Using OpenAI to write simple plugins
Following on from our first experiment in using OpenAI to write a date and time plugin we thoght we’d have a look at some simple plugins we could ask it to write for us.
This website has 83 published posts
The above example demonstrates how easy it is to add a shortcode to a heading displaying the current number of published posts on this website.
We simply asked OpenAI to: “Write a wordpress plugin and shortcode to display the total number of published posts on a website“
This is the code it generated. Feel free to add use it by adding it to your child theme functions.php file and using the shortcode below:
/*
* Plugin Name: WP Total Posts
* Description: Display total number of posts published on a website
* Version: 1.0
* Author: SD1.co.uk
*/
// Create a shortcode to display the total number of published posts
function wp_total_posts_shortcode() {
$total_posts = wp_count_posts();
$published_posts = $total_posts->publish;
return $published_posts;
}
add_shortcode( 'wp_total_posts', 'wp_total_posts_shortcode' );
This is the shortcode:
[wp_total_posts]It has been added in the heading like this:
This website has [wp_total_posts] published postsDisplay a random post with heading, link to the post, image and date published
We asked OpenAI to “Write a plugin to display a random post with title, date published and a thumbnail image, with a link to the post”
This is the result. It’s basic but it works. If you refresh the page you will get a random post. We’ll have a look at refining this in a later post.
This is the code that was generated. Simply add it to your child theme functions.php file and using the shortcode below:
/*
Plugin Name: Random Post Display
Description: Display a random post with title, date published and a thumbnail image, with a link to the post.
Version: 1.0
* Author: SD1.co.uk
*/
// Function for the shortcode
function random_post_display_shortcode() {
// Arguments for the query
$args = array(
'post_type' => 'post',
'posts_per_page' => 1,
'orderby' => 'rand',
);
// The Query
$random_post_query = new WP_Query( $args );
// Check if the query has posts
if ( $random_post_query->have_posts() ) {
// Start the markup
$output = '<div class="random-post">';
// Loop through the posts
while ( $random_post_query->have_posts() ) : $random_post_query->the_post();
// Get the post thumbnail
$post_thumbnail = get_the_post_thumbnail( get_the_ID(), 'thumbnail' );
// Add the title to the markup
$output .= '<h3><a href="' . get_the_permalink() . '">' . get_the_title() . '</a></h3>';
// Add the thumbnail to the markup
$output .= '<p>' . $post_thumbnail . '</p>';
// Add the date to the markup
$output .= '<p>' . get_the_date() . '</p>';
endwhile;
// Reset post data
wp_reset_postdata();
// Close the markup
$output .= '</div>';
// Return the markup
return $output;
}
}
// Hook the shortcode function to the init action
add_action( 'init', 'random_post_display_shortcode' );
// Register the shortcode
add_shortcode( 'random_post', 'random_post_display_shortcode' );
This is the shortcode used to genrate the random post.
[random_post]List all categories with a post count in a table
Taking things a little further we asked OpenAI to “Write a wordpress plugin to link to and display a list of all the categories on this website with a count of all the posts in each category in a table with headers”
This is the result:
This is the code that was generated. Simply add it to your child theme functions.php file and using the shortcode below:
/*
Plugin Name: Display All Categories
Description: Display all categories with a post count
Version: 1.0
Author: SD1.co.uk
*/
// Create the shortcode
function display_all_categories_shortcode() {
// Get all categories
$categories = get_categories();
// Create the table
$output = '<table>';
$output .= '<thead>';
$output .= '<tr>';
$output .= '<th>Category</th>';
$output .= '<th>Post Count</th>';
$output .= '</tr>';
$output .= '</thead>';
$output .= '<tbody>';
// Loop through all categories
foreach ( $categories as $category ) {
// Get the post count
$post_count = $category->category_count;
// Output the row
$output .= '<tr>';
$output .= '<td><a href="' . get_category_link( $category->term_id ) . '">' . $category->name . '</a></td>';
$output .= '<td>' . $post_count . '</td>';
$output .= '</tr>';
}
$output .= '</tbody>';
$output .= '</table>';
return $output;
}
add_shortcode( 'display_all_categories', 'display_all_categories_shortcode' );
This is the shortcode you need to display it on your post or page:
[display_all_categories]