Can ChatGPT Construct a Helpful WordPress Plugin That Really Works?

Can AI flip non-coders into professional WordPress plugin builders? To search out out, we requested ChatGPT to construct a customized WordPress plugin from scratch after which had our crack staff of builders study the code…

AI is the world’s hottest two-letter phrase proper now. With all of the latest information headlines about whether or not AI will take our jobs away, we needed to know… can ChatGPT truly develop a practical and helpful WordPress plugin with out having to jot down code from scratch? And does the plugin meet greatest coding practices?

Thankfully, WPMU DEV builds among the most strong WordPress plugins on the planet, so we have now loads of professional WordPress plugin builders who can put ChatGPT to the take a look at.

Actually, should you take a stroll round our firm’s digital corridors, you’ll be able to’t assist however stumble upon WordPress coders and builders. It appears everybody round right here can take a look at a WordPress plugin and see PHP the way in which Neo sees the Matrix’s digital rain code.

What PHP code appears prefer to skilled WordPress plugin builders. Supply: Giphy.com

Everybody, that’s …besides me!

I’m only a weblog author with no coding expertise and a burning want so as to add “immediate engineer” to my CV.

So, on this publish, we’ll discover how you can leverage the facility of ChatGPT to construct a easy customized WordPress plugin shortly and securely, even should you lack intensive coding expertise.

We’ll do that by:

1) Asking ChatGPT to generate the code for a helpful plugin that we are able to take a look at, and

2) Working the code generated by ChatGPT previous our staff {of professional} plugin builders to allow them to assessment it and supply their trustworthy suggestions.

We’ll cowl the next:

Step 1 – Outline the Plugin’s Performance
Step 2 – Generate Code Snippets with ChatGPT
Step 3 – Take a look at the Customized Plugin
Suggestions from Our Knowledgeable Plugin Builders
Can ChatGPT Flip You Right into a WordPress Plugin Developer?

Step 1 – Outline the Plugin’s Performance

Earlier than utilizing ChatGPT to generate code, we have to have a transparent understanding of the performance we would like our plugin to supply.

This begins by outlining the particular options, actions, or modifications we’ll wish to obtain with our plugin. This may then assist us generate correct prompts for ChatGPT and be certain that our AI-generated code aligns with our desired outcomes.

Step 2 – Generate Code Snippets with ChatGPT

To generate our code snippets utilizing ChatGPT, we’ll hold issues easy (and free) and use the freely obtainable interface offered by OpenAI.

Take #1…

Be aware: My first try at utilizing ChatGPT to create a WordPress plugin from scratch was manner too formidable. I requested ChatGPT to construct me a easy WordPress time-travel dummy textual content producing plugin, utilizing the immediate beneath…

This immediate will certainly kick ChatGPT’s WordPress plugin improvement tyres.

As somebody who spends loads of time writing WordPress tutorials, I usually want dummy content material to check plugins, create screenshots, and so forth.

So, I believed it might be nice to mannequin my AI-generated dummy content material plugin on a plugin I usually use known as FakerPress.

ChatGPT pushed again on my request and let me know that creating a completely practical WordPress plugin with all of the options I requested was past the scope of a single response.

Nevertheless, it did provide to supply me with a primary template, information me on how you can implement among the options I discussed, and even gave me directions on how you can create a plugin listing and file…

Mmm…possibly my first try at making a WordPress plugin was too formidable!

At first, ChatGPT output code that seemed fairly spectacular…

To somebody who is aware of ‘zip’ about coding, the above code snippet positive appears spectacular!

ChatGPT additionally output all the extra code required to finish the subsequent steps.

Missing coding expertise, I relied on ChatGPT to information me by every step of the plugin improvement course of.

With the plugin code output, the subsequent step was to add the plugin to my take a look at web site and take a look at it to ensure it really works.

Step 3 – Take a look at The Customized Plugin

After importing the folder containing the plugin code to the wp-content > plugins listing of my take a look at web site and activating it contained in the Plugins display screen…

And now for the second we’ve all been ready for [drumroll]…I bought a deadly error!

What an anticlimax…the bottom level of my WordPress plugin improvement profession!

Assuming that possibly I didn’t add the extra snippets that ChatGPT offered appropriately, I went again and requested for all of the code to be offered as a single file that I might merely copy and paste to overwrite and replace the uploaded plugin file…

Why couldn’t it simply have given me your entire copy and paste code the primary time?

