Description

Reduce the Time Spent for Plugin and Theme Development

One of the time-consuming part of developing WordPress plugins and themes is creating setting pages. As you more and more write plugins and themes, you will soon realize major part of code can be reused. Admin Page Framework aims to provide reusable code that eliminates the necessity of writing repeated code over and over again.

You will have more organized means of building option pages with the framework. Extend the library class and pass your arrays defining the form elements to the predefined class methods. The library handles all the complex coding behind the scene and creates the pages and the forms for you.

Create Essential Page and Form Components for Your Users

Top-level Page, Sub Pages, and In-page Tabs – where your users will access to operate your plugin or theme.
Forms – to let your users store their options.
Custom Post Types – and the custom columns in the post listing table.
Custom Taxonomies and Fields – store options associated with a taxonomy in the taxonomy definition page.
Meta Boxes and Fields – store meta data associated with posts of set post types. Also meta boxes can be added to the pages created with the framework.
Widgets and Fields – display modular outputs based on the user’s settings in the front end.
Network Admin Pages and Forms – create admin pages in the newtork admin area of WordPress multi-sites.

Construct Simple Yet Complex Setting Forms

Section Tabs – form sections can be displayed in a tabbed box.
Collapsible Sections – form sections can be collapsed and expanded.
Repeatable Sections and Fields – dynamically add/remove form sections and fields.
Sortable Sections and Fields – drag and drop form sections and fields to change the order.
Nested Sections and Fields – nest sections and fields to construct complex forms.
Import and Export Options – buttons that the user can import and export settings by uploading and downloading text files.
Reset Button – let your users to initialize the saved options.
Validation and Error Messages – with the pre-defined validation callbacks, the user’s submitting form data can be verified. Furthermore, by setting the error array, you can display the error message to the user.
Contextual Help Pane – help information can be added to the contextual help pane that appears at the top right of each screen.
Custom Field Types – your own field type can be registered. This allows you to design own fields such as a combination of a checkbox with a text field.
Contact Form – receive emails of user feedback and issue reports sent via the contact form embedded in an admin page.
Tooltips – add a small pop-up box beside section and field title for the users to read about the option.

Produce a Series of Products with the Framework Extensibility

If you are planning to create a product possibly extended with an unlimited number of add-ons, take advantage of the framework’s native extensibility. The created admin pages and forms will become highly extensible with the automatically created hooks. In other words, it empowers other developers to customize your plugin or theme. That will result on making your projects grow.

Also, use the framework as a library and your plugin or theme does not have to require an extra dependency to be installed. Therefore, your product will be perfectly portable.

Built-in Field Types

text – a normal field to enter text input.
password – a masked text input field.
textarea – a text input field with multiple lines. It supports TinyMCE rich text editor.
radio – a set of radio buttons that lets the user pick an option.
checkbox – a check box that lets the user enable/disable an item.
select – a drop-down list that lest the user pick one or more item(s) from a list.
hidden – a hidden field that will be useful to insert invisible values.
file – a file uploader that lets the user upload files.
image – a custom text field with the image uploader script that lets the user set an image URL.
media – a custom text field with the media uploader script that lets the user set a file URL.
color – a custom text field with the color picker script.
submit – a submit button that lets the user send the form.
export – a custom submit field that lets the user export the stored data.
import – a custom combination field of the file and the submit fields that let the user import data.
posttype – a set of check-lists of taxonomies enabled on the site in a tabbed box.
taxonomy – check-lists of taxonomies enabled on the site in a tabbed box.
size – a combination field of the text and the select fields that let the user set sizes with a selectable unit.
section_title – a text field placed in the section title to let the user name the section.
system – displays the site system information.
inline_mixed – consists of inline elements of fields with different field types.

Bundled Custom Field Types

With custom field types, you can create more detailed customized field outputs. The demo component includes the following example custom field types.

sample – a sample custom field type with a JavaScript script.
github – displays GitHub buttons.
path – lets the user select file paths on the server.
toggle – lets the user toggle a switch button.
no_ui_slider – lets the user set values between ranges with a slider.
select2 – lets the user select items from a predefined list which cam be populated with AJAX.
post_type_taxonomy – lets the user select taxonomy terms of selected post types.

If you want a field type that are not listed here, you can check the field type pack or request a new one in the forum.

Getting Started

To get started, go to Dashboard -> Admin Page Framework -> About -> Getting Started.

Demo

Activate the demo pages to see the possible features of the framework. To activate it, go to Dashboard -> Admin Page Framework -> Add Ons -> Demo.

Documentation

Notes: this framework does not do anything by itself. If you are not a developer, you do not need this.

Use Unique Page Slug

The framework internally uses the add_submenu_page() function to register sub menu pages. When the same page slug is registered for multiple root pages, only the last registered callback gets triggered. The other ones will be ignored.

This means if you choose a very simple page slug such as about for your plugin/theme’s information page and then if there is another plugin using the same page slug, your users will get either of your page or the other.

To avoid this, make sure to use a unique page slug. One way to do that is to add a prefix like apf_about.

Use the files generated with the component generator

There is one thing you need to be careful when you include the framework: the framework version conflicts. Imagine you publish a plugin using the framework v3.4.6 and your plugin user installs a plugin using the framework v3.0.0 which is below your framework version. If the other plugin loads earlier than yours, your plugin may not work properly and vice versa.

There is a way to avoid such a conflict: change the PHP class names of the framework you include. All the class names have the prefix AdminPageFramework so just change it to something like MyPlugin_AdminPageFramework.

Go to Dashboard -> Admin Page Framework -> Tools -> Generator. Set the prefix in the option field and download the files.

If you do not modify the framework class names, you are supposed to extend the AdminPageFramework factory class.

class MyAdminPage extends AdminPageFramework {
    ...
}

When you modify the framework class names, make sure you extend the class with the modified name.

class MyAdminPage extends MyPlugin_AdminPageFramework {
    ...
}

For more detailed instruction, go to Dashboard -> Admin Page Framework -> About -> Getting Started.

