Making Plugins – Database

The add_, update_ and get_ option functions are used for “configuration” values for plugins.

The options for add_option are:

add_option($name, $value, $description, $autoload);

$name = name of the option
$value = the value you want set
$description = a description of this optioin
$autoload = autoload this setting

If autoload is set (default yes) then the setting is automatically retrieved by the get_alloptions function.

You will want to add a page to either the ‘options’ or ‘manage’ section of the admin interface for your admin panel.

For these you would use add_options_page or add_management_page respectively.

Syntax:

add_options_page(page_title, menu_title, access_level, file, [function]);

or

add_management_page(page_title, menu_title, access_level, file, [function]);

e.g.

add_options_page(‘Test Options’, ‘Test Options’, 8, __FILE__, ‘functiontocall’);

(note: __FILE__ can be used to mean “this current plugin file” handles the display of options. The ‘functiontocall’ is called to display/save/set etc the options.)

There is more good info, as usual, in the codex.. https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Adding_Administration_Menus

About Adding Administration Menus, does the code need to be run every single time the plugin runs, or just the first time?

Never mind, I’ve found out — you can run it every time and it’ll be fine. One question though, what does get_alloptions do?