hooks

Hooks

• Overview
• Important Action Hooks Functions
• WordPress Actions Runtime Lifecycle
• Explore Action Hooks

Overview

Hooks are a way for us to add our own code to customize default WordPress behavior. There're two types of hooks in WordPress:

• Action Hooks let us run our own code when a certain event takes place in the WordPress lifecycle.
• Filter Hooks let us get data from WordPress, modify it, and then return it back customized.

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Important Action Hooks Functions

There are three fundamental functions to know about when working with action hooks:

<?php // index.php
  do_action( 'before_footer' ); // create an action hook
?>

<?php // functions.php
  add_action( 'before_footer', 'my_function' ); // hook in code
  remove_action( 'before_footer', 'my_function' ); // unhook code
?>

• Wherever do_action() occurs, we have an action hook. The function doesn't do anything by itself, but it's the hook that we can use to run.
• The add_action() function lets us add a function to an action hook.
• To remove an action, we have to call remove_action().

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WordPress Actions Runtime Lifecycle

The Action Lifecycle refers to the order and relationship od do_action() calls. Check Plugin API/Action Reference | WordPress Codex for more information.

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Explore Action Hooks

There're several ways to explore action hooks:

1. Use the global variables $wp_actions and $wp_filter to get a list of all the action hooks and filters.
   • $wp_actions is an array of all the action hooks that have been registered.
   • $wp_filter is an array of all the filters that have been registered.
2. Use the r-debug.php plugin to get a list of all the action hooks and filters.
   • Add require( dirname( __FILE__ ) . '/lib/r-debug.php' ); to the functions.php file.
3. Use the Debug Bar and Debug Bar Actions and Filters plugins to get a list of all the action hooks and filters.
4. Use the Simply Show Hooks plugin to get a list of all the action hooks and filters.

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