By the time WordPress’s minimum required PHP version becomes 5.3 or higher, we can use name spaces then this problem will be solved.

Change Framework’s System Messages

The default messages defined by the framework can be changed. For example, when you import a setting with the framework, the setting notice “The options have been updated.” will be displayed.

If you want to change it to something else, modify the oMsg object. It has the aMessages public property array holding all the messages that the framework uses.

Get comfortable with the ‘attributes’ array argument

In each field definition array, you can set the attributes arguments which defines the HTML attributes of the field so that you can modify the output of the field by passing attribute values.

The argument accepts the values as an array. Each element represents the attribute’s name and value. The array key corresponds to the name of the attribute and the value to the attribute value.

For example,

array(
    'field_id'      => 'interval',
    'title'         => __( 'Interval', 'task-scheduler' ),
    'type'          => 'number',
    'attributes'    => array(
        'min'   => 0,
        'step'  => 1,
        'max'   => 24,
    ),
),

In addition, you can change the attributes of the following container elements by setting their key and passing a nested attribute array.

fieldrow – the td tag element containing the field output.
fieldset – the fieldset tag element containing the field output.
fields – the div tag element containing the sub-fields and the main field.
field – the div tag element containing each field.

This submit button will float right.

array(
    'field_id'          => 'submit',
    'type'              => 'submit',
    'save'              => false,
    'value'             => __( 'Save', 'task-scheduler' ),
    'label_min_width'   => 0,
    'attributes'        => array(
        'field' => array(
            'style' => 'float:right; clear:none; display: inline;',
        ),
    ),
)

For meta box and widget form fields (as they have slightly different styling than generic admin pages),

array(
    'field_id'          => 'submit_in_meta_box',
    'type'              => 'submit',
    'save'              => false,
    'show_title_column' => false,
    'label_min_width'   => 0,
    'attributes'        => array(
        'field' => array(
            'style' => 'float:right; width:auto;',
        ),
    ),
),

Change Preview Image Size of the ‘image’ Field Type

To specify a custom size to the preview element of the image field type, set an attribute array like the below, where 300px is the max width.

array(
    'field_id'      => 'my_image_field_id',
    'title'         => __( 'Image', 'admin-page-framework-demo' ),
    'type'          => 'image',
    'attributes'    => array(
        'preview' => array(
            'style' => 'max-width: 200px;',
        ),
    ),
),

Display items of ‘radio’ field type one per line

To display radio button items one per line, set the label_min_width to 100%.

array(
    'field_id'          => 'my_radio_field_id',
    'title'             => __( 'Radio Button', 'admin-page-framework-demo' ),
    'type'              => 'radio',
    'label_min_width'   => '100%',
    'label'             => array(
        'a' => __( 'This is a.', 'admin-page-framework-demo' ),
        'b' => __( 'This is b.', 'admin-page-framework-demo' ),
        'c' => __( 'This is a.', 'admin-page-framework-demo' )c
    ),
),

Set default field value

To set the initial value of a field, use the default argument in the field definition array.

array(
    'field_id'  => 'my_text_field_id',
    'title'     => __( 'My Text Input Field', 'admin-page-framework-demo' ),
    'type'      => 'text',
    'default'   => 'This text will be displayed for the first time that the field is displayed and will be overridden when a user set an own value.',
),

Always display a particular value in a field

The value argument in the definition array can suppress the saved value. This is useful when you want to set a value from a different data source or create a wizard form that stores the data in a custom location.

array(
    'field_id'  => 'my_text_field_id',
    'title'     => __( 'My Text Input Field', 'admin-page-framework-demo' ),
    'type'      => 'text',
    'value'     => 'This will be always set.',
),

If it is a repeatable field, set values in numerically indexed sub-elements.

array(
    'field_id'      => 'my_text_field_id',
    'title'         => __( 'My Text Input Field', 'admin-page-framework-demo' ),
    'type'          => 'text',
    'repeatable'    => true,
    'value'         => 'the first value',
    array(
        'value' => 'the second value',
    ),
    array(
        'value' => 'the third value',
    ),
),

Alternately, you may use the options_{instantiated class name} filter to suppress the options so that setting the value argument is not necessary.
See examples, https://gist.github.com/michaeluno/c30713fcfe0d9d45d89f, https://gist.github.com/michaeluno/fcfac27825aa8a35b90f,

Screenshots

Text Fields
Selector and Checkboxes
Image, Media, and File Upload
Form Input Verification
Import and Export
Taxonomy and Post Type Checklists
Color Pickers and Buttons
Custom Post Type and Meta Box
Contextual Help Pane
Taxonomy Field
Meta Boxes in Pages Added by Framework
Repeatable Sections, Section Tabs and Section Title Field
Widget Form

Installation

Upload admin-page-framework.zip via Dashboard -> Plugins -> Add New -> Upload Plugin.
Activate it.

For usage instructions to get started, go to Dashboard -> Admin Page Framework -> About -> Getting Started and create your first plugin.

FAQ

About the Project

What is this for?

This is a PHP class-based WordPress library that helps to create option pages and form fields in the administration area. In addition, it helps to manage to save, export, and import options.

Who needs it?

WordPress plugin/theme developers who publish own products and want to speed up creating setting forms, widgets, contact form etc. and don’t want to require their users to install extra dependencies.

Do my plugin/theme users have to install Admin Page Framework?

No. Include the generated framework files in your distribution package. You can generate your own framework files via Dashboard -> Admin Page Framework -> Tools -> Generator.

Where can I get the framework files to include?

Go to Dashboard -> Admin Page Framework -> Tools -> Generator and download the files.

Does my commercial product incorporating your framework library have to be released under GPL2v+?

