Title: help writing plugin
Last modified: August 19, 2016

---

# help writing plugin

 *  [googlebot](https://wordpress.org/support/users/googlebot/)
 * (@googlebot)
 * [18 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/help-writing-plugin/)
 * I’m just scratching the topic, learning php and how WP plugins are coded.
 * I need some help to understand a couple of things.
 * My first plugin is very very basic, preg_replace to change whatever is wrapped
   in <replace_this> in a post, so far it works, now I’m trying to add stuff inside
   the post.
 * My first functions is:
 *     ```
       function my_replace($test) {
         $needed = "test"; // actually it should be the function my_func()
         $test = preg_replace('/<replace_this>(.*?)<\/replace_this>/i',$needed,$test);
          return $test;
   
       }
   
       add_filter('the_content', 'my_replace');
       ```
   
 * the other functions is:
 *     ```
       function my_func() {
         $container_open = "<div style='border:1px solid #000; width:380px; margin:4px auto; background:#bbaa99;padding:4px;'>"; //ugly way to do it
         $container_close = "</div>"; // even uglier ah ah
   
         $myarray = array("cool","ok","awesome","great","meh");
       		sort ($myarray);
       		for ($i=0; $i<count($myarray); $i++){
       		echo $container_open.$i." is ".$myarray[$i]."".$container_close;
   
       	}		
   
       }return $content;
   
       add_filter('the_content', 'my_func');
       ```
   
 * So, $needed should output the array of the second function but I don’t know how
   to do it.
    I even tried to do something like $needed = “<?php my_func(); ?>”;
   and use the plugin Exec-PHP to run that code inside the post but doesn’t work.
 * I know I’m doing it wrong, but right now I’m trying to get into the logic of 
   programming and can’t think of another way (that I’m aware of).
 * Any input is appreciated, thanks.

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

 *  [Kalessin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kalessin/)
 * (@kalessin)
 * [18 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/help-writing-plugin/#post-707261)
 * You’re trying to run before you can walk.
 * Don’t `echo` text, add it to the `$content` variable that you’re trying to return
   at the end of the function. Oh, and return the `$content` variable **before**
   you close the braces.
 * In your function `my_replace()`, why not set a variable to the result of `my_func()`
   and replace your found occurrences of `<replace_this>` with that variable?
 * Since you are a beginner, I would recommend getting this script to work on a 
   standalone basis, then turning it into a WordPress plugin. Otherwise, how can
   you possibly work out what you’re doing wrong?

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

The topic ‘help writing plugin’ is closed to new replies.

 * 1 reply
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Kalessin](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kalessin/)
 * Last activity: [18 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/help-writing-plugin/#post-707261)
 * Status: not resolved

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