type (single ended, differential, floating, etc.), input or output impedance (zero, 50Ω, infinite, etc.), maximum input/output voltage, etc.',
        ),
    ),
    array(
        'core/heading',
        array(
            'level'   => 2,
            'content' => 'Location',
        ),
    ),
    array(
        'core/paragraph',
        array(
            'placeholder' => 'Describe the item\'s location.',
        ),
    ),
    array(
        'core/heading',
        array(
            'level'   => 2,
            'content' => 'Notes',
        ),
    ),
    array(
        'core/paragraph',
        array(
            'placeholder' => 'Add any other pertinent information such as links to relevant posts, observations of strange behaviour, etc.',
        ),
    ),
);

Customise this array of arrays in any way you decide. Each array within the overall array should have the block type (e.g. core/paragraph) first then another array of block settings second.

We are unaware of a good list of block types corresponding to the default WordPress block library, but these can be found manually by searching for the block in the Gutenberg source code and finding the block type as defined in the name field of the block's block.json file. Here is the file for core/code.

Once you are happy with the template, zip the top level directory abc-post-template and upload using WordPress's plugin page. You will now find that the template you define is shown when you load the relevant post type.

Credits

Sean Leavey
[email protected]