No. The loader plugin is released under GPLv2 or later but the library itself is released under MIT. Make sure to include only the library file.

Does the framework work with WordPress Multi-site?

Yes, it works with WordPress MU.

Technical Questions

Can I set a custom post type as a root page?

Yes. For built-in root menu items or to create your own ones, you need to use the setRootMenuPage() method. For root pages of custom post types, use setRootMenuPageBySlug().

$this->setRootMenuPageBySlug( 'edit.php?post_type=apf_posts' );

How do I retrieve the stored options?

The framework stores them as an organized multidimensional array in the options table in a single row. So use the get_option() function and pass the instantiated class name as the key or the custom key if you specify one in the constructor.

For instance, if your instantiated class name is APF then the code would be

$my_options = get_option( 'APF' );

And the option data is formed as an array with a structure like the following.

$my_options = array(
    // field id => field value
    'field_a' => 'value for field a'
    'field_b' => 'value for field b'
    ...
    // section id => array(
    //      field id => value,
    // )
    'section_a' => array(
        'field_a' => 'value for field_a of section_a',
        'field_b' => 'value for field_b of section_b',
        ...
    ),
    'section_b' => array(
        'field_a' => 'value for field_a of section_b',
        'field_b' => 'value for field_b of section_b',
        ...
    ),
    ...
);

If you are new to PHP, you may feel uncomfortable dealing with multi-dimensional arrays because you would need to call isset() so many times. The framework has a utility method to help retrieve values of multi-dimensional arrays.

$_oUtil = new AdminPageFramework_WPUtility;
$value  = $_oUtil->getElement(
    $my_options,    // (required) subject array
    array( 'key_in_the_first_depth', 'key_in_the_second_depth' ),   // (required) dimensional path
    'My Default Value Here' // (optional) set your default value in case a value is not set
);

So for example, if you need to retrieve the value of field_a in section_b, you can do something like this.

$value = $_oUtil->getElement(
    $my_options,
    array( 'section_b', 'field_a' ),
    'some default value'
);

In the framework factory class, you can access the utility object as it is defined already.

$value = $this->oUtil->getElement( $subject, $keys, $default );

Is it possible to use a custom options data for the form instead of the ones used by the framework?

Yes, there are two main means to achieve that.

Use the value argument in the field definition array to suppress the displaying value in the field.
See an example. https://gist.github.com/michaeluno/fb4088b922b71710c7fb
Override the options array set to the entire form using the options_{instantiated class name} filter hook or pre-defined method.
See an example. https://gist.github.com/michaeluno/fcfac27825aa8a35b90f

When you go with the second method, make sure to pass an empty string, '', to the first parameter of the constructor so that it disables the ability to store submitted form data into the options table.

new MyAdminPage( '' );

How can I add sub-menu pages to the top-level page created by the framework from a separate script?

Say, in your main plugin, your class MyAdminPageClassA created a top-level page. In your extension plugin, you want to add sub-menu pages from another instance MyAdminPageClassB.

In the setUp() method of MyAdminPageClasB, pass the instantiated class name of the main plugin that created the root menu, MyAdminPageClassA, to the setRootMenuPageBySlug() method.

$this->setRootMenuPageBySlug( 'MyAdminPageClassA' );

Another option is to use the set_up_{class name} action hook. The callback method receives the admin page class object and you can access the framework methods to add sub-menu pages.

class ThirdPartyScript {

    public function __construct() {
        add_action( 'set_up_' . 'MyAdminPageClassA', array( $this, 'replyToAddSubMenuPages' ) );
    }

    public function replyToAddSubMenuPages( $oAdminPage ) {

        $oAdminPage->addSubMenuPage(
            array(
                'page_slug' => 'my_admin_page_b',
                'title'     => __( 'Example', 'your-text-domain' ),
                'order'     => 20,
            )
        );

    }

}
new ThirdPartyScript;

See an example.

I want my users to install the loader plugin but do not want to display any visuals of the loader plugin. Is there a way to disable it?

Enable the silent mode of the loader plugin by setting the APFL_SILENT_MODE constant in your script.

define( 'APFL_SILENT_MODE', true );

Can I create pages in the network admin area?

Yes, See the demo.

Some of my users claim they cannot save options. What would be a possible cause?

max_input_vars of PHP settings. If this value is small and there are lots of form input elements, the user may not be able to save the options.

To increase the value, edit php.ini and add the following line where 10000 is the increased number.

max_input_vars = 10000

max_allowed_packet of MySQL settings. Try increasing this value in the my.ini or my.cnf file.

The 500M in the following line is where the increased value should be set.

max_allowed_packet=500M

Please keep in mind that these are just a few of many possibilities. If you encounter a situation that prevented the user from saving options, please report.

My class is getting too big by defining predefined callback methods. Is there a way to separate those?

Yes. The predefine method names also serve as a WordPress filter/action hook name. So you can just add callbacks to those hooks from a separate file.

For example, if you want to move your method content_my_page_slug(), then you would do something like,

function getMyPageContent( $sContent ) {
    return $sContent . ' additional contents here.';
}
add_filter( 'content_my_page_slug', 'getMyPageContent' );

IF you want to move your method load_my_page_slug(), then you would do something like,

function loadMyPage( $oFactory ) {
    // do something when the page loads.
}
add_action( 'load_my_page_slug', 'loadMyPage' );

Custom field types do not seem to show up. What did I do wrong?

Most likely, you have not registered the field type. The check-box in Generator will include the field type files in the zip archive and their paths in the list for the auto-loader loaded by the framework bootstrap file.

This essentially eliminates the use of include() or require(), meaning you can call the custom field type files without using include(). However, the field type is not registered by itself yet.