There was loads of code to output, so each time the method got here to a standstill, I instructed ChatGPT to proceed…

ChatGPT typically simply wants slightly mild encouragement to maintain going.

After repeating this course of a number of occasions, ChatGPT output your entire code and even offered some useful info.

After ready an entire 2 minutes…ChatGPT lastly output all the plugin code!

I uploaded the plugin file with the brand new code to my take a look at web site, then jumped into the location’s admin space and activated the plugin.

It labored! Or, so it appeared.

ChatGPT gave the plugin its personal menu merchandise…

ChatGPT created all this!

And a settings display screen with a number of fancy containers and fields…

Appears to be like spectacular…however will it work?

However I couldn’t see a area to specify what number of posts or pages to create, so I merely ticked some containers, entered some values, and clicked on the “Save Modifications” button to see what occurs.

And now, for the second of reality…

And…completely nothing occurred!

The latest lowest level of my WordPress plugin improvement profession…a plugin that does nothing!

My fancy-ass plugin was all make-believe, identical to a type of youngsters’s playground spaceships that’s stuffed with ineffective knobs you’ll be able to flip and buttons you’ll be able to press whereas pretending to be flying in outer house.

So, I reached out to one in every of our builders through Slack and requested them to take a look at the plugin file.

Among the feedback that got here again included the next:

“The plugin tries to generate random content material on each admin web page load”
“It calls a operate dummy_content_generator_generate_content_paragraphs which, in flip, makes an attempt to name dummy_content_generator_get_random_paragraph for each paragraph it tries to generate. The issue is that there isn’t any dummy_content_generator_get_random_paragraph operate.
“The web page masses to a degree, then it errors out as a result of there’s extra lacking stuff”
“Apart from all of the talked about points, there’s no validation in anyway, and no escaping of the output, which is horrible”
“By way of having one thing as start line, this can be a very, very poor one. By way of having a working plugin, that is nowhere close to that”

After some forwards and backwards discussions , it was deemed that there was quite a bit flawed with the plugin, that it might take loads of work to repair it, and so they instructed I scrap the undertaking.

At this level, nonetheless, I used to be too invested in my mission to easily abandon all the things and quit. Recalling Sir Winston Churchill’s well-known phrases (“Fetch me one other brandy” “By no means give in, by no means give in, by no means, by no means, by no means…”), I made a decision it was time for…

Take #2…

Okay, so my first try to get ChatGPT to construct a WordPress plugin from scratch was a dismal failure. This in itself offered some priceless insights into ChatGPT’s capability to carry out complicated coding duties (or, as somebody within the staff put it, “you’ll be able to’t code utilizing ChatGPT with out having intensive coding data.”)

So, for “Take #2,” I made a decision to strive once more with an easier plugin request.

Going again to the drafting board, a genius lightbulb second lit up in my thoughts…why not ask ChatGPT to counsel concepts for easy WordPress plugins it might then generate the code for?

So, that’s what I did. Right here’s the immediate I promptly engineered…

My genius immediate.

And right here’s the record of instructed plugins ChatGPT replied with…

The blueprint of my WordPress plugin empire.

I favored the final suggestion, so I requested ChatGPT to generate the code for a practical content material duplicator plugin, and it instantly went to work.

That is what a license to print cash appears like!

ChatGPT generated the next code for the plugin within the blink of a watch:

<?php
/*
Plugin Title: Content material Duplicator
Description: Permits customers to duplicate posts, pages, or customized publish varieties with one click on.
Model: 1.0.0
Creator: Your Title
Creator URI: https://yourwebsite.com
*/

// Add duplicate motion hyperlinks to publish row actions
operate content_duplicator_add_duplicate_link( $actions, $publish ) {
if ( current_user_can( ‘edit_posts’ ) ) {
$actions[‘duplicate’] = ‘<a href=”‘ . wp_nonce_url( admin_url( ‘admin-post.php?motion=content_duplicator_duplicate_post&post_id=’ . $post->ID ), ‘content_duplicator_duplicate_post’ ) . ‘” title=”Duplicate this merchandise” rel=”permalink”>Duplicate</a>’;
}
return $actions;
}
add_filter( ‘post_row_actions’, ‘content_duplicator_add_duplicate_link’, 10, 2 );

