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 group of builders look at 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 really develop a practical and helpful WordPress plugin with out having to write down code from scratch? And does the plugin meet finest coding practices?

Fortuitously, WPMU DEV builds a number of the most strong WordPress plugins on the earth, so now we have 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 possibly can’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 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 easy methods to leverage the ability of ChatGPT to construct a easy customized WordPress plugin rapidly 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 group {of professional} plugin builders to allow them to evaluate 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 Professional 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 precise options, actions, or modifications we’ll wish to obtain with our plugin. It will then assist us generate correct prompts for ChatGPT and be 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 maintain issues easy (and free) and use the freely out there interface supplied by OpenAI.

Take #1…

Observe: 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 under…

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

As somebody who spends lots of time writing WordPress tutorials, I typically want dummy content material to check plugins, create screenshots, and many others.

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

Nonetheless, it did provide to supply me with a fundamental template, information me on easy methods to implement a number of the options I discussed, and even gave me directions on easy methods to create a plugin listing and file…

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

At first, ChatGPT output code that regarded fairly spectacular…

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

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

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

With the plugin code output, the following step was to add the plugin to my take a look at website and take a look at 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 take a look at website and activating it contained in the Plugins display…

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 possibly 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 lots of code to output, so at any time when the method got here to a standstill, I instructed ChatGPT to proceed…

ChatGPT generally simply wants a bit of mild encouragement to maintain going.

After repeating this course of a number of instances, ChatGPT output all the code and even supplied 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 website, then jumped into the positioning’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 with plenty of fancy packing containers and fields…

Seems to be 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 packing containers, entered some values, and clicked on the “Save Modifications” button to see what occurs.

And now, for the second of fact…

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, similar to a type of kids’s playground spaceships that’s stuffed with ineffective knobs you possibly can flip and buttons you possibly can press whereas pretending to be flying in outer area.

So, I reached out to considered 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 some extent, 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 by any means, and no escaping of the output, which is horrible”
“When it comes to having one thing as place to begin, this can be a very, very poor one. When it comes to 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 unsuitable with the plugin, that it could take lots of work to repair it, they usually prompt I scrap the challenge.

At this level, nevertheless, I used to be too invested in my mission to easily abandon all the pieces 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 and get ChatGPT to construct a WordPress plugin from scratch was a dismal failure. This in itself supplied some invaluable insights into ChatGPT’s means to carry out complicated coding duties (or, as somebody within the group put it, “you possibly can’t code utilizing ChatGPT with out having intensive 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 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 prompt plugins ChatGPT replied with…

The blueprint of my WordPress plugin empire.

I preferred 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 seems to be like!

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

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

// Add duplicate motion hyperlinks to submit row actions
operate 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
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’ ) ) {
$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 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 take a look at website utilizing The Hub’s file supervisor.

There’s lots 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 take a look at 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 a substitute of publishing it, however ChatGPT delivered a easy WordPress plugin that labored. It was fundamental, but it surely did the job.

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

Suggestions from Our Professional Plugin Builders

Shortly after importing the plugin to considered one of our testing channels, I bought a ping from considered one of our builders. Listed below are a number 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 really 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 submit and its corresponding postmeta (customized) fields. Nonetheless, it doesn’t seem to be it is going to propagate any taxonomies to the duplicated submit (the plugin ought to copy and assign the identical taxonomy phrases, corresponding 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 received’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” sort 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 may 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 right.

ChatGPT can present solutions, but it surely’s as much as the person 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 delicate.
It’s essential to train warning and never blindly settle for the generated code as right.
ChatGPT’s output ought to be handled as autocomplete, making life simpler however requiring warning and verification.

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

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

ChatGPT may also help simplify and expedite the method of constructing easy customized WordPress plugins, generate code snippets, and supply explanations. Something extra complicated, nevertheless, requires plugin growth expertise and coding expertise.
Utilizing ChatGPT with out enough data can result in adverse 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 sources, corresponding to WordPress documentation, tutorials, and group boards, alongside ChatGPT can present a extra complete understanding of WordPress plugin growth.

As you discover the probabilities of utilizing ChatGPT for WordPress plugin growth, it’s invaluable to interact with the WordPress group. Share your experiences, ask for suggestions, and search steerage from skilled builders. Taking part in boards, attending WordPress meetups, or becoming a member of on-line communities can present invaluable insights and provide help to refine your plugin growth course of.
Moreover, contemplate following WordPress safety finest practices to safeguard your web site from potential vulnerabilities. ChatGPT can present suggestions on safety measures you possibly can implement to guard your plugin.
It’s additionally important to take care of a transparent understanding of your required performance and totally evaluate and take a look at 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 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 potentialities (take a look at our latest article on ways in which ChatGPT may also help you as a WordPress developer).

Whereas there are over 60,000 free WordPress plugins out there overlaying each kind of performance you possibly can think about, generally chances are you’ll want a customized resolution to fulfill a shopper’s particular necessities.

Past the core performance of your plugin, you can too leverage ChatGPT to generate code for customized person interfaces. With its means to grasp prompts and generate HTML, CSS, and JavaScript snippets, you possibly can create intuitive admin interfaces, front-end parts, and interactive components that may improve the person expertise and help you ship a refined remaining product.

By using the language mannequin’s capabilities, you possibly can generate code snippets, optimize performance, and create user-friendly interfaces. Nonetheless, it’s essential to grasp the generated code, evaluate and refine it, and totally take a look at your customized plugins earlier than deploying them to your dwell web site.

The generated code may additionally require changes to align with coding requirements, naming conventions, or particular challenge necessities. This requires a specific amount of coding data and expertise, 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 finished with out the assistance of our skilled builders.
Utilizing ChatGPT to generate code with out coding data is basically difficult – it helps to know what you might be doing 🙂
Whereas ChatGPT is a strong and invaluable instrument, it doesn’t seem to be AI will exchange expert coders any time quickly.

Thinking about Creating WordPress plugins?

Try 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 Manner