_WP_Editors Class Reference

Last updated: February 12, 2026

The _WP_Editors class facilitates adding the WordPress editor (TinyMCE and Quicktags) to pages. This is a private/internal class – use the public API functions like wp_editor() instead of calling methods directly.

File: wp-includes/class-wp-editor.php
Since: 3.3.0

Class Definition

#[AllowDynamicProperties]
final class _WP_Editors {
    public static $mce_locale;
    
    private static $mce_settings = array();
    private static $qt_settings  = array();
    private static $plugins      = array();
    private static $qt_buttons   = array();
    private static $ext_plugins;
    private static $baseurl;
    private static $first_init;
    private static $this_tinymce       = false;
    private static $this_quicktags     = false;
    private static $has_tinymce        = false;
    private static $has_quicktags      = false;
    private static $has_medialib       = false;
    private static $editor_buttons_css = true;
    private static $drag_drop_upload   = false;
    private static $translation;
    private static $tinymce_scripts_printed = false;
    private static $link_dialog_printed     = false;
}

Static Methods

parse_settings()

Parse default arguments for an editor instance.

public static function parse_settings( string $editor_id, array $settings ): array

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
`$editor_id`	string	HTML ID for the textarea and TinyMCE/Quicktags instances. Should not contain square brackets.
`$settings`	array	Array of editor arguments (see below).

Settings Array:

Key	Type	Default	Description
`wpautop`	bool	`true` (or `false` if post has blocks)	Whether to use `wpautop()`
`media_buttons`	bool	`true`	Show Add Media button
`default_editor`	string	`''`	Default editor: `tinymce` or `html`
`drag_drop_upload`	bool	`false`	Enable drag & drop uploading
`textarea_name`	string	`$editor_id`	Name attribute for textarea
`textarea_rows`	int	`20`	Number of textarea rows
`tabindex`	string/int	`''`	Tabindex value
`tabfocus_elements`	string	`':prev,:next'`	Tab focus navigation elements
`editor_css`	string	`''`	Extra CSS with `<style>` tags
`editor_class`	string	`''`	Extra CSS classes for textarea
`teeny`	bool	`false`	Use minimal editor config
`_content_editor_dfw`	bool	`false`	Distraction-free writing mode
`tinymce`	bool/array	`true`	Enable TinyMCE or pass settings
`quicktags`	bool/array	`true`	Enable Quicktags or pass settings
`editor_height`	int	—	Fixed height in pixels (50-5000)

Returns: array – Parsed arguments array.

Since: 3.3.0

Hooks:

wp_editor_settings – Filter settings before parsing

editor()

Outputs the HTML for a single instance of the editor.

public static function editor( string $content, string $editor_id, array $settings = array() ): void

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
`$content`	string	Initial content for the editor
`$editor_id`	string	HTML ID for the textarea and TinyMCE/Quicktags instances
`$settings`	array	See `parse_settings()` for description

Since: 3.3.0

Hooks:

media_buttons – Action after default media buttons are displayed
the_editor – Filter the editor HTML markup
the_editor_content – Filter the default editor content

Example:

_WP_Editors::editor( 'Hello World', 'my_editor', array(
    'textarea_rows' => 10,
    'media_buttons' => false,
) );

editor_settings()

Configure TinyMCE and Quicktags settings for an editor instance.

public static function editor_settings( string $editor_id, array $set ): void

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
`$editor_id`	string	Unique editor identifier, e.g. ‘content’
`$set`	array	Array of editor arguments

Since: 3.3.0

Hooks:

quicktags_settings – Filter Quicktags settings
teeny_mce_plugins – Filter teenyMCE plugins list
mce_external_plugins – Filter external TinyMCE plugins
tiny_mce_plugins – Filter default TinyMCE plugins
mce_external_languages – Filter translations for external plugins
mce_css – Filter stylesheets loaded in TinyMCE
teeny_mce_buttons – Filter teeny toolbar buttons
mce_buttons – Filter first toolbar row
mce_buttons_2 – Filter second toolbar row
mce_buttons_3 – Filter third toolbar row
mce_buttons_4 – Filter fourth toolbar row
teeny_mce_before_init – Filter teenyMCE config before init
tiny_mce_before_init – Filter TinyMCE config before init

enqueue_scripts()

