I’ve been working on a small post meta framework over the past couple of weeks that I’d like to get feedback and testing on.
What does ButterBean do?
ButterBean is an object-oriented framework built for creating post meta boxes. It’s designed specifically for situations where you have a lot of metadata attached to a post and need to present the fields in a usable manner without the user having to scroll all over the page to find the field they need.
Basically, it makes sense to use it when you have a custom post type with lots of custom meta. That’s really it’s only use case. There’s no need for it with 2 or 3 fields (or any framework for that matter).
I modeled much of the code after the WordPress Customize API. The two work similarly, so if you’re familiar with using the customizer, you should pick this up fairly easily.
The big difference is that ButterBean doesn’t use PHP for its output. It only uses Underscore.js templates. The WP customizer allows for both, but I made the decision to stick to one method for simplicity. Using JavaScript templates makes a lot more sense when you have advanced controls that need to render templates on the fly with updated data.
By default, ButterBean will output a tabbed interface with your custom sections. Each section will have custom controls (your meta fields).
Try the beta
You can try out the beta by going to the project’s GitHub page.
You can see a small demo and quick-start instructions on the ButterBean page here on the site. You can also grab the ButterBean Example plugin to see a working example.
The docs are a little scarce at the moment, but I’m working on them.
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