Cuisine > Sections > Creating a column

Creating a column

Creating your own columns is easier that you might think. It basically requires just three steps:

And if you’re feeling cheeky you can also change the data of your column as it’s being saved

On this page we’ll look at registering a new column-type. If you’re looking for a cut-and-dry solution you can check out our free starter column

Registering on the right hook

Before we start adding our custom column-type we’ll have to make sure that Sections get’s loaded. We use the cuisine_sections_loaded hook for this:


add_action( 'cuisine_sections_loaded', function(){
		
	//load your event listeners here
	...

});

In our Starter Column we trigger the ColumnIgniter class with the autoloader after this action.

Registering the actual column

Registering the actual column happens via a regular WordPress filter. It takes an array with three parameters and a key.

Key: the unique type-string that we’ll use to save and fetch your column data.
Name: the display name of your column; this needs to be translatable.
Class: the class of your column, easiest would be to extend \CuisineSections\Columns\DefaultColumn for this.
Template: the path to your columns default template file.

Here’s an example:


add_filter( 'cuisine_sections_column_types', function( $types ){

	$template = Url::path( 'plugin', 'my-plugin-folder/Assets/template.php' );

	//change the $types[ key ] and the name value:
	$types['my-column'] = array(
		'name'		=> 'My Custom Column',
		'class'		=> 'MyColumn\Column',
		'template'	=> $template
	);

	return $types;
});

Let’s break that down:

First we use the cuisine_sections_column_types filter to add a new value to the column $types array.

Inside the filter we use a utility class in Cuisine Core to fetch the path of our plugin folder. After that we add a my-column key to the $types array, with a name, class and template value for our column.