Can ChatGPT Construct a Helpful WordPress Plugin That Truly 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 workforce of builders look at the code…

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

Luckily, WPMU DEV builds a number of the most strong WordPress plugins on this planet, so we’ve loads of skilled WordPress plugin builders who can put ChatGPT to the check.

In truth, in the event you take a stroll round our firm’s digital corridors, you may’t assist however stumble upon WordPress coders and builders. It appears everybody round right here can have a look at a WordPress plugin and see PHP the best way Neo sees the Matrix’s digital rain code.

What PHP code appears to be like wish 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 submit, we’ll discover how you can leverage the ability of ChatGPT to construct a easy customized WordPress plugin shortly and securely, even in the event you lack in depth coding expertise.

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 workforce {of professional} plugin builders to allow them to overview it and supply their sincere 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 wish our plugin to supply.

This begins by outlining the precise options, actions, or modifications we’ll need to obtain with our plugin. It will then assist us generate correct prompts for ChatGPT and make sure 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 out there interface offered by OpenAI.

Take #1…

Word: My first try at utilizing ChatGPT to create a WordPress plugin from scratch was manner too bold. 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 many others.

So, I assumed it will 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 totally 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 fundamental template, information me on how you can implement a number of the options I discussed, and even gave me directions on how you can create a plugin listing and file…

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

At first, ChatGPT output code that seemed fairly spectacular…

To somebody who is aware of ‘zip’ about coding, the above code snippet positive appears to be like 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 check website and check 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 check website 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 perhaps I didn’t add the extra snippets that ChatGPT offered accurately, I went again and requested for all of the code to be offered 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 the whole 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 a bit light encouragement to maintain going.

After repeating this course of a number of occasions, ChatGPT output the whole code and even offered some useful data.

After ready a complete 2 minutes…ChatGPT lastly output all the plugin code!

I uploaded the plugin file with the brand new code to my check website, 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 numerous fancy bins and fields…

Appears 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 bins, 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 improvement 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 crammed with ineffective knobs you may flip and buttons you may press whereas pretending to be flying in outer house.

So, I reached out to one among our builders by way of Slack and requested them to have 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 perform 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 perform.
“The web page masses to a degree, then it errors out as a result of there’s extra lacking stuff”
“Aside from all of the talked about points, there’s no validation by any means, and no escaping of the output, which is horrible”
“By way of having one thing as place to begin, this can be a very, very poor one. By way of having a working plugin, that is nowhere close to that”

After some backwards and forwards discussions , it was deemed that there was quite a bit flawed with the plugin, that it will take loads of work to repair it, they usually steered I scrap the venture.

At this level, nevertheless, I used to be too invested in my mission to easily abandon every little thing 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 useful insights into ChatGPT’s potential to carry out complicated coding duties (or, as somebody within the workforce put it, “you may’t code utilizing ChatGPT with out having in depth coding data.”)

So, for “Take #2,” I made a decision to attempt 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 recommend 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 steered 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 to be like like!

ChatGPT generated the next code for the plugin within the blink of an eye fixed:

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

// Add duplicate motion hyperlinks to submit row actions
perform content_duplicator_add_duplicate_link( $actions, $submit ) {
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 submit
perform 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’ ) ) {
$submit = 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 submit
wp_redirect( admin_url( ‘submit.php?motion=edit&submit=’ . $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 check website utilizing The Hub’s file supervisor.

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

And created a dummy submit to check the plugin with…

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

Listed below are the submit’s menu choices earlier than activating the plugin…

A default submit with default choices.

After activating the plugin…

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

Success!

A gratuitous screenshot proving that the plugin efficiently activated.

The plugin activated. However did it really work?

Right here’s my check submit once more (notice 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 submit was created!

A reproduction of the unique submit.

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

The unique submit and its cloned model.

I’m positive 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 submit standing of the newly-duplicated submit to ‘draft’ as an alternative of publishing it, however ChatGPT delivered a easy WordPress plugin that labored. It was fundamental, 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 instrument like ChatGPT to code plugins.

Suggestions from Our Knowledgeable Plugin Builders

Shortly after importing the plugin to one among our testing channels, I bought a ping from one among our builders. Listed below are a number of the key factors offered 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.”
“Mainly, it does what it says. Nevertheless, it does what it says very actually. As in, it can duplicate a submit and its corresponding postmeta (customized) fields. Nevertheless, it doesn’t appear to be it can propagate any taxonomies to the duplicated submit (the plugin ought to copy and assign the identical taxonomy phrases, similar to classes or tags, from the unique submit to the duplicated submit).”
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 assume, 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 can, which could 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 right.

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

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

2 – Customers ought to have adequate 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, nevertheless, requires plugin improvement expertise and coding expertise.
Utilizing ChatGPT with out adequate data can result in detrimental 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 usually extra generic, whereas ChatGPT can present particular solutions to particular person queries).

3 – Using different assets, similar to 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 useful 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 useful insights and assist you to refine your plugin improvement course of.
Moreover, take into account following WordPress safety greatest practices to safeguard your web site from potential vulnerabilities. ChatGPT can present suggestions on safety measures you may implement to guard your plugin.
It’s additionally important to keep up a transparent understanding of your required performance and totally overview and check the generated code and safe your customized plugins earlier than deploying them to a manufacturing atmosphere.

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 potentialities (take a look at our current article on ways in which ChatGPT may help you as a WordPress developer).

Whereas there are over 60,000 free WordPress plugins out there masking each kind of performance you may 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 may as well leverage ChatGPT to generate code for customized consumer interfaces. With its potential to grasp prompts and generate HTML, CSS, and JavaScript snippets, you may create intuitive admin interfaces, front-end parts, and interactive components that can improve the consumer expertise and mean you can ship a elegant ultimate product.

By using the language mannequin’s capabilities, you may generate code snippets, optimize performance, and create user-friendly interfaces. Nevertheless, it’s essential to grasp the generated code, overview and refine it, and totally check your customized plugins earlier than deploying them to your stay web site.

The generated code can also require changes to align with coding requirements, naming conventions, or particular venture necessities. This requires a certain quantity of coding data and expertise, as does optimizing the code and making certain it follows WordPress coding pointers for higher maintainability.

The underside line:

Listed below are my findings after attempting 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 data is absolutely difficult – it helps to know what you’re doing 🙂
Whereas ChatGPT is a robust and useful instrument, it doesn’t appear to be AI will substitute expert coders any time quickly.

Keen on Growing 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 Means