In order to use a custom field type, you need to instantiate the field type class by passing the extended framework class name. For example, if your framework class name is MyPlugin_AdminPageFramework and the field type class name is Select2CustomFieldType, then you need to do

new Select2CustomFieldType( 'MyPlugin_AdminPageFramework' );

Do this in the setUp() method in your extended framework class.

public function setUp() {
    new Select2CustomFieldType( 'MyPlugin_AdminPageFramework' );
}

This enables the select2 custom field type for the class MyPlugin_AdminPageFramework, not for the other classes. So essentially, do this for every class that uses the field type.

I cannot find what I’d like to do in tutorials and documentation. Where else should I look for more information?

You may directly read the code of the demo plugin. The demo plugin code is located in the example directory.
Ask questions in the support forum.

Getting Involved

I’ve written a useful class, functions, and even custom field types that will be useful for others! Do you want to include it?

The GitHub repository is available. Raise an issue first and we’ll see if changes can be made.

How can I contribute to this project?

There are various ways to do so. Please refer to the contribution guideline.

How can I contribute to improving the documentation?

You are welcome to submit documentation. Please follow the Documentation Guideline.

In addition, your tutorials and snippets for the framework can be listed in the manual. Let us know it here.

More FAQ Items

Check out the questions tagged as FAQ on GitHub.

Tutorials

Index

Roadmap

Check out the milestones and issues on GitHub labeled enhancement.

Reviews

OllieJones June 10, 2021

This is terrific topnotch stuff. Before this, every time I reinvented the wheel on options pages, I came up with a flat tire. By the time it was ready to go it had a lot of patches and spaghetti stuck to the walls. But this stuff just works. And my code is clear enough that I can see what I did two years from now. Offer: If you need a collaborator to work on docs, let me know.

josemygel April 21, 2021

Estamos muy contentos con la eficacia del desarrollador, tarda poquísimo en corregir un bug, ¡es super atento!

Reinhard Jung February 16, 2021

Super praktisches Framework, wenn man kein zusätzliches MVC etc. benötigt!

Patrick Groot December 1, 2020

Thanks for this awesome plugin! For a next release/feature it would be awesome to have the possibility to have subsections/tabs like WooCommerce settings pages for more advanced settings pages.

silverboyir February 13, 2019

seems its the one that I was looking for the only problem I faced with that at start is its css that is incompatible with rtl page

Dragon Heart September 3, 2016

Admin page framework or nothing! If you are not using this framework for your theme or plugin development, then you are developing the hard way. Good documentation, awesome support. I can develop from simple to more complex admin options with ease. What more would you expect as a developer. Give it a try and you will never go back. Thanks for the awesome code 🙂

Read all 23 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Admin Page Framework” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Translate “Admin Page Framework” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

3.8.33 – 2021/08/16

Fixed a bug that <img> tags were dropped in sending Emails with the email argument of the submit field type.
Fixed a bug that delayed sending Emails with the email argument of the submit field type, started in v3.8.32.

3.8.32 – 2021/08/14

Fixed some raw HTTP request values.
Tweaked the behavior of the submit filed type with the email argument.
Tweaked the visual of repeatable buttons.

3.8.31 – 2021/08/10

Added the ability to automatically load .min files if they exist when enqueuing resource files.
Added the icon argument to the select2 field type that supports icons to be added to select option elements.
Fixed an incompatibility issue with sites with custom WP_CONTENT_DIR and WP_CONTENT_URL.

3.8.30 – 2021/07/09

Fixed a bug with repeatable radio buttons that initial selection remained in the original field after repeating.
Fixed some JQMIGRATE browser console warnings.
Fixed a bug that octet characters in URL query parameters were lost in request data sanitization.
Fixed a bug that normal characters enclosed in the percent signs were stripped in the process of request data sanitization.

3.8.29 – 2021/06/17

Fixed a bug that duplicated class selectors were added to the class attribute of input elements with the class field argument when nested elements are specified.
Fixed a bug with the AdminPageFramework_WPUtility_Meta::getSavedTermMetaArray() method that did not retrieve any values
Fixed a bug with the AdminPageFramework_ArrayHandler::delete() method that did not delete given array elements properly.
Fixed a bug with the AdminPageFramework_ErrorReporting class that did not retrieve proper error level labels when a value was passed to the constructor parameter.
Fixed a bug with the addLinkToPluginTitle() method that did not properly add links when a value of an array was passed.
Fixed a bug with the enqueueScripts() method of the page metabox factory class that did not enqueue scripts properly.

3.8.28 – 2021/05/15

Fixed a bug that page meta box did not appear without specifying in-page tabs in PHP 8 or above.

3.8.27 – 2021/04/21

Fixed a bug that the capability field argument did not hide the field title.
Fixed a bug that backslashes were stripped out for text input values.

3.8.26 – 2021/02/11

Fixed a bug that stripped some valid text area values when sanitizing.
Fixed a bug that form capabilities were not properly inherited from its page when a tab does not exist.
Fixed the PHP Fatal error “Uncaught TypeError: round(): Argument #1 ($num) must be of type int|float, string given in …AdminPageFramework_PageLoadInfo_Base.php:96.” in PHP 8.0, which resulted in not loading the form with JavaScript errors.
Fixed a bug that caused a PHP notice in PHP 8.0, saying “Deprecated: Required parameter $… follows optional parameter”.

3.8.25 – 2020/11/20

Fixed a bug that caused textarea form values to have no mark-ups.

3.8.24 – 2020/11/14

Added the confirm argument for the submit field type.
Added a message to appear when the submit button of the import field type is clicked without uploading a file.
Tweaked the style of the import field type.
Fixed non-sanitized HTTP request arrays.
Fixed a bug that field capability did not inherit from its section properly.
Changed the behavior of the textarea of the system field type not to select text on click.
Removed the ace custom field type as it was warned by the wordpress.org plugin team not to load files remotely.

3.8.23 – 2020/11/05

Added the ability to automatically insert the current in-page tab title in the page title.
Added some utility methods dealing with transients.
Fixed a bug with the AdminPageFramework_Utility::getCurrentURL() method that an extra port was inserted with the server with a custom port.