// Duplicate the publish
operate content_duplicator_duplicate_post() {
if ( isset( $_GET[‘post_id’] ) ) {
$post_id = absint( $_GET[‘post_id’] );

if ( current_user_can( ‘edit_posts’ ) && wp_verify_nonce( $_GET[‘_wpnonce’], ‘content_duplicator_duplicate_post’ ) ) {
$publish = get_post( $post_id );

$args = array(
‘post_title’ => $post->post_title . ‘ (Duplicate)’,
‘post_content’ => $post->post_content,
‘post_type’ => $post->post_type,
‘post_status’ => $post->post_status,
‘post_parent’ => $post->post_parent,
‘post_author’ => get_current_user_id(),
);

$new_post_id = wp_insert_post( $args );

if ( $new_post_id ) {
// Duplicate meta fields
$meta_fields = get_post_custom( $post_id );
foreach ( $meta_fields as $key => $values ) {
foreach ( $values as $worth ) {
add_post_meta( $new_post_id, $key, $worth );
}
}

// Redirect to the duplicated publish
wp_redirect( admin_url( ‘publish.php?motion=edit&publish=’ . $new_post_id ) );
exit;
}
}
}
}
add_action( ‘admin_post_content_duplicator_duplicate_post’, ‘content_duplicator_duplicate_post’ );

It even offered a set of directions after producing the code.

The code not solely comes with directions, however ChatGPT even says “Please”!

I then uploaded the brand new plugin file to the wp-content > plugins listing of my take a look at web site utilizing The Hub’s file supervisor.

There’s loads of motion to unpack on this screenshot.

And created a dummy publish to check the plugin with…

Did the plugin duplicate this tacky publish? Let’s discover out!

Listed here are the publish’s menu choices earlier than activating the plugin…

A default publish with default choices.

After activating the plugin…

“Activate Content material Duplicator” – Appears like a line from a Star Trek film.

Success!

A gratuitous screenshot proving that the plugin efficiently activated.

The plugin activated. However did it truly work?

Right here’s my take a look at publish once more (observe that the plugin added a brand new “Duplicate” merchandise to the menu after activation). I then clicked on “Duplicate” to see what occurs…

ChatGPT even added a “Duplicate” menu merchandise tooltip to the code!

And a reproduction publish was created!

A reproduction of the unique publish.

Right here’s the desk of posts exhibiting entries for the unique and duplicated publish.

The unique publish and its cloned model.

I’m positive that with higher immediate engineering and a few code tweaking, the plugin might have been considerably improved. For instance, I would like if the plugin set the publish standing of the newly-duplicated publish to ‘draft’ as a substitute of publishing it, however ChatGPT delivered a easy WordPress plugin that labored. It was primary, however it did the job.

The final step was to ask somebody who codes WordPress plugins for a dwelling to scrutinize the code and get their opinion about utilizing a device like ChatGPT to code plugins.

Suggestions from Our Knowledgeable Plugin Builders

Shortly after importing the plugin to one in every of our testing channels, I bought a ping from one in every of our builders. Listed here are among the key factors offered of their suggestions:

“ChatGPT et al are respectable at answering questions you already know the reply to.”
“I additionally used it up to now to construct a easy plugin for me, however so long as I used to be giving extra complicated prompts, it began to mess issues round, so finally I manually debug the given code to work, trigger else it’d take ages for it to truly debug it line by line.”
“Principally, it does what it says. Nevertheless, it does what it says very actually. As in, it can duplicate a publish and its corresponding postmeta (customized) fields. Nevertheless, it doesn’t seem to be it can propagate any taxonomies to the duplicated publish (the plugin ought to copy and assign the identical taxonomy phrases, resembling classes or tags, from the unique publish to the duplicated publish).”
If I used to be to be super-nitpicky about this, I’d additionally point out that it’s not L10n-ready – there gained’t be an choice to translate this plugin. However, that’s simply being very nitpicky – I don’t actually suppose, nor would I anticipate, a prompt-generated plugin to be generic sufficient to be needing one thing like that in any respect. To me, it’s extra of a “very particular drawback area” type of a factor, together with the language used. On the finish of the day, it does do what it says it can, which may be very good.”

