Saltus Framework

Saltus Framework helps you develop WordPress plugins that are based on Custom Post Types.

We built it to make things easier and faster for developers with different skills. Add metaboxes, settings pages and other enhancements with just a few lines of code.

Version

Current version [1.3.4] - 2026-04-07

See change log file for full details.

Features

* Create Custom Post Types easily
* Control all labels and messages
* Add administration columns
* Add administration lists
* Add settings pages
* Add metaboxes
* Enable cloning
* Enable single entry export
* Enable drag&drop reordering
* Create Taxonomies easily
* Control labels
* Associate with any existing post type
* Add quick edit fields

Requirements

Saltus Framework requires PHP 7.4+

Getting Started

Demo

Refer to the Framework Demo for a complete plugin example and to the Wiki for complete documentation.

Once the framework is included in your plugin, you can initialize it the following way:

    if ( class_exists( \Saltus\WP\Framework\Core::class ) ) {

      /*
      * The path to the plugin root directory is mandatory,
      * so it loads the models from a subdirectory.
      */
      $framework = new \Saltus\WP\Framework\Core( dirname( __FILE__ ) );
      $framework->register();

      /**
       * Initialize plugin after this
       */

    }

The framework will search for a model file, by default in the folder src/models. This can be changed using a filter.

A model file should return one array or a multidimensional array of models to build the Custom Post Types or Taxonomies. Simple example:

    return [
        'type'     => 'cpt',
        'name'     => 'movie',
    ];

The above example will create a Custom Post Type 'movie'.

Several models in same file:

    return [
    [
        'type'     => 'cpt',
        'name'     => 'movie',
    ],
    [
            'type'         => 'category',
            'name'         => 'genre',
            'associations' => [
                ‘movie’,
            ],
        ],
    ];

The above example will create a Custom Post Type 'movie' and a hierarchical Taxonomy 'genre' associated with the Custom Post Type 'movie'.

Models

Currently there are 2 types of Model, one for Custom Post Types and another for Taxonomies. Depending what you define, you’ll have different parameters available.

Model type = ‘cpt’

Parameter	Description
active	boolean - sets this model to active or inactive
type	string - type of model
name	string - identifier of the custom post type
features	array - Features that this CPT will support (More Info Soon)
supports	array - refer to the supports argument of the register_post_type function from WordPress
labels	array - Everything related with labels for this custom post type (More Info Soon)
options	array - Refer to the second argument in the register_post_type function from WordPress
block_editor	boolean - if the Block Editor should be enabled or not
meta	array - Information for the Metaboxes for this CPT (More Info Soon)
settings	array - Information for the Settings page of this CPT (More Info Soon)

Example File for a CPT Model (Soon)

Model type = ‘category’ or ‘tag’

Parameter	Description
type	string - ‘category’ // or 'tag' to set it to non-hierarchical automatically
name	string - identifier of this taxonomy
associations	string - to what CPT it should be associated
labels	array - Everything related with labels for this custom post type (More Info Soon)
options	array - Refer to the third parameter for register_taxonomy function from WordPress

Example File for a Taxonomy Model (Soon)

Filters/Hooks

Saltus Framework provides several hooks to customize its behavior.

Actions

Hook	Description	Parameters
saltus/framework/duplicate_post/after	Triggered after a post is successfully duplicated.	string $post_type, int $original_post_id, int $new_post_id
saltus/framework/admin_filters/filter_output/{$filter_id}	Allows overriding the HTML output of a specific admin filter.	SaltusAdminFilters $instance, array $filter_args, string $element_id
saltus/framework/drag_and_drop/update_menu_order	Triggered after the menu order is updated via drag and drop.	None

Filters

Hook	Description	Parameters	Default
saltus/framework/modeler/priority	Filters the priority of the init hook used to register models.	int $priority	1
saltus/framework/services	Filters the list of service classes to be registered.	array $services	Core services array
saltus/framework/models/path	Filters the directory path where model files are located.	string $path	{project_path}/src/models/
saltus/framework/models/extra_models	Allows adding extra model configurations programmatically.	array $extra_models	[]
saltus/framework/admin_filters/category_list	Filters the term name shown in taxonomy dropdown filters.	string $name, WP_Term $term	$term->name
saltus/framework/meta/matched_fields	Filters the mapping between Saltus field types and Codestar field types.	array $field_map	Built-in map
saltus/framework/duplicate_post/args	Filters the data used to create a new duplicated post.	array $args, int $original_post_id	Copied post data
saltus/framework/duplicate_post/excluded_meta_keys	Filters meta keys that should not be copied during duplication.	array $keys	['_wp_old_slug', '_edit_lock', '_edit_last']
saltus/framework/admin_filters/{$post_type}/filter_query/{$filter_id}	Filters the query arguments for a specific admin filter.	array $vars, array $query, array $filter	[]

Credits and Licenses:

Includes a simplified version of SoberWP/Models. Their license is in lib/sobwewp/models/LICENSE.md. Is used to load php/json/yaml models of CPT.

Includes the Codestart Framework which is licensed under GPL.

Patching Codestar Framework

Every time the Codestar Framework is updated, our custom fixes may be overwritten. To re-apply the patches located in lib/codestar-framework/patches, run the following command from the repository root:

for f in lib/codestar-framework/patches/*; do git apply "$f"; done

Includes support for github-updater to keep track on updates through the WordPress backend.

• Download github-updater
• Clone github-updater to your sites plugins/ folder
• Activate via WordPress

Building

Disadvantages of classmap

As we move from 'files' to 'classmap', heed this:

Manual Updates: If you add new classes, you must regenerate the classmap by running composer dump-autoload.