How to use contextual_help filter in WordPress

contextual_help filter

Filters the legacy contextual help text.

To use the contextual_help filter, first you have to register it using add_filter. You can write this code into functions.php of your activated theme or in a custom WordPress Plugin.

We at WePlugins always prefer to create a custom WordPress Plugin while using hooks so nothing breaks when you update your WordPress Theme in the future.

In the below live example, we have defined a function weplugins_modify_contextual_help_defaults which takes 3 parameters and we registered using add_filter. The first parameter contextual_help is the name of the hook, the second parameter weplugins_modify_contextual_help_defaults is the name of the function which needs to be called, the third parameter is the priority of calling the hook if the same hook is used multiple times, and the last parameter is the number of arguments (if any) to be passed in the registered function.

Sometimes, you have to remove a registered hook so you can use remove_filter to remove the contextual_help filter.

Parameters

Below are the 3 parameters required to use this hook.

• $old_help: (string) Help text that appears on the screen.
• $screen_id: (string) Screen ID.
• $screen: (WP_Screen) Current WP_Screen instance.

Live Examples

Example 1: Basic Usage

Below is an example of how you can use this hook to modify the help text.

    function weplugins_modify_contextual_help_defaults($old_help, $screen_id, $screen) { 
        // Update the $old_help variable according to your website requirements and return this variable. 
        // You can modify the $old_help variable conditionally too if you want.
        return $old_help; 
    }
    // Add the filter
    add_filter("contextual_help", "weplugins_modify_contextual_help_defaults", 10, 3);
    

Example 2: Conditional Modification

In this example, we conditionally modify the help text based on the screen ID.

    function weplugins_modify_contextual_help_defaults($old_help, $screen_id, $screen) { 
        if ($screen_id == 'dashboard') {
            $old_help = 'This is the help text for the dashboard.';
        }
        return $old_help; 
    }
    // Add the filter
    add_filter("contextual_help", "weplugins_modify_contextual_help_defaults", 10, 3);
    

Example 3: Removing the Hook

To remove a hook callback, use the example below.

    // Remove the filter
    remove_filter("contextual_help", "weplugins_modify_contextual_help_defaults", 10, 3);
    

Please make sure to provide the same callback function name, priority, and number of arguments while removing the hook callback.