EasyMetabox - ⚠️ ARCHIVED PROJECT

Important Notice: This project is now archived and is no longer actively maintained.

Please migrate to WP Toolkit - our new comprehensive WordPress development toolkit that includes improved meta box functionality and much more.

Migration Notice

EasyMetabox has been superseded by WP Toolkit, which offers:

✅ Enhanced Meta Box Management - All EasyMetabox functionality plus improvements
✅ Comprehensive WordPress Development Tools - Beyond just meta boxes
✅ Active Development & Support - Regular updates and bug fixes
✅ Better Performance - Optimized and modernized codebase
✅ Extended Features - More field types and customization options

🚀 Get Started with WP Toolkit

Visit the new project: https://github.com/codad5/wptoolkit

Legacy Documentation

The following documentation is preserved for reference but is no longer supported.

EasyMetabox was a WordPress library that simplified the creation and management of custom meta boxes for posts, pages, and custom post types. It provided an intuitive API for adding custom fields with various input types and handling their data.

Core Features (Legacy)

Quick Edit Support: Enabled inline editing of custom post type fields directly from the post list table.

Important: Adding a field for Quick Edit using the allow_quick_edit option only worked if you also added that field as a column in the post list table. This required using appropriate filters (like manage_{post_type}_posts_columns and manage_{post_type}_posts_custom_column) to include the field in the table display.
WordPress Media Integration: Provided a wp_media field type for seamless media uploads and management.

Installation (Legacy - Not Recommended)

⚠️ Warning: This installation method is deprecated. Please use WP Toolkit instead.

Click to view legacy installation instructions

Since this was a WordPress library, you couldn't use Composer directly unless your application compiled Composer dependencies. The installation steps were:

Download the source code from GitHub: codad5/easy-metabox
Place the files in your WordPress plugin or theme directory.

Include the library in your code:

require_once __DIR__ . '/path-to-easy-metabox/get-easy-metabox.php';

Basic Usage (Legacy)

Click to view legacy usage examples

Here's how meta boxes were created with EasyMetabox:

// Create a new meta box
$metabox = getEasyMetabox(
    'my_meta_box',            // Unique identifier
    'Additional Information', // Meta box title
    'post'                    // Post type
);

// Add fields
$metabox->add_field('author_email', 'Author Email', 'email');
$metabox->add_field('publish_date', 'Publish Date', 'date');

// Set up the meta box
$metabox->setup_actions();

Available Field Types (Legacy)

text
textarea
select
checkbox
radio
number
date
url
email
tel
password
hidden
color
file
wp_media

Field Configuration (Legacy)

$metabox->add_field(
    'field_id',          // Field ID
    'Field Label',       // Field Label
    'text',              // Field Type
    [],                  // Options (for select, radio, checkbox)
    [                    // HTML attributes
        'class' => 'my-class',
        'required' => true,
        'placeholder' => 'Enter value'
    ],
    [                    // Additional options
        'allow_quick_edit' => true,
        'default' => 'Default value'
    ]
);

Quick Edit Support (Legacy)

$metabox->add_field(
    'field_name',
    'Field Label',
    'text',
    [],
    [],
    ['allow_quick_edit' => true]
);

WordPress Media Integration (Legacy)

$metabox->add_field(
    'image_field',
    'Upload Image',
    'wp_media',
    [],
    ['multiple' => true] // Allow multiple file selection
);

Retrieving Meta Values (Legacy)

// Get a single field value
$value = $metabox->get_field_value('field_id');

// Get all meta values for a post
$all_meta = $metabox->all_meta($post_id);

Complete Example (Legacy)

Click to view complete legacy example

<?php
/**
 * Legacy Example of integrating EasyMetabox with a Custom Post Type
 * This code is deprecated - use WP Toolkit instead
 */

require_once __DIR__ . '/path-to-easy-metabox/get-easy-metabox.php';

// Define post type constant
const PRODUCT_POST_TYPE = 'product';

/**
 * Register the Product custom post type
 */
function register_product_post_type(): void {
    $labels = array(
        'name'               => 'Products',
        'singular_name'      => 'Product',
        'menu_name'          => 'Products',
        'add_new'            => 'Add New',
        'add_new_item'       => 'Add New Product',
        'edit_item'          => 'Edit Product',
        'new_item'           => 'New Product',
        'view_item'          => 'View Product',
        'search_items'       => 'Search Products',
        'not_found'          => 'No products found',
        'not_found_in_trash' => 'No products found in Trash'
    );

