Anchor Dynamic URL

A WordPress plugin that adds dynamic anchor management to menu items with automatic URL updates when page slugs change.

Description

Anchor Dynamic URL solves a common WordPress problem: broken anchor links when page slugs change. Instead of manually writing URLs like https://example.com/contact#coordinates, you simply select a page and add an anchor. The plugin automatically generates the correct URL and updates it if the page slug changes.

Features

✨ Core Features

• Dynamic anchor management for WordPress menu items
• Automatic URL updates when page slugs change
• GitHub-based update system with automatic notifications
• Security-first approach with input sanitization
• Case-sensitive anchors preserved as entered
• Clean, intuitive interface integrated into WordPress menus
• Full Elementor integration: widgets, sections, columns, and linked containers

🛡️ Security

• Protection against path traversal and query parameter injection
• XSS prevention through proper output escaping
• Safe character filtering for URL anchors (a-zA-Z0-9-_ only)
• Input validation and sanitization on all user inputs
• Nonce verification + capability check (edit_theme_options) on menu saves
• preg_replace_callback used throughout to prevent regex backreference injection

🌍 Internationalization

• Multi-language support out of the box
• Available in: English (default), French, Spanish
• Translation-ready with complete .pot template
• RTL languages supported

🏗️ Developer-Friendly

• Domain-driven architecture with clean separation of concerns
• WordPress coding standards compliant
• Extensible design with proper hooks
• Helper functions for developers
• Comprehensive documentation

Installation

From WordPress Admin

1. Go to Plugins > Add New
2. Search for "Anchor Dynamic URL"
3. Install and activate the plugin

Manual Installation

1. Download the plugin zip file
2. Upload to /wp-content/plugins/anchor-dynamic-url/
3. Activate through the WordPress plugins screen

From Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/Hylbee/anchor-dynamic-url.git

# Copy to WordPress plugins directory
cp -r anchor-dynamic-url /path/to/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/

# Generate translation files (optional)
cd anchor-dynamic-url/languages
msgfmt anchor-dynamic-url-fr_FR.po -o anchor-dynamic-url-fr_FR.mo

Usage

Basic Usage

1. Go to Appearance > Menus in WordPress admin
2. Edit or create a menu item
3. In the menu item details, you'll see a new "Anchor (optional)" field
4. Enter your anchor (e.g., contact-section)
5. Save the menu

The plugin will automatically generate the URL: https://yoursite.com/page#contact-section

Elementor Integration

Widgets, sections & columns

1. Edit an Elementor page
2. Select any element that has a URL control (button, heading, icon, etc.)
3. Open the URL field settings
4. Enter your anchor in the "Target Anchor" field (e.g., contact-section)
5. Save — the #anchor is appended to the URL at render time

Containers with link wrapping

1. Select a Container element
2. Set HTML Tag to a and enter a URL in the link field
3. Enter the anchor in the "Target Anchor" field
4. The container's href is rewritten via output buffering at render time

Advanced Usage

Anchor Naming Conventions

The plugin supports various naming conventions:

• camelCase: contactSection
• PascalCase: ContactSection
• kebab-case: contact-section
• snake_case: contact_section

Security Features

Input is automatically sanitized:

• "Contact Section" → "Contact-Section"
• "section?param=1" → "section"
• "test/path" → "test"
• "anchor\\injection" → "anchor"

Developer Helper

// Get anchor for a specific menu item
$anchor = get_menu_item_anchor($menu_item_id);
if ($anchor) {
    echo "Anchor: " . $anchor;
}

Architecture

The plugin follows domain-driven design principles:

┌─────────────────────┐
│ AnchorDynamicUrlManager │  ← Main orchestrator
└─────────┬───────────┘
          │
┌─────────▼───────────┐
│    AnchorService    │  ← Business logic
└─────────┬───────────┘
          │
┌─────────▼───────────┐
│  AnchorRepository   │  ← Data persistence
└─────────┬───────────┘
          │
┌─────────▼───────────┐
│   MenuItemAnchor    │  ← Domain entity
└─────────────────────┘

Component Responsibilities

• AnchorItem - Domain entity containing business rules
• AnchorRepository - Data access layer using WordPress meta API
• AnchorService - Application logic and UI management
• AnchorDynamicUrlManager - Main controller and WordPress integration

Requirements

• WordPress: 5.0 or higher
• PHP: 7.4 or higher
• Database: Uses WordPress native meta system (no additional tables)

Compatibility

• ✅ WordPress: 5.0 - 7.0 (tested, including 7.0 prerelease)
• ✅ PHP: 7.4 - 8.3
• ✅ Multisite: Single-site installations only
• ✅ Themes: Compatible with all themes
• ✅ Elementor: 3.5+ (uses unregister/register API)
• ✅ Caching: Compatible with all major caching plugins

Development

Local Development Setup

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/Hylbee/anchor-dynamic-url.git

# Create symbolic link in WordPress
ln -s /path/to/anchor-dynamic-url /path/to/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/

# Install development dependencies (if any)
composer install --dev

Code Standards

• Follows WordPress Coding Standards
• PSR-4 autoloading compatible
• Object-oriented architecture
• Comprehensive inline documentation

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

API Reference

Hooks

Actions

// Before anchor field is displayed
do_action('menu_anchor_before_field', $item_id, $item, $depth, $args);

// After anchor is saved
do_action('menu_anchor_saved', $menu_item_id, $anchor_value);

Filters

// Modify anchor before saving
$anchor = apply_filters('menu_anchor_sanitize', $anchor, $menu_item_id);

// Modify final URL
$url = apply_filters('menu_anchor_url', $url, $menu_item_id, $anchor);

Functions

get_menu_item_anchor($menu_item_id)

Returns the anchor for a specific menu item.

Parameters:

• $menu_item_id (int) - Menu item ID

Returns:

• (string|null) - Anchor value or null if not set

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for detailed version history.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What happens to existing menu items?

A: Existing menu items continue to work normally. The anchor field is optional and only affects items where you add anchors.

Q: Will this break my menu if I deactivate the plugin?

A: No. Menu items will revert to their original URLs. No data is lost.

Q: Can I use special characters in anchors?

A: For security and compatibility, only letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores are allowed. Other characters are automatically removed.

Q: Does this work with custom post types?

A: Yes, the plugin works with any post type that can be added to WordPress menus.

Q: Is this compatible with multilingual sites?

A: Yes, the plugin is fully translatable and works with WPML, Polylang, and other translation plugins.

Support

• Documentation: https://github.com/Hylbee/anchor-dynamic-url/blob/main/README.md
• Support Forum: https://github.com/Hylbee/anchor-dynamic-url/issues
• Issues: GitHub Issues

License

This plugin is licensed under the GPL v2 or later.

Anchor with dynamic URL - WordPress Plugin
Copyright (C) 2025 Hylbee

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

Credits

Developed with ❤️ by Hylbee

Built using domain-driven design principles and modern WordPress development practices.