WordPress comes loaded with a series of hooks and filters that let you hook into specific parts of when WordPress operates. For example, you can attach a custom function so that it executes when the WordPress save_post
action is called, giving you access to the post being saved.
Plugins and themes are an area where hooks are in abundance. Any decent plugin or theme will come with a range of these hooks that they either use internally to operate or expose externally for developers. When a plugin or theme isn’t exposed enough you might have issue customizing how it operates.
![wordpress hooks banner](https://uploads.sitepoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/1469638219wordpress_hooks_banner-1024x495.jpg)
Generally speaking, the plugins and themes you will run into will be based around Object Orientated Design methods, where one or more classes define how the functionality works. Inside these classes they might define hooks that you want to remove entirely or replace with your own custom functions.
Today were going to dig into WordPress hooks and how you can handle them both in a traditional sense and also when dealing with classes or objects.
Removing Standard Hooks
When hooks and filters are not inside a class they are fairly straight-forward to remove. To remove these hooks you need to use the remove_action
function. The basics of this are that you need to supply the following:
$tag
– The name of the hook to which the function is attached to.$function_to_remove
– The name of the function that should be removed.$priority
– The priority of the function when it was attached to the hook.
When actions hooks are created with do_action
it will trigger all functions that have been added to it with add_action
as soon as WordPress reaches it.
Example 1: Standard WooCommerce Hook
Let’s look at a visual example. Consider the WooCommerce plugin. When you’re on a single page (using the single-product
template) you will by default see the breadcrumb bar.
![Basic WordPress hook WooCommerce](https://uploads.sitepoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/1469637292basic_hook_woocommerce.jpg)
This is outputted via the do_action( 'woocommerce_before_main_content' );
hook. It’s purpose is to output the starting content wrapper and the breadcrumbs for the product.
![WooCommerce hook photo](https://uploads.sitepoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/1469637411woocommerce_hook_photo.jpg)
Since we know the name of the action and the function name attached to that hook, we can remove the function entirely as follows.
//remove breadcrumbs from single product
remove_action('woocommerce_before_main_content', 'woocommerce_breadcrumb', 20);
Now the breadcrumbs will disappear. As long as you know the name of the hook, the name of the function you want to remove and the priority you can remove and replace functions as you see fit. The priority of the hook is important as it has to match the priority used when the function was originally hooked.
![basic hook WooCommerce removed](https://uploads.sitepoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/1469637452basic_hook_woocommerce_removed.jpg)
Removing Hooks Added Inside Classes
When you have actions and filters defined inside classes it can be a little bit tricky. Even though you might know the name of the hook and the name of the function, you won’t be able to use remove_action
as we did before.
The issue is that if a plugin or theme defines these actions inside of class, those hooks are now attached inside the class. To remove them you will need to pass in the class variable to the remove_action
function as follows:
//remove a hooked function from within a call
function('hook_name', array($myclass, 'my_function_remove'), 10);
So Where Exactly Is the Class Object?
This often is the trickiest part. To remove your function you need the class object. To find this you will need to hunt through either the documentation for the plugin or theme (if there is anyway) or alternatively (and less excitingly) searching through their source code to find the variable name.
If the class is a Singleton class, meaning that there should be only one of them at a single time, then you should be able to get the class from using one of the classes inbuilt functions to return the instance of the class such as:
$myClassObject = MyClass::getInstance()
If the class doesn’t have a method like that you can try and get the object by calling it globally such as:
global $myClassObject
Since each developer develops differently you might have to search to find the variable you need. Hopefully, if the class has been structured correctly, you should be able to get the object.
If you’re trying to remove visual elements outputted you should be able to trace back where it all comes from, for example:
- If you’re trying to remove some text, inspect the element and see if it has any classes or ID’s.
- If you have something to search on you can open up your theme or plugin and search for where those classes or ID’s are uses, they most likely will be wrapped in some function.
- If you’ve found a function that causing the output, try and see if it’s hooked with
add_action
anywhere.
If you’re successful you should have the name of the hook and the name of the function you want to remove. All you need is the object itself and you’re good to go!
Example 1: Hook Inside WooCommerce Class
Let’s look at a practical example so you can see how you’d apply this technique.
Inside of WooCommerce the WC_Emails
class is used to generate the output for emails that are sent out (such as the new, processing and completed orders). Inside of WC_Emails
the constructor attaches all of the various functions onto hooks to build the output as seen below.
![advanced class hook screenshot](https://uploads.sitepoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/1469637617advanced_class_hook_screenshot-1024x395.jpg)
When displaying an email WordPress will hit the woocommerce_email_customer_details
hook and will trigger all functions attached to it. When this happens it will trigger the customer_details
function defined in the WC_Emails
class, outputting the customer details.
