This helper library makes it easier to handle AJAX requests in WordPress plugins. Mainly for personal use.

Define action:

$exampleAction = ajaw_v1_CreateAction('ws_do_something')
	->handler(array($this, 'myAjaxCallback'))
	->requiredCap('manage_options')
	->method('post')
	->requiredParam('foo')
	->optionalParam('bar', 'default value')
	->register();

Call from JavaScript:

AjawV1.getAction('ws_do_something').post(
	{
		'foo': '...'
	},
	function(response) {
		console.log(response);
	}
);

• Automate common, boring stuff.
  • Automatically pass the admin-ajax.php URL and nonce to JS.
  • Define required parameters.

     $builder->requiredParam('foo', 'int')

  • Define optional parameters with default values.

     $builder->optionalParam('meaningOfLife', 42, 'int')

  • Automatically remove "magic quotes" that WordPress adds to $_GET, $_POST and $_REQUEST.
  • Encode return values as JSON.
• Security should be the default.
  • Generate and verify nonces. Nonce verification is on by default, but can be disabled.

     $builder->withoutNonce()

  • Check capabilities.

     $builder->requiredCap('manage_options');

  • Verify that all required parameters are set.
  • Validate parameter values.

     $builder->optionalParam('things', 1, 'int', function($value) {
     	if ($value > 10) {
     		return new WP_Error(
     			'excessive_things',
     			'Too many things!',
     			400 //HTTP status code.
     		);
     	}
     })

  • Set the required HTTP method.

     $builder->method('post')

• Resilience.
  • Lenient response parsing to work around bugs in other plugins. For example, deal with extraneous whitespace and PHP notices in AJAX responses.
  • Multiple versions of the library can coexist on the same site.

Backwards compatibility. In theory, this library should be compatible with WP 4.1+.