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.

Add the metaboxes directory in your theme or plugin.
Include metaboxes/meta_box.php in your functions.php.
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

geekz/WordPress-Custom-Metaboxes