3.8.22 – 2020/09/11

Added parameters for the AdminPageFramework_Debug::log() method that let the user set a log file name, whether to include a stack trace, and the truncation lengths for strings and arrays.
Tweaked the style of repeatable buttons and dash-icon buttons for WordPress 5.3 or above.
Changed the form nonce lifespan to 2 days from 1 hour.
Changed the id attribute of internal styles and scripts to be all lower-cased.
Fixed a bug with the select2 custom field type that repeated select2 field was not selectable.
Fixed a bug that some internal styles were not minified when the site debug mode is turned off.
Fixed a bug that same values of internal styles and scripts with the style_{extended class name}, style_ie_{extended class name} and script_{extended class name} were inserted multiple times.
Fixed a bug that the collapsible section toggle icons were not toggled.
Fixed a bug that in admin-ajax.php unnecessary callbacks were loaded.
Deprecated debug information for section and field arguments.

3.8.21 – 2019/08/19

Fixed an incompatibility issue with WordPress 5.5 regarding radio buttons.
Fixed an issue of a PHP warning of an undefined index file.
Fixed an incompatibility issue with wordpress.com.

3.8.20 – 2019/05/31

Fixed the PHP error Call to undefined method WP_Error::get_items() in the Add-ons page when fetching feeds failed.
Fixed a bug with the select2 custom field type that initialization failed for repeated fields.

3.8.19 – 2019/02/24

Added checks to prevent unnecessary calls on setUp() in admin-ajax.php.
Tweaked styling of the welcome page in the admin area of the loader plugin for WordPress 5.0.
Changed generated log file names with AdminPageFramework_Debug::log() to be shortened.
Fixed a bug with the custom select2 field type that requests did not go through with nested fields.
Fixed a bug with the custom select2 field type that showed the message “the results could not be loaded” while processing a Ajax requests.
Fixed a bug with the AdminPageFramework_Debug::log() method that did not properly retrieve correct caller method names.
Fixed an issue that some third-party tools reported false positive for PHP 7.2 incompatibility due to a method name prefixed with double underscores.

3.8.18 – 2018/07/17

Fixed a bug that inline/nested field values were not saved properly in widget forms.

3.8.17 – 2018/07/09

Fixed a bug that the save argument did not take effect for User Meta, Page Meta Box and Widget factories.
Fixed a compatibility issue with some third-parties which attempt to instantiate the framework widget class without given any parameters.

3.8.16 – 2018/07/06

Fixed a bug that the default sub-menu page of a custom top-level menu page could not be removed when the PHP class with a namespace is used.

3.8.15 – 2017/01/23

Fixed a bug that caused an undefined method warning in the admin notice class.

3.8.14 – 2017/01/15

Added the load() methods to factory classes of post/page meta boxes, user/taxonomy meta.
(minor breaking change) Deprecated the parameter of the load() method of the widget factory class.
Changed the behaviour of not loading form components in admin-ajax.php so that custom field types can access admin-ajax.php using Ajax.
Fixed an issue that Ajax requests of the select2 custom field type could not retrieve responses for the factory classes other than the admin page.

3.8.13 – 2016/12/22

Added the disabled repeatable section and repeatable field arguments.
Added the interactive, can_exceed_min, can_exceed_max, and allow_empty arguments to the no_ui_slider field type.
Fixed incompatibility with WordPress 4.7 that caused a notification page meta box to appear when it should not due to the change of action hook handling.
Fixed a bug that clicking on a collapsible section button of the button type did not collapse/expand the section.
Fixed a but that a vertical scrollbar appeared in an admin page that has a form when the browser width is less than 900px.
Tweaked the style of the size field type.
Tweaked the style of collapsible sections.
Tweaked tye style of section tabs for WordPress 4.7.

3.8.12 – 2016/11/28

Fixed a bug that caused an undefined index warning when a widget is added, introduced in 3.8.11.

3.8.11 – 2016/11/25

Fixed a bug that if field argument did not applied to the entire field output.
Fixed a bug which could cause warnings “Creating default object from empty value in …AdminPageFramework_Resource_post_meta_box.php”.
Fixed a bug calling an undefined method when setting a help argument in form section definitions.
Changed the behaviour of adding form resource scripts to add them all in the footer.

3.8.10 – 2016/11/09

Fixed a bug that the hidden field argument did not take effect for nested fields.
Fixed a bug that parent fields for nested fields were passed to the repeated_field callback argument of the custom registerAdminPageFrameworkCallbacks() jQuery plugin method.

3.8.9 – 2016/11/05

Fixed a bug occurred in PHP 5.3 that caused a warning debug_backtrace() expects at most 1 parameter, 2 given.
Fixed an issue that setting an object instance in field definition arguments caused slow performance on loading the form.
Tweaked the debug output format of field/section arguments.
Tweaked the style of tool-tips.

3.8.8 – 2016/10/26

Added the post_type_taxonomy custom field type that lets the user select taxonomy terms of selected post types.
Added the show_debug_info argument to the page, in-page tab, section, and field definition arguments to decide whether to display debug information.
Added the ability to display section arguments in tool-tips beside the section title.
Added the save_unchecked argument for the checkbox, posttype, and taxonomy field types that decides whether to save values of unchecked items.
Fixed a bug of calling a member function getSyntaxHighlightedPHPCode() on an undefined object in the network admin page of the demo.
Fixed a section ID conflict of mixed in demo examples.
Changed the handling mechanism of repeated fields (minor internal breaking change).
Tweaked the style of tool-tips.
Tweaked the style of taxonomy fields.