Along with analyzing the WordPress plugin code generated by ChatGPT and offering suggestions as proven above, our builders additionally agreed with the next key factors after assessing ChatGPT’s present capabilities to generate code:

1 – It’s vital to train warning and never blindly settle for ChatGPT-generated code as appropriate.

ChatGPT can present solutions, however it’s as much as the consumer to evaluate whether or not the reply is appropriate or not.
There’s a threat of receiving incorrect or nonsensical solutions from ChatGPT, each apparent and delicate.
It’s vital to train warning and never blindly settle for the generated code as appropriate.
ChatGPT’s output must be handled as autocomplete, making life simpler however requiring warning and verification.

The flexibility to discern good code from dangerous or nonsensical code, nonetheless, implies that…

2 – Customers ought to have ample data and understanding of WordPress plugin improvement to judge and modify the generated code as wanted.

ChatGPT may help simplify and expedite the method of constructing easy customized WordPress plugins, generate code snippets, and supply explanations. Something extra complicated, nonetheless, requires plugin improvement expertise and coding expertise.
Utilizing ChatGPT with out ample data can result in unfavorable penalties or unreliable code.
Relying solely on ChatGPT with out important considering is just like blindly copying the primary reply from Stack Overflow (Stack Overflow threads present extra context, a number of solutions, and suggestions from different customers, making it a extra dependable useful resource, however Stack Overflow threads are usually extra generic, whereas ChatGPT can present particular solutions to particular person queries).

3 – Using different sources, resembling WordPress documentation, tutorials, and group boards, alongside ChatGPT can present a extra complete understanding of WordPress plugin improvement.

As you discover the chances of utilizing ChatGPT for WordPress plugin improvement, it’s priceless to interact with the WordPress group. Share your experiences, ask for suggestions, and search steering from skilled builders. Taking part in boards, attending WordPress meetups, or becoming a member of on-line communities can present priceless insights and provide help to refine your plugin improvement course of.
Moreover, think about following WordPress safety greatest practices to safeguard your web site from potential vulnerabilities. ChatGPT can present suggestions on safety measures you’ll be able to implement to guard your plugin.
It’s additionally important to keep up a transparent understanding of your required performance and completely assessment and take a look at the generated code and safe your customized plugins earlier than deploying them to a manufacturing surroundings.

Can ChatGPT Flip You Right into a WordPress Plugin Developer?

On this article, we’ve explored how one can make the most of ChatGPT to construct easy customized WordPress plugins, even when you’ve got restricted coding expertise.

In different articles, we’ve seen that AI-powered instruments like ChatGP can streamline your workflow, enhance productiveness, and unlock new prospects (try our latest article on ways in which ChatGPT may help you as a WordPress developer).

Whereas there are over 60,000 free WordPress plugins obtainable overlaying each sort of performance you’ll be able to think about, typically chances are you’ll want a customized answer to fulfill a shopper’s particular necessities.

Past the core performance of your plugin, you can even leverage ChatGPT to generate code for customized consumer interfaces. With its capability to grasp prompts and generate HTML, CSS, and JavaScript snippets, you’ll be able to create intuitive admin interfaces, front-end elements, and interactive components that may improve the consumer expertise and permit you to ship a cultured last product.

By using the language mannequin’s capabilities, you’ll be able to generate code snippets, optimize performance, and create user-friendly interfaces. Nevertheless, it’s essential to grasp the generated code, assessment and refine it, and completely take a look at your customized plugins earlier than deploying them to your stay web site.

The generated code may additionally require changes to align with coding requirements, naming conventions, or particular undertaking necessities. This requires a specific amount of coding data and expertise, as does optimizing the code and making certain it follows WordPress coding tips for higher maintainability.

The underside line:

Listed here are my findings after making an attempt to get ChatGPT to code me a plugin from scratch:

I couldn’t have gotten this accomplished with out the assistance of our skilled builders.
Utilizing ChatGPT to generate code with out coding data is actually difficult – it helps to know what you might be doing 🙂
Whereas ChatGPT is a robust and priceless device, it doesn’t seem to be AI will exchange expert coders any time quickly.

Fascinated by Creating WordPress plugins?

Try a few of our tutorials and articles on WordPress plugin improvement:

Getting Began with WordPress Plugin Improvement
A Fast and In-Depth Information to WordPress Hooks
Creating WordPress Plugins in An Object Oriented Method