Reusable Custom WordPress Meta Boxes

No longer supported - please fork to continue development on your own.

Contributors: tammyhart

Original Tutorial Series: (http://wp.tutsplus.com/author/tammy/)

Latest Update

Image and file upload buttons now use the new 3.5 media uploader!

Description

This project was originally a tutorial for WPTuts+, but as I continued to use the code in my own projects, I kept improving it and making the resusable part even better. Rather than update the tutorial, I decided to make it an open source project here where developers can keep up with improvements as well as contribute their own.

This project creates a class which makes it easy to create a custom meta box for any post type using a master switch case for the meta box and fields HTML and an array containing the data for the fields you want to use.

Fields Included

• Text Input (types: text,tel, email, url, number)
• Textarea
• WYSIWYG Editor
• Single checkbox
• Select and Chosen select with support for "multiple"
• Radio group
• Checkbox group
• Taxonomy Select box and Checkboxes
• Post select with support for "multiple" and Chosen
• Post Checkboxes
• jQuery UI Date input
• jQuery UI Slider
• Farbtastic color chooser
• Post Drag and Drop Sort
• Image upload/select
• File upload/select
• Sortable Repeatable area with ability to use any of the above mentioned fields (with caution and reason)

Notes

Not all fields are covered in the included example, but they are in the Wiki

Usage

These files are written from the perspecitve of being used in a theme.

1. Add the metaboxes directory in your theme or plugin.
2. Include metaboxes/meta_box.php in your functions.php.
3. Use the class to create and add meta boxes to any post type (see Examples section below or the Wiki )

Examples

Create an array that contains the field data (full examples of each filed type found in inc/sample.php)

$prefix = 'sample_';

$fields = array(
	array( // Text Input
		'label'	=> 'Text Input', // <label>
		'desc'	=> 'A description for the field.', // description
		'id'	=> $prefix.'text', // field id and name
		'type'	=> 'text' // type of field
	),
	array( // Textarea
		'label'	=> 'Textarea', // <label>
		'desc'	=> 'A description for the field.', // description
		'id'	=> $prefix.'textarea', // field id and name
		'type'	=> 'textarea' // type of field
	)
);

Instantiate the class with all required variables

/**
 * Instantiate the class with all variables to create a meta box
 * var $id string meta box id
 * var $title string title
 * var $fields array fields
 * var $page string|array post type to add meta box to
 * var $js bool including javascript or not
 */
$sample_box = new custom_add_meta_box( 'sample_box', 'Sample Box', $fields, 'post', true );

Changelog

0.4 (January 8, 2013)

• Cleaned up docs
• Cleaned up js
• Cleaned up the field output and nested repeatables
• Fixed several bugs

0.3 (November 10, 2012)

• Added file field
• Added function to simplify the add file and add image thickbox
• added more fields to the Repeatable
• Added "chosen" and "multiple" options to select fields

0.2 (September 11, 2012)

• Functions combined into a class
• Major code cleanup and some docing added

0.1 (March 31, 2012)

• First release