consume-php-variable.md

Consume PHP variable

Sometimes it is needed to consume PHP variables in your frontend TypeScript coding. You are covered! The boilerplate comes with a mechanism to get a typed object.

Predefined variables

If you have a look at src/public/ts/store/option.tsx you will find a typed OptionStore. You also notice that it extends from BaseOptions. The boilerplate comes out-of-the-box with important variables you can already use:

public slug: string; // Plugin slug
public textDomain: string; // Plugin text domain, needed for i18n factory
public version: string; // Plugin version
public restUrl?: string; // REST API Url
public restNamespace?: string; // Plugin REST API namespace
public restRoot?: string; // REST API root path
public restQuery?: {}; // REST API query sent with each request to the backend (GET)
public restNonce?: string; // REST API authentication nonce
public publicUrl?: string; // Public url localhost:{your-port}/wp-content/plugins/your-plugin/public

Access variables

The OptionStore can be used by React in that way (it relies to the context factory):

() => {
    const { optionStore } = useStores();
    return <span>{optionStore.slug}</span>;
};

It can also read directly (relies on the root store src/public/ts/store/stores.tsx):

console.log(rootStore.optionStore.slug);

Add own variable

Assume we want to know if the user is allowed to install plugins (install_plugins). Adjust the Assets#overrideLocalizeScript() method and additionally make the variable only be exposed for a given context (site, admin):

public function overrideLocalizeScript($context) {
    if ($context === base\Assets::TYPE_ADMIN) {
        return [
            'canInstallPlugins' => current_user_can('install_plugins')
        ];
    } elseif ($context === base\Assets::TYPE_FRONTEND) {
        // [...]
    }

    return [];
}

To make it available in TypeScript we need to adjust the OptionStore#others property:

class OptionStore extends BaseOptions {
    // [...]

    @observable
    public others: { canInstallPlugins: boolean } = {
        // Defaults (optional)
        canInstallPlugins = false
    };
}

Let's access it:

console.log(rootStore.optionStore.others.canInstallPlugins);