Enqueue editor scripts based on what’s needed.

public static function enqueue_scripts( bool $default_scripts = false ): void

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`$default_scripts`	bool	`false`	Whether to enqueue default scripts

Since: 3.3.0

Enqueued Scripts:

editor – If TinyMCE is used
quicktags – If Quicktags is used
wplink – If wplink plugin or link button is used
jquery-ui-autocomplete – For link search
media-upload – If media library is used
wp-embed – For embed support

Hooks:

wp_enqueue_editor – Fires when editor scripts/styles are enqueued

enqueue_default_editor()

Enqueue all editor scripts for post-page-load initialization.

public static function enqueue_default_editor(): void

Since: 4.8.0

Description:

Use this when you need to initialize the editor after the page has loaded. This enqueues all necessary scripts and adds the print_default_editor_scripts action to output configuration.

Example:

// In your plugin/theme
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', function() {
    wp_enqueue_editor();
} );

print_default_editor_scripts()

Print all editor scripts and default settings for post-page-load initialization.

public static function print_default_editor_scripts(): void

Since: 4.8.0

Hooks:

print_default_editor_scripts – Fires after all scripts and settings are printed

Output:

Outputs a JavaScript object window.wp.editor.getDefaultSettings() that returns default TinyMCE and Quicktags configuration.

get_mce_locale()

Returns the TinyMCE locale code.

public static function get_mce_locale(): string

Returns: string – ISO 639-1 two-letter language code (e.g., ‘en’, ‘de’, ‘fr’).

Since: 4.8.0

get_baseurl()

Returns the TinyMCE base URL.

public static function get_baseurl(): string

Returns: string – URL to TinyMCE directory (e.g., https://example.com/wp-includes/js/tinymce).

Since: 4.8.0

wp_mce_translation()

Get TinyMCE translation strings as JSON or JavaScript.

public static function wp_mce_translation( string $mce_locale = '', bool $json_only = false ): string

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`$mce_locale`	string	`''`	The locale for the editor
`$json_only`	bool	`false`	Return only JSON (no JS calls)

Returns: string – JSON encoded translation object or JS snippet with tinymce.addI18n() call.

Since: 3.9.0

Hooks:

wp_mce_translation – Filter translated strings

force_uncompressed_tinymce()

Force uncompressed TinyMCE when a custom theme is defined.

public static function force_uncompressed_tinymce(): void

Since: 5.0.0

Description:

The compressed TinyMCE file cannot handle custom themes, so this ensures WordPress uses uncompressed TinyMCE when needed.

print_tinymce_scripts()

Print the main TinyMCE scripts.

public static function print_tinymce_scripts(): void

Since: 4.8.0

Description:

Outputs the TinyMCE JavaScript and translation strings. Only runs once per page.

editor_js()

Print the TinyMCE configuration and initialization scripts.

public static function editor_js(): void

Since: 3.3.0

Output:

Generates the tinyMCEPreInit JavaScript object containing:

baseURL – TinyMCE base URL
suffix – Script suffix (.min in production)
mceInit – TinyMCE initialization settings per editor
qtInit – Quicktags initialization settings per editor
ref – Reference settings (plugins, theme, language)

Hooks:

before_wp_tiny_mce – Before TinyMCE settings are printed
wp_tiny_mce_init – After tinymce.js is loaded, before instances are created
after_wp_tiny_mce – After TinyMCE instances are created

wp_fullscreen_html()

Output HTML for distraction-free writing mode.

public static function wp_fullscreen_html(): void

Since: 3.2.0
Deprecated: 4.3.0

wp_link_query()

Perform post queries for internal linking.

public static function wp_link_query( array $args = array() ): array|false

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
`$args`	array	Query arguments

Args:

Key	Type	Default	Description
`pagenum`	int	`1`	Page number
`s`	string	—	Search keywords

Returns: array|false – Array of results or false if none.

