Over a year ago I was checking out WordPress’ new JavaScript media uploader interface and I had the idea to try to get it working on the front-end. After playing around with it I managed to get something working and thought, “I should write a blog post about that,” and promptly forgot all about it. Since I’m at Loopconf at the moment and feeling inspired I guess it’s finally time 🙂
I created a simple plugin available at https://github.com/dbspringer/wp-frontend-media to demonstrate what you’ll need to do to get it working. There are some important caveats!
- You need to decide how you want to handle how it’ll work for users that aren’t logged in.
- You’ll also have to decide what to do about users without ‘upload_files’ permissions.
That said, let’s take a look!
The Plugin
The media interface is all JavaScript so the plugin mostly serves as a way to bootstrap the js libraries we’ll need. I also included a simple shortcode that spits out a button that summons the interface and replaces the button with the selected image. Otherwise, there are three important things happening:
- I’m calling
wp_enqueue_media()to load the media interface libraries. - I’m filtering
ajax_query_attachments_argsinfilter_media()to retrieve only the images belonging to the user. If you don’t care about restricting the images just remove the filter. - I’m checking
current_user_can( 'upload_files' )in the shortcode to restrict access to the interface, you’ll need a similar check somewhere in your own code.
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| <?php | |
| /** | |
| * Plugin Name: Front-end Media Example | |
| * Plugin URI: https://derekspringer.wordpress.com | |
| * Description: An example of adding the media loader on the front-end. | |
| * Version: 0.1 | |
| * Author: Derek Springer | |
| * Author URI: https://derekspringer.wordpress.com | |
| * License: GPL-2.0+ | |
| * License URI: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.txt | |
| * Text Domain: frontend-media | |
| * Domain Path: /languages | |
| */ | |
| // If this file is called directly, abort. | |
| if ( ! defined( 'WPINC' ) ) { | |
| die; | |
| } | |
| /** | |
| * Class wrapper for Front End Media example | |
| */ | |
| class Front_End_Media { | |
| /** | |
| * A simple call to init when constructed | |
| */ | |
| function __construct() { | |
| add_action( 'init', array( $this, 'init' ) ); | |
| } | |
| function init() { | |
| load_plugin_textdomain( | |
| 'frontend-media', | |
| false, | |
| dirname( plugin_basename( __FILE__ ) ) . '/languages/' ); | |
| add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', array( $this, 'enqueue_scripts' ) ); | |
| add_filter( 'ajax_query_attachments_args', array( $this, 'filter_media' ) ); | |
| add_shortcode( 'frontend-button', array( $this, 'frontend_shortcode' ) ); | |
| } | |
| /** | |
| * Call wp_enqueue_media() to load up all the scripts we need for media uploader | |
| */ | |
| function enqueue_scripts() { | |
| wp_enqueue_media(); | |
| wp_enqueue_script( | |
| 'some-script', | |
| plugins_url( '/', __FILE__ ) . 'js/frontend.js', | |
| array( 'jquery' ), | |
| '2015-05-07' | |
| ); | |
| } | |
| /** | |
| * This filter insures users only see their own media | |
| */ | |
| function filter_media( $query ) { | |
| // admins get to see everything | |
| if ( ! current_user_can( 'manage_options' ) ) | |
| $query['author'] = get_current_user_id(); | |
| return $query; | |
| } | |
| function frontend_shortcode( $args ) { | |
| // check if user can upload files | |
| if ( current_user_can( 'upload_files' ) ) { | |
| $str = __( 'Select File', 'frontend-media' ); | |
| return '<input id="frontend-button" type="button" value="' . $str . '" class="button" style="position: relative; z-index: 1;"><img id="frontend-image" />'; | |
| } | |
| return __( 'Please Login To Upload', 'frontend-media' ); | |
| } | |
| } | |
| new Front_End_Media(); |
The JavaScript
This is the meat of what you’ll need to use the media interface on the front-end. It’s actually pretty simple to summon the interface and then do something with the file that was retrieved. It’s all handled in these three easy steps:
- Create the file_frame object using
wp.media(). - Attach a
'select'listener to thefile_frameobject to handle what you want to do when a file is selected. Theattachmentvariable will have an object containing all the metadata for the selected item. Just do aconsole.log()to figure out what you’re getting. - Tell the
file_frameto pop open the interface based on a click (or whatever) on an element somewhere.
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| (function($) { | |
| $(document).ready( function() { | |
| var file_frame; // variable for the wp.media file_frame | |
| // attach a click event (or whatever you want) to some element on your page | |
| $( '#frontend-button' ).on( 'click', function( event ) { | |
| event.preventDefault(); | |
| // if the file_frame has already been created, just reuse it | |
| if ( file_frame ) { | |
| file_frame.open(); | |
| return; | |
| } | |
| file_frame = wp.media.frames.file_frame = wp.media({ | |
| title: $( this ).data( 'uploader_title' ), | |
| button: { | |
| text: $( this ).data( 'uploader_button_text' ), | |
| }, | |
| multiple: false // set this to true for multiple file selection | |
| }); | |
| file_frame.on( 'select', function() { | |
| attachment = file_frame.state().get('selection').first().toJSON(); | |
| // do something with the file here | |
| $( '#frontend-button' ).hide(); | |
| $( '#frontend-image' ).attr('src', attachment.url); | |
| }); | |
| file_frame.open(); | |
| }); | |
| }); | |
| })(jQuery); |
There you have it! I’ll leave it up to you to do something non-trivial with it, but this should get you started. happy coding!
