WP Reactivate is a React boilerplate built specifically for WordPress, allowing you to quickly and easily integrate React into your WordPress plugins.

⚠️Since the release of Block Editor (Gutenberg) the Javascript ecosystem around WordPress has evolved rapidly. This repository, does not represent the best practices that should be used for React development in the WordPress.⚠️

• WP Reactivate
  • Setup and installation
  • Usage
  • Quick Start
    • Introduction
    • Using the Shortcode
    • Using the Widget
    • Using REST Controllers
    • Using the Settings Page
    • Using fetchWP
  • Technologies
  • Tutorials
  • Credits

• Install Node 8.12.0 LTS or greater
• Install Yarn (Or use npm if you prefer)

• Install required modules: yarn (or npm install)
• Build development version of app and watch for changes: yarn build (or npm run build)
• Build production version of app:yarn prod (or npm run prod)

This boilerplate plugin provides three different WordPress views in which an independant React app can be rendered:

• Shortcode
• Widget
• Settings page in the backend (wp-admin)

Each JavaScript root file will correspond to the independant React app to be bundled by Webpack.

webpack.config.js

entry: {
  'js/admin': path.resolve(__dirname, 'app/admin.js'),
  'js/shortcode': path.resolve(__dirname, 'app/shortcode.js'),
  'js/widget': path.resolve(__dirname, 'app/widget.js'),
},

In order to get the shortcode attributes into our Javascript we need to pass them to an object which will be made available to the shortcode.js app via wp_localize_script. Be careful with the security of data you pass here as this will be output in a <script> tag in the rendered html.

includes/Shortcode.php

public function shortcode( $atts ) {
  wp_enqueue_script( $this->plugin_slug . '-shortcode-script' );
  wp_enqueue_style( $this->plugin_slug . '-shortcode-style' );

  $object_name = 'wpr_object_' . uniqid();

  $object = shortcode_atts( array(
    'title'       => 'Hello world',
    'api_nonce'   => wp_create_nonce( 'wp_rest' ),
    'api_url'	  => rest_url( 'wp-reactivate/v1/' ),
  ), $atts, 'wp-reactivate' );

  wp_localize_script( $this->plugin_slug . '-shortcode-script', $object_name, $object );

  $shortcode = '<div class="wp-reactivate-shortcode" data-object-id="' . $object_name . '"></div>';
  return $shortcode;
}

You can access the shortcode attributes via the wpObject prop which is passed into your React container component.

app/containers/Shortcode.jsx

import React, { Component } from 'react';

export default class Shortcode extends Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <div className="wrap">
        <h1>WP Reactivate Frontend</h1>
        <p>Title: {this.props.wpObject.title}</p>
      </div>
    );
  }
}

In order to get the widget options into our Javascript we need to pass them to an object which will be made available to the widget.js app via wp_localize_script. Be careful with the security of data you pass here as this will be output in a <script> tag in the rendered html.

includes/Widget.php

public function widget( $args, $instance ) {
  wp_enqueue_script( $this->plugin_slug . '-widget-script', plugins_url( 'assets/js/widget.js', dirname( __FILE__ ) ), array( 'jquery' ), $this->version );
  wp_enqueue_style( $this->plugin_slug . '-widget-style', plugins_url( 'assets/css/widget.css', dirname( __FILE__ ) ), $this->version );

  $object_name = 'wpr_object_' . uniqid();

  $object = array(
    'title'       => $instance['title'],
    'api_nonce'   => wp_create_nonce( 'wp_rest' ),
    'api_url'	  => rest_url( 'wp-reactivate/v1/' ),
  );

  wp_localize_script( $this->plugin_slug . '-widget-script', $object_name, $object );

  echo $args['before_widget'];

  ?><div class="wp-reactivate-widget" data-object-id="<?php echo $object_name ?>"></div><?php

  echo $args['after_widget'];
}

You can access the widget options via the wpObject prop which is passed into your React container component.

app/containers/Widget.jsx

import React, { Component } from 'react';

export default class Widget extends Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <div className="wrap">
        <h1>WP Reactivate Widget</h1>
        <p>Title: {this.props.wpObject.title}</p>
      </div>
    );
  }
}

We have included a single base REST controller class in the plugin. You will need to use this controller to create endpoints to interact with your React components. Depending on the complexity of your plugin you may need to have multiple controllers or may want to extend default WordPress REST API endpoints.

We have chosen the custom controller approach for its control and flexibility. Please see the WordPress developer documentation on adding custom endpoints and specifically the controller pattern to familiarise your with our choice of implementation.

It is important to become well versed in using the WordPress REST API as this is how you will be passing data to and from your React applications.

In our admin class we add a sub menu page to the Settings menu using add_options_page and render the React Admin container onto the root DOM node.

includes/Admin.php

public function display_plugin_admin_page() {
 ?><div id="wp-reactivate-admin"></div><?php
}

We have provided a utility class called fetchWP which is a simple abstraction over the Fetch API which allows you to easily make requests to the WordPress REST API.

In the React container component we show how to retrieve and update this setting via the example REST controller included in the boilerplate.

First we initialise fetchWP in the ES6 class constructor of our container component. It requires two parameters being the REST URL and the REST nonce which can be supplied from our wpObject.

app/containers/Admin.jsx

  constructor(props) {
    super(props);

    this.state = {
      example_setting: '',
    };

    this.fetchWP = new fetchWP({
      restURL: this.props.wpObject.api_url,
      restNonce: this.props.wpObject.api_nonce,
    });

    this.getSetting();
  }

In the getSetting call you can now see how we use the utility to perform a GET request on the 'example' endpoint.

app/containers/Admin.jsx

  getSetting = () => {
    this.fetchWP.get( 'example' )
    .then(
      (json) => this.setState({
        example_setting: json.value,
        saved_example_setting: json.value
      }),
      (err) => console.log( 'error', err )
    );
  };

We have found this utility covers most of our use cases. If you are looking for something more full featured (especially if you are working with standard WP endpoints) then have a look at node-wpapi.

The boilerplate has been updated to use PHP namespaces and autoloading. Please see Tom McFarlin's article on the subject if you are not familiar.

Building a WordPress plugin with React - Part 1, Part 2

Made by Pangolin