In order to give strength to its hook system, WordPress leverages
event-driven pattern for designs. Though, we know that the design
patterns are certainly dependent on each other , thus it is highly
unlikely to recognize a design pattern. This is what which makes
WordPress flexible.
Apart from achieving exclusiveness, other thing which WordPress developers look for is to create a code which is easily maintainable. As with the advancement of technology and enhancement in the features the codebase of any web app tends to grow more complex. Thus, with passing time it becomes difficult to preserve the clarity and maintainability of the code.
This is equally applicable on WordPress, be it a plugin, an
extension, themes or any other project type. The thing which is
important is to write a maintainable code.
That's it!
No! certainly not!
This is where developers go wrong, as they make sure that they have
followed all the steps to a write maintainable code. Let's for
instance they apply meta box, apply options and also apply tabbed
navigation in the WordPress dashboard, but they forget to check
whether the code they have written works for real or not.
In this blog we will go to the server side in order to apply code
which can verify that whether the user has the authority to save the
meta data or not .
How
to verify that the permissions are granted?
You
need to incorporate a security check during the serialization process
so as to check whether the user has the ability to save post meta
data and to publish. To do this we can use nounce value so as to
implement this. This is a number which is used once in order to
protect URLs from the scope malicious users.
1.
How to add a Nounce?
To add a nounce in the meta boxes, you need to implement the
functionality in the markup which will render the post template. For
this you need to load admin/views/authors-quick-tab.php and then
after you need to update the template so that it contains wp_nounce
_field.
<div
id="authors-quick-tab">
<h2
class="nav-tab-wrapper current">
<a
class="nav-tab nav-tab-active"
href="javascript:;">Tab
1</a>
<a
class="nav-tab"
href="javascript:;">Tab
2</a>
<a
class="nav-tab"
href="javascript:;">Tab
3</a>
</h2>
<?php
//
add tabbed content
include_once(
'tabs/tab1.php'
);
include_once(
'tabs/tab2.php'
);
include_once(
'tabs/tab3.php'
);
//
Add a nonce field
wp_nonce_field(
'authors_quick_tabs_save',
'authors_quick_tabs_nonce'
);
?>
</div>
The code written above has introduced a nonce which has the
functionality for saving the authors quick tabs (which we've named
authors_quick_tabs_nonce) . This was also linked with a value which
is figured out by authors_quick_tabs. This won't load on the very
first go when you will load your web app on browser, as these values
are displayed in a hidden field.
Those people who are intrigued can launch a suitable bowser's
development tool in order to check the meta box, and you would get
something like this and of course with a different value of nonce.
<input
type="hidden"
id="authors_quick_tabs_nonce"
name="authors_quick_tabs_nonce"
value="q4df212f34">
2.
Check the Nonce
To make sure that the permissions of saving the post assigned to the
user is implemented properly or not, you need to check the following
three things:
- User must save the data on the 'post' post type
- Users must actually have save permission
- Post must be not automatically saved by WordPress
In order to incorporate the first two we can write a helper function
and for checking the third one you can go for an intrinsic function.
Primarily, you need to establish the hook as well as the functions
that can make use of the helper functions and then you need to save
your meta data. Now you need to add some piece of code in the
Authors_Quick_Meta_Box which is given below.
<?php
add_action( 'save_post', array( $this, 'save_post' ) ); ?>
The next step is to define the function. You can make use of the
following code in which we have called two functions.
<?php
public
function save_post(
$post_id )
{
if
( !
$this->is_valid_fnc()
|| ! $this->user_save(
$post_id, 'authors_quick_tabs_nonce',
'authors_quick_tabs_save'
) ) {
return;
}
}
?>
In the given code, it is written to run the save_post function
when we call a save_post action. The function is written to
verify that the saved post is not of the 'post' post type, and if the
user do not has the authority to save then function should exit.
Definition of the function is must so as to make the logic work. Then
we need to write the is_valid_fnc function as this function checks
the $_POST array to ensure that the saved post type is a 'post'.
<?php
private
function is_valid_fnc()
{
/**
*
check valid post type or not
*/
return
! empty(
$_POST['post_type']
) &&
'post'
== $_POST['post_type'];
}
?>
After this we need to add the user_save function, to make sure that
the whether the saved post is automatically due to the WordPress or
not. Further , if the user is saving the function so there should be
a proper nounce value for that particular post.
<?php
private
function user_save(
$post_id, $nonce_action, $nonce_id )
{
$is_var_save =
wp_is_post_autosave( $post_id );
$is_var_revision
= wp_is_post_revision(
$post_id );
$is_var_valid_nonce
= ( isset(
$_POST[
$nonce_action ]
) &&
wp_verify_nonce( $_POST[
$nonce_action ],
$nonce_id ) );
//
Return true or false.
return
! (
$is_var_save || $is_var_revision
) && $is_var_valid_nonce;
}
?>
Notice here that we're passing in the nonce_action and the nonce_id
that we defined in the template in the very first step. We're also
using wp_verify_nonce in conjunction with said information. This is
how we can verify that the post that's being saved is done so by a
user that has the proper access and permissions.
One thing you should note is that we are passing nonce_id and the
nonce_action which were defined at the very beginning. Moreover, we
will also use wp_verify_nonce conjunction in order to make sure that
user who has proper authorities only can save the post.
Maintainable code is certainly an indispensable need of the
modern development world. Thus, verifying it becomes a crucial task.
Feel free to share your queries!
