Adding WP Editor field to WordPress Settings

In previous articles in the WordPress Settings series we covered adding a settings page with a few basic fields. Those articles cover the steps to build a settings form with three text inputs and a textarea input field. This article builds on the previous articles by adding a WordPress Editor to our existing settings.

• Adding the Defaults
• Adding the WordPress Editor Input
• Adding the Editor Callback Function

Adding the Defaults

In the previous article we covered how every WordPress setting should have a default value assigned and how to add the defaults to your code. Below is an extended version of that article’s code that includes the default settings for our new WordPress Editor input.

<?php
  
function ltdi_register_settings() {

    /* Code for settings section goes here. */

    if ( false == get_option( 'ltdi_theme_settings' ) ) {
        $defaults = [
            'setting_field_one' 	    => '',
            'setting_field_two' 	    => '',
            'setting_field_three'.    => '',
            'setting_textarea_field'  => '',
            'setting_wp_editor_field' => '' /* New Default */
        ];
        add_option( 'ltdi_theme_settings', $defaults );
    }
}
add_action( 'admin_init', 'ltdi_register_settings' );

What is this code doing:

1. We continue editing the “ltdi_register_settings” function from the previous article by adding a key/value pair for our “setting_wp_editor_field”.
2. The default value should be an empty string.
3. Like the previous article, if no settings are found, the get_options() function will return false.
4. When a false value is returned from get_option() we use the function add_option(), passing our settings unique identifier and the array of defaults as the first and second parameters respectively.  Doing so will save the default settings to the database.

Adding the WordPress Editor Input

As mentioned in the previous article’s section “Adding the Setting Input Fields”, each field is added with a combination of the built-in function “add_settings_field” and a callback function for the specific field type.

Add Settings Field

For the WordPress Editor input we start with the built-in function add_settings_field, using the arguments listed below.

$name

The first argument is the field $name.  It is a required unique identifier for the setting. It should be a single string value usually formatted with underscores to combine multiple words. In this case it is “setting_wp_editor_field”.

$title

The second argument is the field $title. It should be a string value formatted for display to the WordPress user.  For this tutorial we will use the string “New WP Editor Setting”.

$callback

The third argument is the name of the $callback function that outputs the form input’s HTML. Because we are implementing a WordPress Editor input we will be using the name “ltdi_get_editor_input”.

$option_name

The fourth argument tells WordPress what group of settings to add the setting to. For this tutorial we will use the string “ltdi_theme_settings” which is the name of our settings group for this series.

$section_name

The fifth argument tells WordPress what section to associate our setting with. For this tutorial we will use the string “ltdi_theme_settings_section” which is the name of our settings section for this series.

$args

For the last argument we use an array with two key/value pairs, one with the key “label_for”, and one with the key “class”. The “label_for” key is used by WordPress to create HTML label tags around the form label. The provided value is used as the “for” attribute in that tag. The “class” key is used by WordPress to add a custom CSS Class attribute to the wrapping <tr> HTML tags around the input.

<?php

  function ltdi_register_settings() {
      
    /* Code for settings section adding defaults goes here. */
    
    /* Code that adds the text fields in the previous article goes here. */
   
   add_settings_field(
       'setting_wp_editor_field',
       'New WP Editor Setting',
       'ltdi_get_editor_input',
       'ltdi_theme_settings',
       'ltdi_theme_settings_section',
       [
           'label_for' => 'setting_wp_editor_field',
           'class' => 'setting_wp_editor_field'
       ]  
   );

Adding the Editor Callback

Although the field has been added to WordPress, before it can be used we need to create the callback function to output the WordPress Editor HTML on the screen. One thing to note about the WP Editor field is it is technically a stylized textarea field. Because of this the code in the callback function is a bit different from previous callbacks in the series.

<?php

function ltdi_get_editor_input($args) {
   $settings  = \get_option('ltdi_theme_settings');
   $value     = $settings[$args['label_for']] ?? '';
   $editor_id = 'ltdi_theme_settings[' . $args['label_for'] . ']';
   
   echo \wp_editor($value, $editor_id);
}

What is this code doing:

1. We start by declaring the function “ltdi_get_editor_input”.
2. We then use the get_option() function with the argument “ltdi_theme_settings” to retrieve all our settings.
3. We check the existence of the field’s value using the Null Coalescing Operator, assigning its value or empty string to the variable $value.
4. We then create an “editor_id” variable by concatinating the “option_name” and the field’s “name” into a single string.
5. We finallly use the built in function wp_editor() to display the WordPress Editor, filling in the fields value, and the editor ID.

Options:

The function that outputs the WP Editor provides options to override its display and control the available editor tools. The main option I use is ‘media_buttons’. This option allows you to turn off the media buttons by passing it a boolean value of false. Other options can be found here.

Once you have your options selected, the options variable gets passed into the wp_editor() function as its last argument.

<?php

function ltdi_get_editor_input($args) {
   $settings = \get_option('ltdi_theme_settings');
   $value   = !empty($settings[$args['label_for']]) ? $settings[$args['label_for']] : '';
   $editor_id = 'ltdi_theme_settings[' . $args['label_for'] . ']';
   
   $options = [
		'media_buttons' => false
   ];

   echo \wp_editor($value, $editor_id, $options);
}

Putting It All Together

The final code is available for download on github. When this code is added to your WordPress theme’s function file or your plugin’s main file, you should have a functioning WordPress settings page with two text inputs, one textarea input, and our new WordPress Editor input.

Remember: something as simple as a typo can take down a website. For this reason I recommend plenty of backups. I also recommend using a development environment to test the code before pushing it live.