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Write a specialized ActivityPub transformer for an Event-Custom-Post-Type
NOTE: This documentation is also likely to be useful for content types other than events.
The ActivityPub plugin offers a basic support for all post types out of the box, but it also allows the registration of external transformers. A transformer is a class that implements the abstract transformer class and is responsible for generating the ActivityPub JSON representation of an WordPress post or comment object.
How it works
To make the WordPress ActivityPub plugin use a custom transformer simply add a filter to the activitypub_transformer hook which provides access to the transformer factory. The transformer factory determines which transformer is used to transform a WordPress object to ActivityPub. We provide a parent event transformer, that comes with common tasks needed for events. Furthermore, we provide admin notices, to prevent users from misconfiguration issues.
Writing an event transformer class
Within WordPress most content types are stored as a custom post type in the posts table. The ActivityPub plugin offers a basic support for all post types out of the box. So-called transformers take care of converting WordPress WP_Post objects to ActivityStreams JSON. The ActivityPub plugin offers a generic transformer for all post types. Additionally, custom transformers can be implemented to better fit a custom post type, and they can be easily registered with the ActivityPub plugin.
If you are writing a transformer for your event post type we recommend to start by extending the provided event transformer. It is an extension of the default generic post transformer and inherits useful default implementations for generating the attachments, rendering a proper content in HTML from either blocks or the classic editor, extracting tags and more. Furthermore, it offers functions which are likely to be shared by multiple event plugins, so you do not need to reimplement those, or you can fork and extend them to your needs.
So create a new file at ./includes/activitypub/transformer/my-event-plugin.php.
namespace Event_Bridge_For_ActivityPub\ActivityPub\Transformer;
use Event_Bridge_For_ActivityPub\ActivityPub\Transformer\Event as Event_Transformer;
/**
* ActivityPub Transformer for My Event Plugin' event post type.
*/
class My_Event_Plugin extends Event_Transformer; {
The main function which controls the transformation is to_object. This one is called by the ActivityPub plugin to get the resulting ActivityStreams represented by a PHP-object (\Activitypub\Activity\Object\Extended_Object\Event). The conversion to the actual JSON-LD takes place later, and you don't need to cover that (> to_array > associative array > to_json > JSON).
The chances are good that you will not need to override that function.
/**
* Transform the WordPress Object into an ActivityPub Event Object.
*
* @return Activitypub\Activity\Extended_Object\Event
*/
public function to_object() {
$activitypub_object = parent::to_object();
// ... your additions.
return $activitypub_object;
}
We also recommend extending the constructor of the transformer class and set a specialized API object of the event, if it is available. For instance:
public function __construct( $wp_object, $wp_taxonomy ) {
parent::__construct( $wp_object, $wp_taxonomy );
$this->event_api = new My_Event_Object_API( $wp_object );
}
The ActivityPub object classes contain dynamic getter and setter functions: set_<property>() and get_<property>(). The function transform_object_properties() usually called by to_object() tries to set all properties known to the target ActivityPub object where a function called get_<property> exists in the current transformer class.
How to add new properties
Adding new properties is not encouraged to do at the transformer level. It's recommended to create a proper target ActivityPub object first. The target ActivityPub object also controls the JSON-LD context via the constant JSON_LD_CONTEXT. Example.
Properties
NOTE: Within PHP all properties are snake_case, they will be transformed to the according CamelCase by the ActivityPub plugin. So if to you set
start_timeby using the ActivityPub objects class functionset_start_timeor implementing a getter function in the transformer class calledget_start_timethe propertystartTimewill be set accordingly in the JSON representation of the resulting ActivityPub object.
You can find all available event related properties in the event class along documentation and with links to the specifications.
Mandatory fields
In order to ensure your events are compatible with other ActivityPub Event implementations there are several required properties that must be set by your transformer.
-
type: if using theActivitypub\Activity\Extended_Object\Eventclass the type will default toEventwithout doing anything. -
startTime: the events start time -
name: the title of the event
Checklist for properties you SHOULD at least consider writing a getter functions for
endTimelocation– Note: theaddresswithin can be both astringor aPostalAddress.isOnlinestatusget_tagtimezonecommentsEnabled
Writing integration tests
Create a new tests class in tests/test-class-plugin-my-event-plugin.php.
/**
* Sample test case.
*/
class Test_My_Event_Plugin extends WP_UnitTestCase {
Implement a check whether your event plugin is active in the set_up function. It may be the presence of a class, function or constant.
/**
* Override the setup function, so that tests don't run if the Events Calendar is not active.
*/
public function set_up() {
parent::set_up();
if ( ! <TODO:my-event-plugin-is-active> ) {
self::markTestSkipped( 'The Events Calendar plugin is not active.' );
}
// Make sure that ActivityPub support is enabled for The Events Calendar.
$aec = \Event_Bridge_For_ActivityPub\Setup::get_instance();
$aec->activate_activitypub_support_for_active_event_plugins();
// Delete all posts afterwards.
_delete_all_posts();
}
Running the tests for your plugin/ add the tests to the CI pipeline
Install the plugin in the CI
The tests are set up by the bash script in bin/install-wp-tests.sh. Make sure your WordPress Event plugin is installed within the function install_wp_plugins.
Add a composer script for your plugin
In the pipeline we want to run each event plugins integration tests in a single command, to achieve that, we use phpunit's filters.
{
"scripts": {
...
"test": [
...
"@test-my-event-plugin"
],
...
"@test-my-event-plugin": "phpunit --filter=my_event_plugin",
]
}
}
Load your plugin during the tests
To activate/load your plugin add it to the switch statement within the function _manually_load_plugin() within tests/bootstrap.php.
switch ( $event_bridge_for_activitypub_integration_filter ) {
...
case 'my_event_plugin':
$plugin_file = 'my-event-plugin/my-event-plugin.php';
break;
If you want to run your tests locally just change the test-debug script in the composer.json file:
"test-debug": [
"@prepare-test",
"@test-my-event-plugin"
],
Now you just can execute docker compose up to run the tests (make sure you have the latest docker and docker-compose installed).
Debugging the tests
If you are using Visual Studio Code or VSCodium you can step-debug within the tests by adding this configuration to your .vscode/launch.json:
{
"version": "0.2.0",
"configurations": [
...,
{
"name": "Listen for PHPUnit",
"type": "php",
"request": "launch",
"port": 9003,
"pathMappings": {
"/app/": "${workspaceRoot}/wp-content/plugins/event-bridge-for-activitypub/",
"/tmp/wordpress/": "${workspaceRoot}/"
},
}
]
}
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