jettabs-widgets

name	jettabs-widgets
description	Use when registering/customizing a JetTabs For Elementor widget (Tabs, Accordion, Image Accordion, Switcher), overriding its controls via the `__add_control`/load-level gating system, hooking the `jet-tabs/widgets/template_id`/`jet-tabs/widgets/template_content` filters that shape ajax-loaded template content, working with the `jet-query` custom Elementor control, or debugging why "Clear Tabs Cache" didn't actually refresh a tab's ajax-loaded content. Captures verified behavior of JetTabs For Elementor 2.3.2 source (`plugins/jet-tabs/`), live-verified 2026-07-16 against jackfruit.epeak.studio (4/4 tests.php assertions passing).
license	MIT
metadata	{"author":"project","version":"0.1.0"}

JetTabs For Elementor — widget/structure internals

Verified facts about JetTabs' own widget architecture: a shared Jet_Tabs_Base Elementor widget base class, four addon widgets built on top of it, its ajax/self-request template loader, and a genuinely confusing two-cache-systems situation. Confirmed against JetTabs 2.3.2 (plugins/jet-tabs/). No official Crocoblock developer docs exist for JetTabs — checked https://github.com/Crocoblock/developer-documentation (2026-07-16): its README lists JetEngine, JetSmartFilters, JetFormBuilder, JetThemeCore, JetPopup, JetBooking, JetAppointmentsBooking, JetMenu, JetSearch, JetElements, JetBlocks, JetBlog, JetReviews — no JetTabs section at all, and no jet-tabs/gateway hits anywhere in that repo's file tree — so plugin source is the only source of truth here, not a supplementary check.

Plugin bootstrap and the four widgets

Jet_Tabs::init() (jet-tabs.php:176-212) requires Elementor to be active (has_elementor(), :277-279), then loads settings/assets/integration/rest-api/ compatibility, inits the DB-backed Jet_Cache\Manager singleton, and instantiates the Elementor Template + Rest_Api REST classes. Addon widgets are auto-discovered via glob( 'includes/addons/*.php' ) in Jet_Tabs_Integration::register_addons() (includes/integration.php:178-193), gated per-file against the avaliable_widgets setting — every .php in that folder is registered unless explicitly disabled:

• jet-tabs-widget.php → Jet_Tabs_Widget (get_name() = 'jet-tabs') — horizontal/ vertical tabs.
• jet-accordion-widget.php → Jet_Accordion_Widget ('jet-accordion') — toggle/FAQ accordion, with an optional JSON-LD FAQ schema (includes/base/json-ld-schema.php).
• jet-image-accordion-widget.php → Jet_Image_Accordion_Widget ('jet-image-accordion') — hover-expand image panels.
• jet-switcher-widget.php → Jet_Switcher_Widget ('jet-switcher') — a single enable/disable toggle switching between two fixed content states (not repeater-backed, no Query Gateway support — see jettabs-query-gateway).

All four extends \Elementor\Jet_Tabs_Base (includes/base/class-jet-tabs-base.php:6), which itself extends \Elementor\Widget_Base — not any JetElements base class; see jettabs-query-gateway for why that distinction matters for the shared Query Gateway integration.

Jet_Tabs_Base's helper-method conventions

• __context-dispatched methods: most __* helpers (__html, __loop_item, __get_global_template, __glob_inc_if) look up $this->__context ('render' or 'edit') and call_user_func a __{context}_* sibling method (class-jet-tabs-base.php:40-49,170-173,237-242,318-321) — e.g. __html('foo') in render context calls __render_html('foo'); in Elementor-editor JS-template context it calls __edit_html('foo') instead, which emits Underscore.js <# #> template tags rather than real HTML. A widget's render() sets $this->__context = 'render' at its very first line (e.g. jet-tabs-widget.php:1789) before calling any of these.
• __add_control/__add_responsive_control/__add_group_control/ __start_controls_section etc. gate on a numeric "load level" (__load_level, default 100, set from the widgets_load_level admin setting, class-jet-tabs-base.php:25) — a control is skipped entirely (never registered with Elementor) if __load_level < $load_level unless the control id is explicitly present in __include_controls (from the jet-tabs/editor/{widget_name}/include-controls filter, :29), and is force-skipped if present in __exclude_controls (jet-tabs/editor/{widget_name}/exclude-controls, :31) even above its load level — __add_control at :414-434. This is how JetTabs lets a site admin trim the control panel for performance/simplicity without a full custom widget.
• Icon rendering handles the WP 5.5+ FontAwesome-4-to-SVG migration — __render_icon() (:608-674) checks a __fa4_migrated map and Icons_Manager::is_migration_allowed() before falling back to the legacy <i class="...">-icon-class string path; it also auto-detects an icon value that's actually an image URL ( + extension regex, ) and renders an instead of an .

