Can ChatGPT Construct a Helpful WordPress Plugin That Really Works?

Can AI flip non-coders into professional WordPress plugin builders? To seek 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 wished to know… can ChatGPT truly develop a purposeful and helpful WordPress plugin with out having to jot down code from scratch? And does the plugin meet finest coding practices?

Fortuitously, WPMU DEV builds a few of the most strong WordPress plugins on this planet, so we now have loads of skilled WordPress plugin builders who can put ChatGPT to the check.

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 best way Neo sees the Matrix’s digital rain code.

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

Everybody, that’s …besides me!

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

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

We’ll do that by:

1) Asking ChatGPT to generate the code for a helpful plugin that we will check, 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 – Check the Customized Plugin
Suggestions from Our Skilled 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 wish our plugin to offer.

This begins by outlining the particular options, actions, or modifications we’ll wish to obtain with our plugin. It will 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 maintain issues easy (and free) and use the freely obtainable interface supplied by OpenAI.

Take #1…

Be aware: My first try at utilizing ChatGPT to create a WordPress plugin from scratch was means 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 growth tyres.

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

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

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

Nonetheless, it did supply to offer me with a fundamental template, information me on how one can implement a few of the options I discussed, and even gave me directions on how one can create a plugin listing and file…

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

At first, ChatGPT output code that appeared fairly spectacular…

To somebody who is aware of ‘zip’ about coding, the above code snippet certain seems to be spectacular!

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

Missing coding abilities, I relied on ChatGPT to information me via every step of the plugin growth course of.

With the plugin code output, the following step was to add the plugin to my check web site and check it to ensure it really works.

Step 3 – Check The Customized Plugin

After importing the folder containing the plugin code to the wp-content > plugins listing of my check 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 growth profession!

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

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

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

ChatGPT typically simply wants somewhat light encouragement to maintain going.

After repeating this course of a number of instances, ChatGPT output all the code and even supplied some useful data.

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

I uploaded the plugin file with the brand new code to my check 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 plenty of fancy packing containers and fields…

Seems spectacular…however will it work?

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

And now, for the second of reality…

And…completely nothing occurred!

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

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

So, I reached out to certainly one of our builders by way of Slack and requested them to have a look at the plugin file.

A few of 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, it is 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 could take quite a lot of work to repair it, they usually instructed I scrap the mission.

At this level, nonetheless, I used to be too invested in my mission to easily abandon the whole lot 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 supplied some helpful insights into ChatGPT’s skill 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 information.”)

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 may 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 checklist of instructed plugins ChatGPT replied with…

The blueprint of my WordPress plugin empire.

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

That is what a license to print cash seems to be 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 supplied 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 check web site utilizing The Hub’s file supervisor.

There’s quite a lot 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 below 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” – Feels 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 check publish once more (word 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 replica 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 certain that with higher immediate engineering and a few code tweaking, the plugin may have been considerably improved. For instance, I would favor 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 fundamental, nevertheless 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 instrument like ChatGPT to code plugins.

Suggestions from Our Skilled Plugin Builders

Shortly after importing the plugin to certainly one of our testing channels, I bought a ping from certainly one of our builders. Listed below are a few of the key factors supplied of their suggestions:

“ChatGPT et al are first rate at answering questions you already know the reply to.”
“I additionally used it previously 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 ultimately 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. Nonetheless, it does what it says very actually. As in, it is going to duplicate a publish and its corresponding postmeta (customized) fields. Nonetheless, it doesn’t appear to be it is going to propagate any taxonomies to the duplicated publish (the plugin ought to copy and assign the identical taxonomy phrases, comparable to 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 downside area” form of a factor, together with the language used. On the finish of the day, it does do what it says it is going to, which could be very good.”

Along with inspecting 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 essential to train warning and never blindly settle for ChatGPT-generated code as appropriate.

ChatGPT can present solutions, nevertheless it’s as much as the person 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 refined.
It’s essential to train warning and never blindly settle for the generated code as appropriate.
ChatGPT’s output needs to be handled as autocomplete, making life simpler however requiring warning and verification.

The power to discern good code from unhealthy or nonsensical code, nonetheless, implies that…

2 – Customers ought to have adequate information and understanding of WordPress plugin growth to guage and modify the generated code as wanted.

ChatGPT might help simplify and expedite the method of constructing easy customized WordPress plugins, generate code snippets, and supply explanations. Something extra complicated, nonetheless, requires plugin growth expertise and coding abilities.
Utilizing ChatGPT with out adequate information can result in damaging penalties or unreliable code.
Relying solely on ChatGPT with out crucial pondering is much 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 typically extra generic, whereas ChatGPT can present particular solutions to particular person queries).

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

As you discover the chances of utilizing ChatGPT for WordPress plugin growth, it’s helpful to interact with the WordPress group. Share your experiences, ask for suggestions, and search steering from skilled builders. Collaborating in boards, attending WordPress meetups, or becoming a member of on-line communities can present helpful insights and show you how to refine your plugin growth course of.
Moreover, take into account following WordPress safety finest 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 totally assessment and check 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 if in case you have 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 (take a look at our latest article on ways in which ChatGPT might help you as a WordPress developer).

Whereas there are over 60,000 free WordPress plugins obtainable protecting each kind of performance you’ll be able to think about, typically you might want a customized answer to satisfy a consumer’s particular necessities.

Past the core performance of your plugin, you too can leverage ChatGPT to generate code for customized person interfaces. With its skill to know prompts and generate HTML, CSS, and JavaScript snippets, you’ll be able to create intuitive admin interfaces, front-end elements, and interactive parts that can improve the person expertise and will let you ship a refined remaining product.

By using the language mannequin’s capabilities, you’ll be able to generate code snippets, optimize performance, and create user-friendly interfaces. Nonetheless, it’s essential to know the generated code, assessment and refine it, and totally check your customized plugins earlier than deploying them to your reside web site.

The generated code can also require changes to align with coding requirements, naming conventions, or particular mission necessities. This requires a certain quantity of coding information and abilities, as does optimizing the code and guaranteeing it follows WordPress coding tips for higher maintainability.

The underside line:

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

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

Considering Creating WordPress plugins?

Take a look at a few of our tutorials and articles on WordPress plugin growth:

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