echo vs return

  • Hi folks,
    Just thought I’d share a word about a small frustration I’m having with WP. It’s a great tool (I’m currently migrating from MT), and the fact you can create your own functions/ plug-ins makes it really extensible.
    That said, if you wanna use internal functions within your own, there seems to be little consistency in the way each returns data – sometimes they use echo and sometimes they use return. Of course, that’s not always what you want.
    On some functions, you can pass the parameter echo="true, which is great. Alas, it’s not always there (on comment_count, for instance), which means you have to copy the internal function, hack it about a bit and save it in my_hacks or as part of the plug-in.
    Maybe something to consider going forward – ensure all internal functions have a parameter switch for how they output so they can be invoked either in templates, or as part of a plug-in.
    Just my two cents…

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

  • Amen. I hate having to hack functions just for that one extra parameter.

    i hope the developers don’t waste time on this. i’d rather see the database cleaned up of deprecated elements.

    Thread Starter bstovold

    (@bstovold)

    I’m not advocating its the only thing that needs improving Charle97. Just that its something that’s pretty annoying when you’re trying to write plug-ins or do more complex stuff in the template.
    I certainly wouldn’t say its a “waste [of] time”, any more than cleaning up the database. Really just depends on your needs. Anyways, this is just a requests/ feedback forum. I’m feeding back ??

    if you know the difference between echo and return, then adding either functionality to a function that already uses one is a simple exercise.

    bstovold: charle97 meant that hacking a function to make it return rather than echo is a simple process, not that it’s possible without hacking.
    Yes, it’s simple, but I think that making WP simpler to use for hackers is something that needs to be addressed. Whether that’s having an annotated version available (maybe online), or by adding a customary $echo paramater, it’s a good idea.
    Bottom line: it’s easy to hack, but in this instance at least it shouldn’t be necessary.

    bstovold:
    There’s no need to hack a function to get it to echo its results. Instead of adding echo as a parameter, just put the word “echo” in front of the function.
    As a rule of thumb, I’ve noticed that functions starting with “the_” produce output (i.e. they use echo). Any of the others don’t produce output, so you would have to do the echo yourself by placing the word “echo” in front of the function call.
    It’s very easy to make things echo. It’s harder to go the other route and get things that are echoing not to. For those it might be useful to have a parameter ??
    Some examples:
    </pre>
    the_title();
    /* produces output */
    wp_texturize(‘Some text’);
    /* produces no output */
    echo wp_texturize(‘Some text’);
    /* produces output */
    </pre>

    You don’t necessarily have to change everything when a new version of WordPress comes out. I have a file in wp-content/plugins/ that contains all the functions I’ve hacked, all with a dmh_ (my initials) prefix to their name. So when I hack a function, I’ll copy-paste the code, rename it with the dmh_prefix and then change the code that I need. That way, I can continue to use (or not) these functions and the original files in /wp-includes/ remain untouched, ready for upgrade.

    …or you could use my-hacks.php to store your functions…

    david – that’s all fine and dandy, unless some new funtionality has been added to that function, you won’t get it in your customized version. Granted it depends on if you want that new functionality or not.
    TG

    Thread Starter bstovold

    (@bstovold)

    Sorry David/2fargon, that’s what I was getting at: if you hack an internal function into a plug-in, or in my hacks, if they upgrade or fix ’em, your hacked version won’t benefit.
    Once again, it’s not an enormous problem, especially if you’re customising or extending the logic beyond recognition. But if you’re just copying it out to fix echo/return, it seems a bit silly.
    Maybe this is something the developers can factor into their coding standards for new routines in future drops. And build it into existing ones as they work on them. As Charles pointed out originally, it’s not hard to do…

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
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