Very stubborn wp_register_script / add_action vs remove

Question

I am trying to get rid of a plugin's .js file in the but it's not working.

It's being called here {partial code):

class awqsf{

  const post_type = 'awqsf';

  function __construct(){       
    // style for front end
    add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', array($this,'awsqf_front_styles'), false, '1.0', 'all',1 );           
  }

  function awsqf_front_styles(){
    wp_register_script( 'awqsf-frontjs', plugins_url( 'js/awqsf-front.js', __FILE__ ), array('jquery'), '1.0' );
    wp_enqueue_script('awqsf-frontjs');
  }

} //end class

I have tried a lot of different versions, wp_deregister_script and remove_action, but can't seem to get rid of it:

//deregister awqsf
function my_deregister_scripts() {
  //wp_register_script( 'awqsf-frontjs', plugins_url( 'js/awqsf-front.js', __FILE__ ), array('jquery'), '1.0' ); // the original wp_register_script
  wp_deregister_script( 'awqsf-frontjs', 'http://www.spijkerbroek.me/wp-content/plugins/advance-wp-query-search-filter/js/awqsf-front.js', array('jquery'), '1.0' );
  wp_deregister_script("wp_enqueue_scripts", 'http://www.spijkerbroek.me/wp-content/plugins/advance-wp-query-search-filter/js/awqsf-front.js', array("awqsf","awsqf_front_styles"), false, '1.0', 'all',1 );    
  wp_deregister_script( 'awqsf-frontjs', array('http://www.spijkerbroek.me/wp-content/plugins/advance-wp-query-search-filter/js/awqsf-front.js', 'jquery'), false, '1.0', 'all',1 );
  wp_deregister_script('awqsf','awqsf-front.js');
  wp_deregister_script('awqsf');
  //function awsqf_front_styles(){} // the function
  //add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', array($this,'awsqf_front_styles'), false, '1.0', 'all',1 );   // the original add_action
  remove_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', array('http://www.spijkerbroek.me/wp-content/plugins/advance-wp-query-search-filter/js/awqsf-front.js','awsqf_front_styles'), false, '1.0', 'all',1 );
  remove_action( 'awqsf', array('http://www.spijkerbroek.me/wp-content/plugins/advance-wp-query-search-filter/js/awqsf-front.js','awsqf_front_styles'), false, '1.0', 'all',1 );
  remove_action( 'awqsf', array('http://www.spijkerbroek.me/wp-content/plugins/advance-wp-query-search-filter/js/awqsf-front.js','wp_enqueue_scripts'), false, '1.0', 'all',1 );
}
add_action( 'wp_awqsf_scripts', 'my_deregister_scripts', 1 );

Can somebody get me into the right direction?

Answer 1

What you need is simple dequeue the script. (I said dequeue and not deregister once the script is immediately enqueued and simply deregister it will throw an error, because WP will try to enqueue a non registered script).

But to dequeue something is necessary that something is first enqueued, so normally you have to look at the priority on which the enqueue function is called on 'wp_enqueue_scripts' and use a lower priority (higher priority number).

In your case, look at this line:

add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', array($this,'awsqf_front_styles'),false,'1.0','all',1);

this is wrong. Plugin author is using the parameters for wp_enqueue_script in the function add_action.

If you look in Codex add_action accept 4 arguments:

add_action($tag, $function_to_add, $priority, $accepted_args)

So plugin author are using false as $priority and '1.0' as $accepted_args. 'all' and 1 will be ignored at all.

Off course this is an error, but WordPress can do its work despite it, using the default priority that is 10.

Once you know this, you can just use a lower priority (higher priority number) and dequeue the script:

add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'remove_awsqf_front_script', 30);

function remove_awsqf_front_script() {
  wp_dequeue_script('awqsf-frontjs');
}

That's all.