3.8.7 – 2016/10/09

Added the select2 custom field type that lets the user select items with auto-complete list which can possibly populated with AJAX.
Added the ability for the path and toggle custom field types to support repeatable sections.
Fixed a bug that a section title was not displayed when there was a field with the placement argument of the section_title value.
Fixed a PHP warning with the no_ui_slider, array_fill() [function.array-fill]: Number of elements must be positive....
Fixed a bug with the no_ui_slider custom field type that saving a value of 0 caused a slider not to be displayed.
Changed the getDataAttributeArray() utility method to convert camel-cased keys to be dashed.
Tweaked the style of collapsible section titles.

3.8.6 – 2016/10/02

Added the no_ui_slider custom field type which lets the user set values in ranges.
Added the ability for the text field type to accept nested attributes argument of a name of the corresponding label argument array element.
Changed the getDataAttributeArray() utility method to accept and convert array elements to a JSON string.

3.8.5 – 2016/09/25

Added the toggle custom field type which lets the user switch a toggle button.
Added the ability to automatically insert field definitions in a tool-tip for each field.
Fixed a bug that duplicated form style resource files were loaded.
Fixed a bug that handle IDs of style resources of forms and pages could conflict which resulted in not loading some items of page resources of styles.
Fixed a bug that collapsible section arguments were not processed properly, introduced in v3.8.4.
Fixed an issue that it was not possible to select tool-tip text.
Tweaked the style of tool-tips.

3.8.4 – 2016/09/21

Added the path custom field type which lets the user pick a file located on the server.
Fixed a bug that the aOptions property values were not updated when they are filtered with the options_{class name} filter hook.
Fixed a bug that setting 0 to the label_min_width field definition argument did not take effect.
Fixed a bug that an empty heading element was displayed even when the tab title of in-page-tab was set to empty.
Fixed a bug with the admin page factory class that transient option keys which get automatically set when an integer is passed to the first parameter of the constructor were not unique and could be too long.
Fixed the timing of the field_definitions_{class_name} filter to keep compatibility with v3.7.
Fixed a bug with the Generator that a set class prefix was not set properly for custom field types in some cases.
Fixed a bug in the getDataAttributeArray() utility method that some non-true values were all treated as 0.

3.8.3 – 2016/09/08

Fixed an issue that array elements of sub-menu items without a key added with the pages_{class name} filter were not processed properly.
Fixed an issue that a class creating a root menu page must be instantiated prior to a class adding a sub-menu page with the setRootMenuPageBySlug() method by passing the class name of the root menu page.

3.8.2 – 2016/08/25

Fixed a bug that automatically generated script paths were not accurate when multiple scripts shared the same library file.

3.8.1 – 2016/08/12

Fixed a bug that repeatable tabbed sections were not displayed properly until a tab is clicked when it is repeated.

3.8.0 – 2016/07/26

Added the placement field argument that allows the user to place field in the areas of section title and field title.
Added the inline_mixed built-in field type which introduces the ability to create inline mixed fields with the content field definition argument.
Added the ability to nest fields with the content field definition argument.
Added a new factory class, AdminPageFramework_TermMeta, to build forms for taxonomy terms.
Changed the type argument in the field definition to be able to be omitted.
Changed the default value of the label_min_width field argument to 0 from 140 and its min-width CSS property value set to elements are handled with embedded CSS.
Changed the behaviour of collapsible section bars that expanded/collapsed when a field in the bar was clicked.
Fixed a bug that setting an argument array to the script and style argument of a menu page definition did not take effect.
Fixed a bug with the rich text editor that set text was erased when the field is sortable and the sorted the field.
Fixed a bug that the tool bar of repeatable rich text area fields did not get updated when the field or section was repeatable.
Fixed a bug that delimiter elements were not displayed when a last repeatable field is duplicated.

3.7.15 – 2016/05/31

Fixed a bug that caused a warning saying accessing an undefined object property in the network admin area.

3.7.14 – 2016/04/20

Fixed a compatibility issue with WordPress 4.5 that taxonomy form fields were not displayed in the term editing page.

3.7.13 – 2016/03/04

Fixed a PHP notice, Array to string conversion in ...AdminPageFramework_FieldType_media.php caused when setting an array to the repeatable field definition argument of the image and media field type.

3.7.12 – 2016/02/20

Added the ability to set custom classes for sub-objects.
Added an example for page meta boxes for in-page tabs in the demo.
Added the load() method to the admin page factory class which gets called when one of the added admin pages starts loading.
Fixed a bug that zip files generated with Generator could not be opened on Windows.
Fixed a bug that the size field type could not save and retrieve values in a sub-field, introduced in v3.7.0.
Tweaked the style of page meta boxes.

3.7.11 – 2016/01/15

Fixed a bug that the default plugin action link were doubled when setting a custom label.
Changed the error level of custom errors for using deprecated items.

3.7.10 – 2016/01/13

Added the load() method to the post type factory class which gets called when the edit.php page of the post type starts loading.
Optimized performance in the common admin area.
Changed the timing of registering page meta boxes so that their classes can be instantiated in the load_{...} hook of the admin page factory class.
Changed the framework inline CSS rules in the compiled library files to be minified.

3.7.9 – 2016/01/07

Reduced the number of library files.
Fixed a bug that site-wide field type definitions were overridden by built-in field types of per-class field type definitions which caused some field types which override the built-in field type slug did not load, introduced in v3.7.1.
Fixed an issue with widgets that caused some overhead.
Fixed an issue that widget resources were loaded in pages that do not have widget forms.
Tweaked the style of collapsible form sections.
Changed the color of setting notices for resetting options with the submit field type from red to green.
Changed the demo to be disabled when the loader plugin admin pages are disabled.

3.7.8 – 2015/12/31

Reduced the number of database queries used in framework forms.

3.7.7 – 2015/12/30

Fixed an issue that the framework forms could not be displayed when some third-party plugins or themes have JavaScript errors.
Fixed a bug in a field object calling an undefined method.

