Advice on best way to create translation/filters in functions

[Jonny]

Hi - I am working through setting up some functions and the following very basic example explains where I am currently at - the function would be designed to have an array ($args) passed to it - this is merged with the defaults that I have filtering and translation setup on:

 function my_function($args) {
    // Setup default with filtering and translation
    $defaults = array (
        'my_text' => apply_filters( 'my_text_filter', __('My text default string here ', 'my_plugin') )
    );

    $args = wp_parse_args( $args, $defaults );
    extract( $args, EXTR_SKIP );

    // DATA VALIDATION CODE FOR $my_text HERE
    // Final cleanup ready for use
    $my_text_clean = esc_attr( wp_kses_data($my_text, '') );

    return $my_text_clean;
} 
  

I'm preparing it for output at the end with esc_attr() - would you suggest that this is best done elsewhere or within the function? I could always build 'output_style' into the $args for this - but that's not too relevant at the moment. I'm just looking for the neatest (and I guess safest!) way to add the ability for filtering and translation in a function.

Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated - I'm not exactly a super-duper code warrior - just trying to do the right thing so users get the most out of the code I'm creating. Is there a better/more flexible way to achieve this?

[andreasnrb]

Why use filters when you are already using the built translation stuff using __(...,...)?

[Jonny]

Good question - its just for the fact that some users understand filters and other more advanced users know how to manipulate this stuff with a language file (or simply do just want to translate)... overkill you think, I dunno?

[andreasnrb]

Don't really like the filter approach for this anyway so I'm biased. I think its a little overkill and a cumbersome method to translate.
If you just want a simple method for translation perhaps the use of parse_ini_file is a simpler approach for users.
http://www.php.net/manual/en/functio...e-ini-file.php

[Rich Pedley]

http://blog.ftwr.co.uk/archives/2010...un-and-profit/

[andreasnrb]

http://blog.ftwr.co.uk/archives/2010...un-and-profit/

Did not know about that filter. Not that I've been looking for it. A lot of calls it will process using that method though. There really should be a filter per domain. Jonnys method is to be prefered to using gettext.

[Rich Pedley]

I suggest a variation of it for filtering an odd string in my plugin.

[andreasnrb]

Yet another method: http://bp-tricks.com/coding/string-r...ent-hack-core/

[Jonny]

Yea - that Westi is a guru;) I came across that way back when it was originally posted, quite a trick huh! As an aside it's useful for quick testing translation strings.

Back on topic - what do you think about this translated, filtered default idea from my original post - would it substantially add to execution overhead? I think it looks pretty neat and just wanted to check in with the guys on here to see what they thought? I would be rolling out a similar code pattern to quite a substantial free, GPLv2 WordPress project I'm working on and didn't want to go ahead without getting a few peoples opinions;)

I think it basically offers a compact way to let people run simple filters if they want OR run a language pack if they need to. Andreas, I hear you on the 'double functionality' thing - but my answer is why not - if it suits different people If something was to give, it would be the filter - I'll need to keep the translation functionality for the project.

[andreasnrb]

It wont add much to time since its use is limited to just your stuff. Am I correct to presuppose that you'll only have one filter?