![advanced class hook details](https://uploads.sitepoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/1469637502advanced_class_hook_details.jpg)
If we didn’t want to display these details we would have to remove the customer_details
function from the class.
Luckily, at the bottom of the constructor is the woocommerce_emails
action that’s being called with do_action
. We can hook onto there so we can remove our customer details. This hook is passed the object itself via $this
so it’s perfect for our needs.
//Remove email details from the `WC_Emails` class
function remove_customer_email_details($instance) {
//remove `customer_details` hooked function
remove_action('woocommerce_email_customer_details', array( $instance, 'customer_details'), 10);
}
add_action('woocommerce_email', 'remove_customer_email_details');
We call remove_action
and pass in both the $instance
and the customer_details
function and when we view our emails the customer details have vanished, removed entirely.
![advanced class hook details removed](https://uploads.sitepoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/1469637660advanced_class_hook_details_removed.jpg)
In this scenario, WooCommerce left a perfect location for us to hook onto so we could remove these functions. It’s up to the plugin or theme developer to place these handy hooks in locations where other developers may need them. That being the case you might struggle removing some functions if the developers haven’t thought about it.
Example 2: Hook Inside a Custom Class
With WooCommerce they have a dedicated team of great developers plus a series of volunteers or contributors continually working to improve their plugin. They’ve gone through years of development so they know the importance of proving the right hooks so developers can customize things.
In this example, we’re going to look at just a simple situation. The idea behind this example is that you can’t be guaranteed you will have hooks to rely on and if the developer is even thinking about people extending their work. In this scenario, we’re working between a parent and child theme. Inside the parent theme we have our main class and in our child theme we have our additional function.
NOTE: It’s useful to point out that remove_filter
is the same as remove_action
. At the end of the day, they are all a way to removed hooked function and WordPress is happy for you to use them interchangeably.
//A simple test class, loaded directly in your website
//Loaded from the parent theme
class testClass{
//magic constructor
public function __construct(){
add_filter('the_title', array($this, 'wrapTitle'), 10, 1);
add_filter('add_extra_word', array($this, 'output_word'), 10, 1);
}
//wrap the title for each post
public function wrapTitle($title){
$html = '';
$html .= '<div class="titleWrap">';
$html .= $title;
//append a word to the end of the title
$html = apply_filters('add_extra_word', $title);
$html .= '</div>';
return $html;
}
//append the word 'Hello World' to the end of the title
public function output_word($title){
$html = '';
$html = $title . ' <strong>Hello World</strong>';
return $html;
}
}
$testclass = new testClass();
This class adds a function called wrapTitle
onto the the_title
hook right in the _construct
method. This means that as soon as the class is loaded it will hook that function onto the title and be called every time we’re displaying a post. Inside of the wrapTitle
function it wraps the current title around a div and then calls the add_extra_word
filter.
Back in the constructor we hooked another function called output_word
onto the add_extra_word
filter. This functions purpose is to add the bolded Hello World text to the end of the title.
![hook example two before](https://uploads.sitepoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/1469637710hook_example_two_before.jpg)
As you can see this isn’t very attractive. We want to remove this added word from the end of the title. This is the perfect opportunity to remove the function added in the class. Here’s how we do it:
//removes the extra word appended to the title (added by the class)
//Added to your child theme
function remove_extra_word(){
global $testclass;
remove_filter('add_extra_word', array($testclass, 'output_word'), 10);
}
add_action('init', 'remove_extra_word');
We first hook our function to be loaded on init
. The reason we do this instead of just executing the remove_filter
right in the PHP file is because we want it to trigger only once WordPress has started loading. If we declared this function before the class was even loaded it would do nothing (as the class needs to exist first).
We grab a copy of the class by using global $testclass
. We do this because this class didn’t have any way of giving us our object directly.
Inside the function we now use the remove_filter
function and remove the output_word
function attached to the add_extra_word
action defined in our class.
When this is all done and dusted the Hello World text will be removed and your titles will be back to normal.
![hook example two after](https://uploads.sitepoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/1469637748hook_example_two_after.jpg)
We managed to do all that just by adding our own custom function and removing our hooked actions.
Where This Technique Won’t Work
If there is no way for you to find the object of the class at all (either passed in as a variable in a hook or via some other method) then this technique will fail. A core part of Object Orientated Design principals says that there should always be a reference to the object so that it can be accessed, or failing that an easy way to load the object.
If this happens you can try the following steps (each more drastic and less recommended as we go down):
- Contact the theme or plugin developer and ask for additional hooks.