3.7.6.1 – 2015/12/23

Fixed a bug that debug log was generated, introduced in v3.7.6.
Fixed a bug that Generator could not generate some files, introduced in v3.7.6.

3.7.6 – 2015/12/23

Added the skip_confirmation argument for the submit field type, which skips submit confirmation.
Fixed some compatibility issues with PHP 7.
Fixed an issue that fron-end pages of custom post types registered with the framework could not be accessible in some occasions.
Fixed a bug that resetting options did not show a message since v3.5.3.
Fixed a bug that page titles got doubled in the title tag when there is a hidden page.
Changed the timing of resetting options and sending contact form emails of the submit field type to after the validation hooks so that the user can cancel their actions.

3.7.5 – 2015/12/18

Reduced the number of database queries used in framework widget forms.

3.7.4 – 2015/12/16

Added the submenu_order_addnew and submenu_order_manage arguments for the post type arguments.
Added the submenu_order argument for the taxonomy arguments.
Fixed a bug that setting notices could not be displayed in the network admin area, introduced in 3.7.0.
Fixed a bug in the demo of network admin pages that called non existent class, introduced in 3.7.0.
Fixed a bug in the network admin factory class that called an undefined method, , introduced in 3.7.0.
Changed the default capability value of the user meta factory class to read to allow subscribers to edit options of their profiles.
Changed the incremental offset automatically assigned to the order argument of sub-menu items.
Changed the order argument of sub-menu items to be effective site-wide.

3.7.3 – 2015/12/13

Added the action_links_{post type slug} filter to the post type factory class.
Fixed an issue of a fatal error Maximum function nesting level of 'x' reached when the server enables the XDebug extension and sets a low value for the xdebug.max_nesting_level option.

3.7.2 – 2015/12/11

Fixed a compatibility issue with WordPress 4.4 that widget fields with a section could no longer save and retrieve the values.
Fixed a bug that the framework library files and user-generated library files were missing file doc-blocks.
Fixed an issue that custom field type specific text domain could not be converted with the Generator tool.
Changed the form sections and fields registration mechanism of the admin page class to accept items without the page_slug and tab_slug by letting them being added to the current page or tab which is registed by the classs.

3.7.1 – 2015/12/08

Added the internal ability for the select and radio field types to accept nested attributes arguments for each label element.
Fixed a bug that site-wide field type definitions were loaded multiple times per page load, introduced in 3.7.0.
Tweaked the style of form sections and fields.
Tweaked the style of help tool tips.

3.7.0 – 2015/12/04

Added the setMessage() and getMessage() methods to retrieve and modify the framework system messages.
Added the ‘type’ argument for the collapsible argument for section definitions which supports button to make sections collapsible with a button.
Added the ability to display tool tips that appear when the user moves the cursor over the ? icon beside the section and field title.
Added the tip argument for section definitions.
Added a utility class to create pointer tool box in the admin area.
Added the ability of nesting sections.
Tweaked the way that forms appear.
Tweaked the way that admin notices appear.
Fixed a bug that the collapsed of collapsible section definition argument did not take effect for widget forms when the widget was initially dropped.
Changed the factory class name of the page meta box from AdminPageFramework_MetaBox_Page to AdminPageFramework_PageMetaBox.

3.6.6 – 2015/11/26

Changed back the change introduced in v3.6.4 not to convert backslashes to underscores in class names in the framework hooks but only apply to auto-callback method names.

3.6.5 – 2015/11/21

Fixed a bug that layouts of page meta boxes were not displayed properly when no side meta box existed and one of normal or advanced was added.
Fixed the style of section tabs in WordPress 4.4.

3.6.4 – 20105/11/19

Added the APFL_SILENT_MODE constant to the loader plugin that toggle the visuals of the loader admin pages.
Tweaked the style of textarea fields.
Fixed an issue that a column data were not updated right away when the user uses Quick Edit in a post listing table of a post type.
Changed the class names in the framework hook names to get backslashes converted to underscores to avoid invalid characters in callback method names.

3.6.3 – 2015/11/07

Added the script and style arguments for the page and in-page tab definitions.
Tweaked the style of section tab titles in meta boxes.
Fixed an issue in WordPress 3.7.x or below that the screen icon appeared even when the screen title and the in-page tabs are disabled.
Changed the required WordPress version to 3.4.

3.6.2 – 2015/10/31

Added a notification box in the admin pages of the loader plugin.
Tweaked the style of heading tags in meta boxes.
Tweaked the style of buttons of collapsible sections.
Fixed a bug that the form values were not saved correctly with a sortable and repeatable section containing repeatable fields.
Fixed a bug in the taxonomy fields that conditions set with the if and capability arguments were not applied.

3.6.1 – 2015/10/26

Added the ability to activate a form section tab by URL.
Added the content argument for section and field definition arrays to define custom outputs.
Added a hook to filter parsing contents to the AdminPageFramework_WPReadmeParser utility class.
Fixed a bug with form section tabs that the active content elements were not visible when a container element is hidden first on the page load.
Fixed a bug caused a fatal error in the AdminPageFramework_AdminNotice class, introduced in 3.5.12.

3.6.0 – 2015/10/22

Added the ability for the generator to include custom field types.
Added the ability to sort sections with the sortable argument of a section definition array.
Added the save argument for the section and field definition.
Added the if argument to the in-page tab definition.
Fixed an issue of a conflict that forms of post type meta boxes were not displayed when the global $post object is modified by third party scripts.
Fixed an issue that the file fields could not trigger the section validation callback when there are no other field types in the section.
Fixed a bug that an in-page tab that the parent_tab_slug is set and show_in_page_tab is false was displayed, introduced in 3.5.10.
Fixed the setPageHeadingTabTag() method did not property set the tag.
Changed the capability values of admin pages, in-page tabs, sections and fields to inherit the value from the outer container element.
Changed the directory structure of included files to shorten the overall file paths.
Changed the mechanism of the repeating and sorting fields.

