What is admin_url and how it works in WordPress
The function admin_url fetches the administrator directory URL
The final output when the function is called is a path of directory wp-admin
The function offers the ability to access APIs like admin-ajax.php and comment.php
In short, there are 7 folders and 99 WordPress PHP files residing in wp-admin
In this post, you will find examples that demonstrate how admin_url returns the admin URL and its applications
What are the parameters of admin_url?
The function can pass two optional parameter
When you pass an empty parameter, the function returns the default value
The default value of admin_url always is a wp-admin path
For example, if you run a current website on a localhost
Then the output is http://localhost/wp-admin/
But if you plan to use a certain admin API you should pass extra data as perimeter
These arguments are
- $path
- $scheme
$path
A variable path represents the URL that point out the wp-admin directory
The $path accepts the custom URL for accessing a certain API( PHP file) that stays in the admin folder
Here is an example
<?php echo admin_url(‘edit-tags.php’);?>
Then, the result is http://your-domain.com/wp-admin/edit-tags.php
$scheme
$scheme variable passes the protocols which can be either non-ssl protocol or secured one
This means the output can display a URL with HTTPS or HTTP
If you let the variable value be https, the URL structure become https://yourdomain.com
But if there is no specified $scheme value a function passes admin as a default value
According to the WordPress developer page, the default value recognizes the functions that can enforce SSL if the website is secured with it
What are the applications of admin_url
This function is always used to get the access of the WordPress ajax
The wp-admin directory hosts a PHP file that helps to provide a data to be used by js file
The file that provides data to javascript is admin-ajax.php
So, if you want to access you will be required to pass a string ‘admin-ajax.php’ to admin_url
admin_url('admin-ajax.php');
In the end, the output is http:localhost/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php if the blog is hosted locally
How does it differ from get_admin_url?
get_admin_url is mostly useful for the multisite
As it can take an id of a particular site
While admin_url returns the admin URL of the current site only
In fact, get_admin_url contains three parameters
The additional argument is a variable $blog_id
$blog_id is a variable that passes the blog ID that you want to get its admin URL
This is its parameter structure
get_admin_url($blog_id, $path, $scheme)
But also the two functions work together
If you open a file link-template.php in the wp-includes directory
There is a complete code snippet of admin_url, which involves the following lines
function admin_url($path='', $scheme='admin'){
return get_admin_url($blog_id=null, $path, $scheme);
}
This means admin_url passes the $path and $scheme values to its counterpart
