I'm building a plugin that iterates across and parses the arguments of various WordPress hooks, and because of the flexibility needed I'm passing a function as the callable parameter in add_action:

foreach ($events as $event) {
  add_action($event, function() use($event) {
    $args = func_get_args();

    // Do something with $event and $args
  }, 100);
}

The problem I'm experiencing is that this only ever seems to retrieve the first argument passed to the action.

Take profile_update, for example. It should pass the User ID, as well as an object of old user data, but if I inspect I only get the User ID:

var_dump($args)
// array(1) { [0]=> int(3) } 

This isn't limited to that specific hook, either; I can't seem to get more than the first argument for any hook set up this way. Any suggestions are appreciated!

I'm building a plugin that iterates across and parses the arguments of various WordPress hooks, and because of the flexibility needed I'm passing a function as the callable parameter in add_action:

foreach ($events as $event) {
  add_action($event, function() use($event) {
    $args = func_get_args();

    // Do something with $event and $args
  }, 100);
}

The problem I'm experiencing is that this only ever seems to retrieve the first argument passed to the action.

Take profile_update, for example. It should pass the User ID, as well as an object of old user data, but if I inspect I only get the User ID:

var_dump($args)
// array(1) { [0]=> int(3) } 

This isn't limited to that specific hook, either; I can't seem to get more than the first argument for any hook set up this way. Any suggestions are appreciated!

• plugins
• plugin-development
• hooks
• actions
• variables

Share Improve this question asked Jun 24, 2019 at 20:56 Jody HeavenerJody Heavener 18533 silver badges1313 bronze badges 2

• I don't have a solution (Christopher's might work), but the problem is that when you run add_action() only the number of arguments that you specify with the 4th argument of add_action() are passed to your function. By default this is 1. If your callback accepts 3 arguments you need to specify add_action( 'action_name', 'callback', 10, 3 );. So if you set this number to the maximum number accepted by any of the hooks you're hooked to, you might get somewhere. – Jacob Peattie Commented Jun 25, 2019 at 10:09
• Oooh, I bet that is it. Christopher's solution worked, but I imagine your suggestion is where my issue stemmed from. Thanks for the insight! – Jody Heavener Commented Jun 25, 2019 at 19:06

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1 Answer 1

Sorted by: Reset to default 0

I think you are headed down the right path, but I think that func_get_args() is only going to give you the arguments passed to that function. That is how I have always used it in the past.

I took a different approach that I think might work. I found debug_backtrace() to be helpful in debugging Actions and Filters before. And the 4th element in that array it returns you is the do_action call with all the arguments that live inside of the call you are looking to make.

Here is a snippet I put together with a few actions I tested:

<?php

// Here are the Actions I tested against.
$events = array(
    'profile_personal_options',
    'profile_update',
    'show_user_profile',
    'show_user_profile'
);

foreach ($events as $event) {
  add_action($event, function($args = null) {

    $backtrace = debug_backtrace();

    // This element is going to be the do_action call
    echo '<pre>';
    print_r($backtrace[3]['function']);
    echo '</pre>';

    $action_arguments = $backtrace[3]['args'];
    // The first element of this is going to be the $event
    array_shift($action_arguments);

    // Leaving you with the rest of the parameters available to that action
    echo '<pre>';
    print_r($action_arguments);
    echo '</pre>';

  }, 100);
}

If this is not what you are looking for, or I am off...let me know and I'd be happy to take my answer down!!