    $args = array(
        'labels'             => $labels,
        'public'             => true,
        'publicly_queryable' => true,
        'show_ui'            => true,
        'show_in_menu'       => true,
        'query_var'          => true,
        'rewrite'            => array('slug' => 'products'),
        'capability_type'    => 'post',
        'has_archive'        => true,
        'hierarchical'       => false,
        'menu_position'      => 5,
        'menu_icon'          => 'dashicons-cart',
        'supports'           => array('title', 'editor', 'thumbnail')
    );

    register_post_type(PRODUCT_POST_TYPE, $args);
}

// Register the custom post type
add_action('init', 'register_product_post_type');

/**
 * Create and configure the product meta box
 */
function add_product_metabox(): void {
    global $product_metabox;
    
    $product_metabox = getEasyMetabox('product_details', 'Product Details', PRODUCT_POST_TYPE);

    $product_metabox->add_field('price', 'Price', 'number', [], [
        'required' => true,
        'min' => 0,
        'step' => 0.01
    ]);

    $product_metabox->add_field('category', 'Category', 'select', [
        'electronics' => 'Electronics',
        'clothing' => 'Clothing',
        'books' => 'Books'
    ]);

    $product_metabox->add_field('images', 'Product Images', 'wp_media', [], [
        'multiple' => true
    ]);

    $product_metabox->setup_actions();
}

add_action('admin_init', 'add_product_metabox');

/**
 * Handle saving the meta box data
 */
function save_product_meta($post_id): bool {
    global $product_metabox;

    try {
        if (defined('DOING_AUTOSAVE') && DOING_AUTOSAVE) {
            return false;
        }

        if (!current_user_can('edit_post', $post_id)) {
            return false;
        }

        return $product_metabox->save($post_id);
    } catch (\Throwable $th) {
        return false;
    }
}

// Hook into saving the post type
add_action("save_post_" . PRODUCT_POST_TYPE, 'save_product_meta');

/**
 * Optional: Display product meta data on the front end
 */
function display_product_meta($content) {
    global $product_metabox;
    
    // Only modify product post type content
    if (!is_singular(PRODUCT_POST_TYPE)) {
        return $content;
    }

    $post_id = get_the_ID();
    $price = $product_metabox->get_field_value('price', $post_id);
    $category = $product_metabox->get_field_value('category', $post_id);
    $images = $product_metabox->get_field_value('images', $post_id, false); // false to get array of images

    $meta_html = '<div class="product-meta">';
    $meta_html .= '<p class="price">Price: $' . esc_html($price) . '</p>';
    $meta_html .= '<p class="category">Category: ' . esc_html($category) . '</p>';
    
    if (!empty($images)) {
        $meta_html .= '<div class="product-gallery">';
        foreach ($images as $image_url) {
            $meta_html .= '<img src="' . esc_url($image_url) . '" alt="Product Image">';
        }
        $meta_html .= '</div>';
    }
    
    $meta_html .= '</div>';

    return $content . $meta_html;
}

// Add meta data to the content
add_filter('the_content', 'display_product_meta');

Legacy Features

Click to view other legacy features

Validation (Legacy)

The library included built-in validation for field types. You could show admin errors by enabling them:

$metabox->set_show_admin_error(true);

Prefix Support (Legacy)

You could set a prefix for all field IDs:

$metabox->set_prefix('my_prefix_');

Custom Input Types (Legacy)

You could add custom input types:

$metabox->set_input_type_html('custom_type', function($id, $data) {
    // Return HTML string for custom input type
    return "<input type='text' id='{$id}' name='{$id}' />";
});

What's Next?

🔄 Migrate to WP Toolkit

WP Toolkit is the successor to EasyMetabox and offers:

All EasyMetabox functionality - with improvements
Additional WordPress development tools - Custom post types, taxonomies, and more
Modern architecture - Better performance and maintainability
Active support - Regular updates and community support
Enhanced documentation - Comprehensive guides and examples

📚 Migration Guide

Check the WP Toolkit documentation for:

Migration instructions from EasyMetabox
Updated API reference
New features and capabilities
Getting started guide

License

This legacy project was licensed under the GPL-2.0+ License.

Author

Created by Codad5

Archive Status

This project is archived as of 2025 and will receive no further updates. All development efforts have moved to WP Toolkit.

For questions about migration or WP Toolkit, please visit the WP Toolkit repository.

codad5/easy-metabox