Changing plugin options from theme functions file?

Question

I am making a starting-point Wordpress theme that will be used on dev projects. In this theme, I am automating common plugin installs that are used on every project. I have been able to automate Wordpress Core settings using the update_options() function.

What I now want to do is update options of plugins in the same manner, but I am not having any success.

For example, I use Search Everything as a typical plugin. I have my own search keyword highlighter, so I want to make sure that the plugin setting for search term highlighting is always off (as to not interfere). Here is the code I'm working with:

add_action('admin_init', 'nebula_plugin_force_settings');
function nebula_plugin_force_settings(){
    if ( file_exists(WP_PLUGIN_DIR . '/search-everything') ) {
        //Tried the option slug in the array():
        update_option('se_use_highlight'], false);

        //Tried hard-coding the array and key:
        update_option('se_options["se_use_highlight"]', false);

        //Tried setting the array as a variable:
        $se_options = get_option('se_options');            
        update_option($se_options['se_use_highlight'], false);
    }
}

None of those attempts worked. I feel like I'm getting close because when I var_dump() the array, or echo the get_option() I can see the setting, but I just can not update that setting. Any ideas?

Answer 1

For reference, you may want to read the update_option documentation. The arguments you are passing are completely unrelated. However, your third technique is the closest, you have to update all the options in the the update_option call, not just the one option you want. This is because of how the plugin is storing it's options as an array rather than individual options.

update_option takes two arguments, the first is the name of the option you want to update (in this case se_options) as a string, the second is the option value, this can be almost anything, it will be converted into a string (serialized) by WP when stored. The Search Everything plugin is sending an array which holds all of it's option settings, you need to do the same.

function nebula_plugin_force_settings() {
    $se_options = get_option( 'se_options' );
    $se_options['se_use_highlight'] = false;
    update_option( 'se_options', $se_options );
}