HTML Templates

HTML templates are used to render widgets for display on the front end. A template is included for output when the widget() function is called, so it has access to the widget $instance variable and the $args variable. By default, Widgets Bundle will attempt to use tpl/default.php in your widget directory.

The template's name can be optionally overridden by using the get_template_name() function. By default, it must be placed in a folder named tpl in the root of the widget folder.

Example - Simple Template

Overriding the get_template_name() function:

function get_template_name( $instance ) {
    return 'my-awesome-template';
}

In the file found at tpl/my-awesome-template.php:

<div>
    <?php echo $args['before_title'] ?>
    <h1><?php echo $instance['title'] ?></h1>
    <?php echo $args['after_title'] ?>
    <div>
        <a href="<?php $instance['link_url'] ?>"><?php $instance['link_text'] ?></a>
    </div>
</div>

Template Selection

A template may be selected at runtime based on an option specified by the user, found in the $instance argument passed in to the get_template_name() function.

Example - Template Selection Based on User Input

function get_template_name( $instance ) {
    $template_name = '';
    if( ! empty( $instance['use_blue_template'] ) ) {
        $template_name = 'blue_template';
    } else {
        $template_name = 'red_template';
    }
    return $template_name;
}

Template Variables

For convenience, before including the template file specified by get_template_name(), the SiteOrigin_Widget base class extracts variables in the array returned by the get_template_variables() function. This is useful when it's necessary to perform any transformations on values specified by the user.

Example - Using Template Variables

Return the variables for extraction in an array:

function get_template_variables( $instance, $args ) {
    return array(
        'title' => ! empty( $instance['title'] ) ? $instance['title'] : 'Default title',
        'link_url' => ! empty( $instance['link_url'] ) ? $instance['link_url'] : '',
        'link_text' => ! empty( $instance['link_text'] ) ? $instance['link_text'] : 'Default link text.',
    );
}

Use the extracted variable in a template:

<div>
    <?php echo $args['before_title'] ?>
    <h1><?php echo $title ?></h1>
    <?php echo $args['after_title'] ?>
    <div>
        <a href="<?php $link_url ?>"><?php $link_text ?></a>
    </div>
</div>

Escaping Outputs

It is considered best practice to escape all potentially unsafe data as late as possible before outputting it to the front end. We strongly encourage this practice as it helps ensure security. The four built-in WordPress escaping functions (esc_html, esc_url, esc_attr, and esc_js) should be used as in the following example. More information on escaping data can be found here.

Example - Escaping Data Before Output

<script type="text/javascript">
    var value = <?php esc_js( $js_value ) ?>;
</script>
<div>
    <?php echo esc_html( $args['before_title'] ) ?>
    <h1><?php echo esc_html( $title ) ?></h1>
    <?php echo esc_html( $args['after_title'] ) ?>
    <div class="<?php esc_attr( $style_attribute ) ?>">
        <a href="<?php esc_url( $link_url ) ?>"><?php esc_html( $link_text ) ?></a> 
    </div>
</div>