Wordpress functions doesn't work inside custom TinyMCE editor button

Question

I created simple TinyMCE plugin like below. Basically it's a new button in TinyMCE editor that'll pop up lightbox (thick box) when pressed.

// create plugin
tinymce.create('tinymce.plugins.callthickbox', {  
    init : function(ed, url) {  
        ed.addButton('callthickbox', {  
            title   : 'This is Thick Box',  
            cmd     : 'showthickbox'
        });
        ed.addCommand('showthickbox', function() {
            ed.execCommand('mceInsertContent', false, callthatthickbox(url,null));
        });

    //blah blah blah the rest...
});
tinymce.PluginManager.add('callthickbox', tinymce.plugins.callthickbox);

and call it via:

// call the PHP form
function callthatthickbox(url) {
    tb_show( "This is Thick Box", url + '/thickbox-form.php', false);   
}

The thick box is popped up and the PHP file (the thick box's content) is called alright, but all the WP functions don't work inside those PHP file such as wp_list_categories() or bloginfo('url') .

Apparently the PHP file lose its right to access WP functions. I could try passing variables via URL but it doesn't seem to be elegant solution, especially if I want to pass an array.

Anybody has better solution?

many thanks before!

EDIT: I tried to load wp-load.php inside PHP file and it works, but isn't that a bit overkill? any thought?

Answer 1

check out the load process for wordpress. if you are calling the functions from your plugin file they won't be loaded yet.

What you will need to do is

add_action('init', 'your function callback name');