Ajax/lazy-loaded template content — REST endpoint and the "self-request" shortcut

When a Tabs/Accordion/Switcher item's content type is 'template' (an Elementor Template Library item) and "Ajax Template" is enabled, the widget renders only a <div class="jet-tabs-loader"> placeholder server-side (jet-tabs-widget.php:1748-1750) and the front-end JS (assets/js/jet-tabs-frontend.js) fetches the real content afterward from one of two places, chosen by the ajax_request_type admin setting (jet_tabs_settings()->get('ajax_request_type', 'default'), includes/assets.php:86):

• 'default' — GET /wp-json/jet-tabs-api/v1/elementor-template?id={template_id} — a real REST route registered by \Jet_Tabs\Rest_Api (includes/rest-api/rest-api.php) against Endpoints\Elementor_Template::callback() (includes/rest-api/endpoints/elementor-template.php:280-312), publicly accessible (permission_callback() returns true unconditionally, :570-572).
• 'self' — the same page URL with a ?jet_tabs_self query param appended, intercepted by a parse_request hook (Elementor_Template::handle_self_request(), :237-273) that swaps in a synthetic WP_Query for that request, builds the same template data, wp_send_json()s it, and exits — avoiding a second REST round-trip/CORS surface for sites where the REST API is restricted.

Both paths funnel through prepare_template_data() (:78-118), which calls Elementor\Plugin::instance()->frontend->get_builder_content( $template_id, true ) and also walks the template's Elementor element tree (get_elements_raw_data()/find_widgets_script_handlers()) to report which registered script/style handles the returned markup depends on, so the front end can enqueue them lazily too.

jet-tabs/widgets/template_id and jet-tabs/widgets/template_content filters

Every widget applies jet-tabs/widgets/template_id to the raw item_template_id repeater value right before resolving it to a post (e.g. jet-tabs-widget.php:1707, jet-accordion-widget.php:1126, jet-switcher-widget.php:730) — the multilingual-plugin integration point (swap in a translated template's post id). The non-ajax synchronous render path then applies jet-tabs/widgets/template_content ($content, $item, $content_dom_id, $this, e.g. jet-tabs-widget.php:1728-1734) to the already-rendered Elementor markup before echoing it — this filter does not fire on the ajax/self-request path, since that path returns raw get_builder_content() output straight from the REST/self-request callback() with no equivalent filter applied.

Gotcha: two separate, disconnected cache stores

JetTabs ships an entire custom DB-table cache module (Jet_Cache\Manager/DB_Manager, includes/modules/jet-cache/) that creates its own {$wpdb->prefix}jet_cache table (inc/db-manager.php:43-63,87-95) with set_cache()/get_cache()/ delete_cache_by_instance_id()/delete_cache_by_source(), exposed via the global helper functions jet_set_transient()/jet_get_transient() (inc/functions.php). Grepping the entire plugin shows jet_set_transient()/jet_get_transient()/db_manager->set_cache() are never called anywhere — nothing ever writes a row into that table. What does use this system: Jet_Tabs_Integration::save_elementor_template_post_type() (includes/integration.php:290-297, on save_post) calls delete_cache_by_instance_id( $template_id, 'elementor_library' ), and the "Clear Tabs Cache" admin action (Endpoints\Clear_Tabs_Cache::callback(), includes/rest-api/endpoints/clear-tabs-cache.php:44-59) calls delete_cache_by_source( 'elementor_library' ) — both delete from a table that is never populated.

Meanwhile the REST endpoint that actually serves ajax-loaded tab content (Elementor_Template::callback()) caches its response with plain WP core transients (get_transient/set_transient, keyed md5('jet_tabs_elementor_template_data_' . $template_id), 12-hour TTL, elementor-template.php:294-309) — a completely separate storage mechanism that neither save_elementor_template_post_type() nor "Clear Tabs Cache" ever touches (no delete_transient() call anywhere in the plugin). Net effect: editing an Elementor template used as ajax tab/accordion/switcher content, or clicking "Clear Tabs Cache" in JetTabs' settings, does not invalidate the actual per-template REST cache — a page requesting that template's content via the default (non-self-request) ajax path can keep serving stale markup for up to 12 hours after a template edit. The 'self'-request path (handle_self_request()) has no caching at all and is unaffected.

jet-query custom Elementor control

Jet_Elementor_Extension\Query_Control (includes/modules/jet-elementor-extension/inc/ controls/query.php) registers Elementor control type 'jet-query', extending Core's Control_Select2. Used for e.g. the Switcher widget's "Template" picker (jet-switcher-widget.php:103-113, 'type' => 'jet-query', 'query_type' => 'elementor_templates') — a searchable AJAX-populated select rather than a flat dropdown of every Elementor Library template. before_save() normalizes the stored value to absint/array-of-absint (:25-35) regardless of what the AJAX search widget posted.

How this was verified

Read jet-tabs.php, includes/base/class-jet-tabs-base.php, includes/integration.php, includes/assets.php, includes/settings.php, includes/rest-api/rest-api.php + all 4 files under includes/rest-api/endpoints/, all 4 files under includes/addons/, includes/modules/jet-cache/ in full, and includes/modules/jet-elementor-extension/inc/controls/query.php, then grepped every apply_filters/do_action call with a jet-tabs-prefixed hook name across includes/ to build the hook inventory above. Checked https://github.com/Crocoblock/developer-documentation for a JetTabs section (none exists — see intro). Not yet verified against a running site — tests.php covers the few claims checkable via plain source-presence (file/string checks) and generic WP-mechanism smoke tests (REST route registration, hook presence) that don't require a real Elementor-rendered page; the ajax-template-cache-mismatch gotcha and the load-level gating behavior are flagged in TEST-REGIMEN.md as needing a live site + browser to fully confirm end-to-end.