3.5.12 – 2015/08/09

Fixed a bug that the Select All and Select None buttons were doubled when a checkbox and posttype field types were in the same form and not displayed with the taxonomy field type when there are no checkbox or posttype fields in the same page.
Tweaked the class selectors of admin notification elements to have dismiss buttons available in WordPress 4.2 or above.

3.5.11 – 2015/07/14

Added a warning to be displayed for forms in generic admin pages when the user form inputs exceeds the PHP max_input_vars value.
Added the column layout screen options for page meta boxes.
Fixed a bug that screen options were not saved in generic pages added by the framework.

3.5.10 – 2015/07/05

Added the show_submenu_add_new post type argument which enables to remove “Add New” sub-menu item from the sidebar menu.
Added the attributes and disabled arguments to page and in-page tab definition array which gets applied to navigation tab element.
Changed the behavior of the color field type to have the default value getting reflected in repeated field.
Fixed an issue that default values could not be set for user meta fields.
Fixed an issue that magic quotes were not sanitized in taxonomy field inputs.

3.5.9 – 2015/06/25

Added the ability for the size field type to create sub-fields by passing an array of labels.
Added the reset_... action hooks.
Added the ability to disable setting notices by passing an empty string to the setSettingNotice() method.
Added the ability for the admin page factory class to save form options only for a set time of period by passing an integer for the option key to the constructor.
Added the ability for transient utility methods to accept long transient key names.
Fixed an issue that post meta-box form fields were not able to set default values when there were existing meta data.
Fixed a bug in the getOption() utility method that the fourth parameter did not take effect when null is given to the second parameter.
Changed the timing of rendering the widget title to after the do_{...} and content_{...} hooks.
Changed the zip file name of generated framework files to have a version suffix.

3.5.8 – 2015/05/29

Added the ability for the getValue() method to set a default value with the second parameter when the first parameter is an array.
Added the ability for the text and textarea field types to create sub-input elements by passing an array to the label argument.
Added the width argument for the taxonomy field type.
Fixed a bug that the name attribute value was not set in post meta box fields in post-new.php, introduced in 3.5.7.
Fixed a bug with the taxonomy field type that could not list terms when the arguments argument misses the class argument.

3.5.7.1 – 2015/05/11

Fixed a bug with referencing pressed submit button name attributes, introduced in 3.5.7.

3.5.7 – 2015/05/05

Fixed a compatibility issue with WordPress 4.2 or above that the taxonomy field type become not able to list taxonomy terms.
Tweaked styling of page meta-box form elements.

3.5.6 – 2015/03/15

Fixed a bug that form section values of page meta box could not be displayed.

3.5.5 – 2015/03/08

Added the footer_right_{...} and footer_left_{...} filter hooks.
Fixed an issue that the loader plugin could not get activated when a plugin that includes the framework of a lesser version that that not have a certain class constant.
Changed not to include the development version in the plugin distribution package.
Changed the setFooterInfoLeft() and setFooterInfoRight() methods to be deprecated which had not been functional since v3.1.3.

3.5.4 – 2015/03/02

Added the framework component generator in the loader plugin which can be accessed via Dashboard -> Admin Page Framework -> Tools -> Generator.
Added the export_header_{...} filters that lets the user set custom HTTP header outputs for the export field type.
Fixed a bug in the system field type that PHP warnings occurred when the permission to read error logs is not sufficient.
Changed the minified version to be deprecated.
Changed the version name of the development version to have .dev notation in the version name.

3.5.3 – 2015/02/21

Added the ability to reset individual field values with the reset argument of the submit field type.
Added a user meta factory class demo example.
Added the validate() and content() methods in the admin page factory class.
Added the fourth parameter to the validate() method of page meta box factory class to receive submit information.
Fixed a bug that invalid field values were stored when submitting the form multiple times using validation callback methods.
Fixed an issue in the loader plugin that after resetting the loader plugin options via the Debug tab, a warning ‘You do not have sufficient permissions to access this page.’ appeared.
Fixed an issue in the user meta factory class that a PHP notice, Trying to get property of non-object…, which appeared when creating a new user.
Fixed an issue that the image field type did not extend AdminPageFramework_FieldType but AdminPageFramework_FieldType_Base.

3.5.2 – 2015/02/02

Fixed a bug in the widget factory class that form sections could not be set.
Changed the class argument of the section definition array to accept a string.

3.5.1.1 – 2015/01/24

Fixed a bug that caused non-object type PHP error in the post type factory class introduced in v3.5.1.

3.5.1 – 2015/01/23

Fixed a bug in the enqueueScripts() method of the admin page factory class.
Fixed a bug that message objects were not properly instantiated.
Fixed PHP strict standard warnings.

3.5.0 – 2015/01/22

Added the forth parameter of submit information to the validation filter callbacks so that callback methods can know which framework field submit button is pressed etc.
Added the a method to the field type class that is triggered when a field of the field type is registered.
Added the field_types_admin_page_framework filter that allows you to register field types sitewide.
Added the url argument for in-page tab definition arrays that allows the user to add link navigation tab.
Added a utility class for WordPres Readme parser and the markdown syntax.
Added a utility class for plugin bootstraps.
Added user meta factory class for adding fields in the user profile page.
Fixed the network admin factory class could not add plugin action links via the addLinkToPluginTitle() method.
Fixed an issue that empty strings could be inserted with the addLinkToPluginTitle() and addLinkToPluginDescription() method.
Fixed a bug that style_{...} and script_{...} filters were triggered twice in generic admin pages.
Fixed a bug that style_{page slug}_{tab slug}, style_{page_slug}, script_{page slug}_{tab slug}, and script_{page slug}_{tab slug} were not available.
Changed the demo plugin to be a loader plugin that loads Admin Page Framework.
Tweaked the styling of admin page container elements.

Old Change Log

WordPress.org