Can ChatGPT Construct a Helpful WordPress Plugin That Truly 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 group of builders study 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 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 greatest coding practices?

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

Actually, for those who 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 way in which Neo sees the Matrix’s digital rain code.

What PHP code seems wish 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 want so as to add “immediate engineer” to my CV.

So, on this publish, we’ll discover easy methods to leverage the facility of ChatGPT to construct a easy customized WordPress plugin rapidly and securely, even for those who lack intensive coding abilities.

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 evaluation 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 wish our plugin to supply.

This begins by outlining the particular 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 maintain issues easy (and free) and use the freely accessible interface offered by OpenAI.

Take #1…

Observe: My first try at utilizing ChatGPT to create a WordPress plugin from scratch was method 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 a number of time writing WordPress tutorials, I typically want dummy content material to check plugins, create screenshots, and so on.

So, I believed it might 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 supply 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 appeared fairly spectacular…

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

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

Missing coding abilities, 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 verify 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…

And now for the second we’ve all been ready for [drumroll]…I obtained 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 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 a number 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 slightly mild encouragement to maintain going.

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

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 take a look at web site, 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 a lot of fancy bins and fields…

Seems to be 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 bins, 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 most recent 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 kids’s playground spaceships that’s full of 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 certainly one of our builders by way of 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 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 a dummy_content_generator_get_random_paragraph perform.
“The web page masses to some extent, 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 in any way, and no escaping of the output, which is horrible”
“When it comes to having one thing as place to begin, it is 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 rather a lot fallacious with the plugin, that it might take a number of work to repair it, and so they steered I scrap the undertaking.

At this level, nevertheless, 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 and 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 advanced coding duties (or, as somebody within the group put it, “you possibly can’t code utilizing ChatGPT with out having intensive coding information.”)

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 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 seems 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 sorts with one click on.
Model: 1.0.0
Writer: Your Title
Writer URI: https://yourwebsite.com
*/

// Add duplicate motion hyperlinks to publish row actions
perform 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
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’ ) ) {
$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 a number 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” – 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 really work?

Right here’s my take a look at publish once more (be aware 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 replica 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 may 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 fundamental, however it 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 device like ChatGPT to code plugins.

Suggestions from Our Knowledgeable Plugin Builders

Shortly after importing the plugin to certainly one of our testing channels, I obtained a ping from certainly one of 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 prior to now to construct a easy plugin for me, however so long as I used to be giving extra advanced 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 really debug it line by line.”
“Principally, it does what it says. Nonetheless, it does what it says very actually. As in, it would duplicate a publish and its corresponding postmeta (customized) fields. Nonetheless, it doesn’t look like it would propagate any taxonomies to the duplicated publish (the plugin ought to copy and assign the identical taxonomy phrases, equivalent 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 received’t be an choice to translate this plugin. However, that’s simply being very nitpicky – I don’t actually assume, nor would I count on, 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” type of a factor, together with the language used. On the finish of the day, it does do what it says it would, 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 necessary to train warning and never blindly settle for ChatGPT-generated code as right.

ChatGPT can present solutions, however it’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 refined.
It’s necessary 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 ample information and understanding of WordPress plugin improvement to guage and modify the generated code as wanted.

ChatGPT can assist simplify and expedite the method of constructing easy customized WordPress plugins, generate code snippets, and supply explanations. Something extra advanced, nevertheless, requires plugin improvement expertise and coding abilities.
Utilizing ChatGPT with out ample information can result in detrimental penalties or unreliable code.
Relying solely on ChatGPT with out vital 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, equivalent to WordPress documentation, tutorials, and neighborhood boards, alongside ChatGPT can present a extra complete understanding of WordPress plugin improvement.

As you discover the probabilities of utilizing ChatGPT for WordPress plugin improvement, it’s priceless to interact with the WordPress neighborhood. Share your experiences, ask for suggestions, and search steerage from skilled builders. Collaborating in boards, attending WordPress meetups, or becoming a member of on-line communities can present priceless insights and enable you to refine your plugin improvement course of.
Moreover, contemplate following WordPress safety greatest 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 keep up a transparent understanding of your required performance and totally evaluation 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 (try our current article on ways in which ChatGPT can assist you as a WordPress developer).

Whereas there are over 60,000 free WordPress plugins accessible masking each sort of performance you possibly can think about, generally it’s possible you’ll want a customized answer to satisfy a shopper’s particular necessities.

Past the core performance of your plugin, you too can leverage ChatGPT to generate code for customized person interfaces. With its capability to grasp prompts and generate HTML, CSS, and JavaScript snippets, you possibly can create intuitive admin interfaces, front-end elements, and interactive parts that can improve the person expertise and can help you ship a elegant 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, evaluation and refine it, and totally take a look at your customized plugins earlier than deploying them to your reside web site.

The generated code might also require changes to align with coding requirements, naming conventions, or particular undertaking necessities. This requires a certain quantity of coding information and abilities, as does optimizing the code and making certain 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 carried out with out the assistance of our skilled builders.
Utilizing ChatGPT to generate code with out coding information is de facto difficult – it helps to know what you might be doing 🙂
Whereas ChatGPT is a robust and priceless device, it doesn’t look like AI will change expert coders any time quickly.

Excited about Creating WordPress plugins?

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

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