- Most developers are pretty keen to help people out so it’s a good place to start. When they update their plugin or theme you should be able to seamlessly update (if it’s been set up correctly).
- Change your plugin or your theme.
- If it’s not working for you, see if there is anything else out there that might provide better functionality and be more developer friendly.
- Manually edit your plugin or theme directly.
- If you must stick with your plugin or theme and you desperately need to change the way it works, then you can always edit the files directly. Generally speaking this is an awful suggestion as any changes you make will be lost if you ever update your theme or plugin. However, sometimes you just need to get a problem solved.
Wrapping It All Up
Hopefully after all this you should have a strong grasp on how to use WordPress’s hook system to remove and adjust functionality inside your themes and plugins. If you’re patient enough and can track down the hook, function and the class object you can remove and replace functionality as you see fit.
You might want to examine some of your currently installed plugins to see how developer friendly they are. Do they supply a wide range of hooks and filters? Are any of their values or settings explicitly hard coded in their theme or plugin? This information is important if you want to be able to extend and customize your website as you see fit.
For some further reading on the WordPress hook system check out Demystifying the WordPress Hook System by Agbonghama Collins.
Frequently Asked Questions about WordPress Hooks and Filters
What are the different types of WordPress hooks?
WordPress hooks are divided into two main types: Action Hooks and Filter Hooks. Action Hooks allow you to insert custom code at specific points in your WordPress site, such as when a page loads or when a user logs in. Filter Hooks, on the other hand, allow you to modify data before it is sent to the database or the browser. Understanding these two types of hooks is crucial for customizing and extending the functionality of your WordPress site.
How do I create a custom action hook in WordPress?
Creating a custom action hook in WordPress involves two steps. First, you need to define the hook in your theme or plugin file using the do_action()
function. This function takes two parameters: the name of the action hook and any additional arguments. Second, you need to add a function to this hook using the add_action()
function. This function takes three parameters: the name of the action hook, the function to be added, and the priority of the function.
How can I modify data with filter hooks in WordPress?
Filter hooks in WordPress allow you to modify data before it is saved to the database or displayed to the user. To use a filter hook, you need to add a function to the hook using the add_filter()
function. This function takes the same parameters as the add_action()
function. The function you add to the filter hook should take the data to be filtered as a parameter, modify it, and then return it.
What is the difference between action hooks and filter hooks?
The main difference between action hooks and filter hooks lies in their purpose. Action hooks are used to insert custom code at specific points in the execution of WordPress, while filter hooks are used to modify data before it is saved to the database or displayed to the user. In other words, action hooks are about timing, while filter hooks are about data manipulation.
How can I remove a function from a hook in WordPress?
To remove a function from a hook in WordPress, you can use the remove_action()
or remove_filter()
function. These functions take the same parameters as their respective add functions: the name of the hook and the function to be removed. Note that you can only remove a function from a hook if it was added with an identifiable callback function name.
Can I add multiple functions to the same hook?
Yes, you can add multiple functions to the same hook in WordPress. Each function will be executed in the order they were added, unless you specify a priority. The priority parameter in the add_action()
and add_filter()
functions determines the order in which functions are executed, with lower numbers corresponding to earlier execution.
What are some common uses of WordPress hooks?
WordPress hooks are used for a wide range of purposes, from customizing the appearance of your site to extending its functionality. For example, you can use action hooks to add custom meta tags to the head of your HTML document, or to insert a tracking code in the footer. Filter hooks can be used to customize the content of your posts, such as by adding a copyright notice at the end of each post.
How can I find available hooks in WordPress?
There are several ways to find available hooks in WordPress. One way is to look at the WordPress Codex or the Developer Resources site, which provide a comprehensive list of available hooks. Another way is to use a plugin like “Simply Show Hooks”, which displays all the action hooks and filter hooks that are fired on the current page.
Can I create my own hooks in WordPress?
Yes, you can create your own hooks in WordPress. This is often done in theme and plugin development to allow other developers to extend or modify your code. To create your own hook, you simply need to call the do_action()
or apply_filters()
function with a unique name for your hook.
What are some best practices for using hooks in WordPress?
Some best practices for using hooks in WordPress include: using unique names for your hooks to avoid conflicts with other plugins or themes; always checking if a hook exists before adding a function to it; using the __return_true
and __return_false
functions for filter hooks that expect a boolean value; and removing any functions you add to hooks when they are no longer needed.
![Simon Codrington](https://uploads.sitepoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/1431651654simon_codrington-96x96.jpg)
Full stack developer and overall web enthusiast. I love everything to do with web / design and my passion revolves around creating awesome websites. Focusing primarily on WordPress, I create themes, plugins and bespoke solutions.