Lab Introduction

In the last lab, you and I built a custom meta box for the Subtitle custom fields, adding the feature of subtitles for posts. What happens if you need to add more than one meta box to a project? Using the code from the last lab, you would have to copy and paste the meta box file, change what’s different and each of the function names, and then create a new view file. In doing so, your code is redundant with repeating code patterns. Plus, it takes you time to make the codes, meaning an error could occur.

What if you need to make a change in the functionality of the meta box generation and that change affects all of your custom meta boxes? You would have to make that change for every single meta box. In doing so, you are spending exponential amounts of your time as well as creating opportunities for errors.

To emphasize the point, in this lab, you’ll create another meta box. Then we’ll do a code review to identify the repeating patterns. I want you to embrace the reusable mindset. Together, we’ll go through the steps to transform our meta box code into a reusable module that accepts a configuration file, handles everything for you, and calls your view file. A black box code generator if you will.

To start, let’s rename our plugin, change the bootstrap’s plugin file header DocBlock and namespace.

Need the code for the new bootstrap file? Click here

	<?php
	/**
	* Meta Box Reusable WordPress Plugin
	*
	* @package MetaBox
	* @author hellofromTonya
	* @license GPL-2.0+
	*
	* @wordpress-plugin
	* Plugin Name: Meta Box Reusable WordPress Plugin
	* Plugin URI: https://github.com/KnowTheCode/meta-box-basics
	* Description: Custom meta box reusable plugin using the ModularConfiguration pattern. Configure your meta box and build the custom view. Bam, your new meta box is rockin'.
	* Version: 1.0.0
	* Author: hellofromTonya
	* Author URI: https://KnowTheCode.io
	* Text Domain: mbbasics
	* License: GPL-2.0+
	* License URI: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.txt
	*/
	namespace KnowTheCode\MetaBox;
	if ( ! defined( 'ABSPATH' ) ) {
	exit( 'Cheatin&#8217; uh?' );
	}
	/**
	* Setup the plugin's constants.
	*
	* @since 1.0.0
	*
	* @return void
	*/
	function init_constants() {
	$plugin_url = plugin_dir_url( __FILE__ );
	if ( is_ssl() ) {
	$plugin_url = str_replace( 'http://', 'https://', $plugin_url );
	}
	define( 'METABOX_URL', $plugin_url );
	define( 'METABOX_DIR', plugin_dir_path( __FILE__ ) );
	}
	/**
	* Launch the plugin
	*
	* @since 1.0.0
	*
	* @return void
	*/
	function launch() {
	init_constants();
	require __DIR__ . '/src/subtitle-meta-box.php';
	require __DIR__ . '/src/portfolio-meta-box.php';
	}
	launch();

view raw

bootstrap.php

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