Result Array:

array(
    array(
        'ID'        => 123,           // Post ID
        'title'     => 'Post Title',  // Escaped post title
        'permalink' => 'https://...',  // Post permalink
        'info'      => '2024/01/15',  // Date or post type label
    ),
    // ...
)

Since: 3.1.0

Hooks:

wp_link_query_args – Filter query arguments
wp_link_query – Filter query results

wp_link_dialog()

Output the dialog HTML for internal linking.

public static function wp_link_dialog(): void

Since: 3.1.0

Description:

Outputs the modal dialog used by the wplink TinyMCE plugin for inserting/editing links. Only outputs once per page.

Private Methods

_parse_init()

Parse initialization array to JavaScript object string.

private static function _parse_init( array $init ): string

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
`$init`	array	Initialization settings

Returns: string – JavaScript object literal string.

Since: 3.3.0

default_settings()

Returns the default TinyMCE settings.

private static function default_settings(): array

Returns: array – Default TinyMCE configuration (excludes plugins, buttons, selector).

Since: 4.8.0

Default Settings Include:

theme – ‘modern’
skin – ‘lightgray’
language – User’s locale
formats – Alignment and strikethrough formats
relative_urls – false
browser_spellcheck – true
resize – ‘vertical’
menubar – false
branding – false
content_css – Dashicons and wp-content.css

get_translation()

Get the translation strings array.

private static function get_translation(): array

Returns: array – Translated strings for TinyMCE UI.

Since: 4.7.0

Description:

Returns an array of translated strings for TinyMCE’s interface. Strings may be simple strings or arrays with format array( 'Label', 'keyboard_shortcut' ).

Properties

Property	Type	Description
`$mce_locale`	string	TinyMCE locale code
`$mce_settings`	array	TinyMCE settings per editor ID
`$qt_settings`	array	Quicktags settings per editor ID
`$plugins`	array	Enabled TinyMCE plugins
`$qt_buttons`	array	Enabled Quicktags buttons
`$ext_plugins`	string	External plugin initialization code
`$baseurl`	string	TinyMCE base URL
`$first_init`	array	First-run initialization settings
`$this_tinymce`	bool	Current instance uses TinyMCE
`$this_quicktags`	bool	Current instance uses Quicktags
`$has_tinymce`	bool	Any instance uses TinyMCE
`$has_quicktags`	bool	Any instance uses Quicktags
`$has_medialib`	bool	Any instance uses media library
`$editor_buttons_css`	bool	Whether to print editor-buttons CSS
`$drag_drop_upload`	bool	Drag & drop upload enabled
`$translation`	array	Cached translation strings
`$tinymce_scripts_printed`	bool	TinyMCE scripts already output
`$link_dialog_printed`	bool	Link dialog already output

Usage Notes

Don’t use directly – Use wp_editor() wrapper function instead
One-time init – TinyMCE cannot be safely moved in DOM after initialization
ID restrictions – Editor IDs cannot contain square brackets (deprecated since 3.9.0)
Meta boxes – Avoid TinyMCE in meta boxes; use Quicktags only or use edit_form_advanced action

_WP_Editors Class Reference

Class Definition

Static Methods

parse_settings()

editor()

editor_settings()

enqueue_scripts()

enqueue_default_editor()

print_default_editor_scripts()

get_mce_locale()

get_baseurl()

wp_mce_translation()

force_uncompressed_tinymce()

print_tinymce_scripts()

editor_js()

wp_fullscreen_html()

wp_link_query()

wp_link_dialog()

Private Methods

_parse_init()

default_settings()

get_translation()

Properties

Usage Notes

More in Editor

WordPress Classic Editor API Overview

Editor Functions Reference

Editor Hooks Reference