up vote 0 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

What processing is done by wordpress when a page is accessed that loads all contextual information into $post and other variables? and is it possible to trigger this process manually (or simulate it) so function calls have this context?

The reason I'm asking is because I have written a small plugin that allows users to call wordpress functions via Ajax.

The plugin works great with context-less functions. It has a big limitation however: calling a function via ajax loses the context information (e.g. $post) that the called function would otherwise have, had it been placed from within a template.

However, the ajax call does send across the HTTP Referrer information. I can easily extract the referrer info, so I know e.g. on which page the user is on. The problem is I'm not sure how to use it further. Any tips/ideas would be greatly appreciated.

link|improve this question
feedback

2 Answers

up vote 0 down vote accepted

  • you're requesting index.php which I guess it's the homepage; if I call for example is_category() trough your ajax from the category page I'll get false because the function is being ran on the homepage. Use $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"] instead (don't forget to sanitize it)

  • you're hooking your handler on the init action, which I think runs before the post data is set up. Use a different one, like wp or template_redirect

link|improve this answer
Great stuff. Still need to put it all together, but definitely looks like this is the direction I need to take. I'm thinking of using javascript instead of $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"] though to pick the right target url. Then the hook change really makes the difference! I have to admit I'm still not particularly clear about processing order / hook points etc in wordpress. Thanks One Trick Pony! – Yoav Aner Jun 30 '11 at 8:16
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

To use WordPress functions from ajax call you need to hook your own function to wp-admin/admin-ajax.php

to get a better understanding take a look at This.

link|improve this answer
That's almost the same as what he's currently doing. He wants those functions to be aware of the current page context, admin-ajax.php doesn't accomplish that – One Trick Pony Jun 29 '11 at 23:25
you can always send the current page context with your ajax post – Bainternet♦ Jun 30 '11 at 8:31
Can you elaborate please? – Yoav Aner Jun 30 '11 at 9:37
sure, on what? on sending the context, say you are on a page you can add to your ajax call something like context: 'page' then in your ajax function you can see that the context is a page – Bainternet♦ Jun 30 '11 at 9:55
Oh, but that's not what the plugin does. It attempts to generalise ajax calls to ANY function, and the function grabs whichever context it needs. I can't force all functions to know about this context variable... The ajaxize plugin simply wraps around other functions... Thanks though. Looks like I'll stick to One Trick Pony's solution – Yoav Aner Jun 30 '11 at 10:05
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.