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I am building a shortcode plugin and I want to avoid loading unecessary code unless the shorcode is called in a page.

I am having trouble with the ajax functions. It seems I need to load everything very early in the plugin code, thus loading unecessary code for the whole site.

I am talking about the usual calls in adding ajax 

add_action( 'wp_ajax_the_ajax_hook', 'testFunction' );
add_action( 'wp_ajax_nopriv_the_ajax_hook', 'testFunction' );

and also the backend function needs to load.

function testFunction(){
        //do some server side thing with $POST
        echo 'this is a test function';
        die();
     }

If I don't load the add_action's at my plugin "top" code I don't get the ajax.js loaded If I don't load the testFunction at my plugin "top" code I get a call_user_func_array() expects parameter 1 to be a valid callback, function 'testFunction' not found or invalid function name

I have no problem loading the scripts "on demand" when shortcode is called, that is:

wp_enqueue_script( 'my-ajax-handle', FAU_PLUGIN_URL . 'js/ajax.js', array( 'jquery' ) );
wp_localize_script( 'my-ajax-handle', 'the_ajax_script', array( 'ajaxurl' => admin_url( 'admin-ajax.php' ) ) );

Hope someone has had this issue too... Thank you in advance

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11
  • You could test a couple hooks with the conditional has_shortcode() but I'm not sure reliable that will be when adding hooks since you need actual $post_content to test against.
    – Howdy_McGee ♦
    Feb 19, 2016 at 22:33
  • So you only want to add the ajax add_action and the testFunction if the shortcode exists on the page?
    – czerspalace
    Feb 19, 2016 at 22:37
  • I think the problem is when did you call the wp_ajax hook, is it inside a function / class that's called on the file directly or through another hook? I think you will need to be more specific. When you need this ajax? or at least you can describe your code workflow
    – nonsensecreativity
    Feb 19, 2016 at 22:47
  • Thanks. I will try the has_shortcode, even if it's not 100% reliable, at least it performs better
    – Rodolfo Cristovao
    Feb 20, 2016 at 2:34
  • @nackle - the ajax hook action was called in the shortcode function.
    – Rodolfo Cristovao
    Feb 20, 2016 at 2:43

1 Answer 1

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I don't know if it is the 'best' place, but get_header is early enough to still enqueue scripts:

function at_set_header () {
    global $post, $has_the shortcode;

    if ( is_object( $post ) && has_shortcode( $post->post_content, 'shortcode_name') ) {
        $has_the_shortcode = true;
        wp_enqueue_script( 'my-ajax-handle', FAU_PLUGIN_URL . 'js/ajax.js', array( 'jquery' ) );
        wp_localize_script( 'my-ajax-handle', 'the_ajax_script', array( 'ajaxurl' => admin_url( 'admin-ajax.php' ) ) );
    }
}
add_action( 'get_header', 'at_set_header');

The $has_the_shortcode global might be usefull to decide about other resources at later stages.

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  • Thank you, I tried it and it sucessfully loads the ajax handles, however the reponse is always 0 no matter where I declare the testFunction. I tried plugin top code, inside the at_set_header, etc, it just seems the script can't see the testFuncion declaration that way?
    – Rodolfo Cristovao
    Feb 20, 2016 at 3:08
  • What does the JS Ajax call look like? It needs to be a request to ajaxurl with parameter action=the_ajax_hook
    – ccprog
    Feb 20, 2016 at 13:19
  • thank you @ccprog in my ajax.js <pre>jQuery.post(the_ajax_script.ajaxurl, { 'action': 'the_ajax_hook', data:'da_data', value:content_id } , function(response_from_the_action_function){ console.log(response_from_the_action_function); }</pre>...
    – Rodolfo Cristovao
    Feb 21, 2016 at 22:22
  • Looks good so far. BTW, the ajax action needs to be declared top-code, since on the ajax call the get_header action will never be executed. Can you assert whether your testFunction gets called or not? You could i. e. try to log something with trigger_error.
    – ccprog
    Feb 22, 2016 at 18:35
  • Hello @ccprog, I found that out too (also from czerspalace comment). So if I declare the ajax call blog-wide I have to declare the ajax php funcions too otherwise the function is never found by the ajax.js script when it loads.
    – Rodolfo Cristovao
    Feb 24, 2016 at 1:02

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