News-Parser vs Code Engine – PHP Snippets, AI Functions & Automation for WordPress

Code Engine is a snippets manager that doesn’t stop at snippets. Yes, it runs your PHP and JavaScript exactly where and when you want: frontend, backend, on a schedule, or inside your content. But its real magic is what happens after you write a function: the same little piece of code instantly becomes a tool your AI chatbots can call, a step you can drag into a visual workflow, and an endpoint the outside world can trigger. One function, three superpowers. Most “code snippets” plugins stop at a textarea and a toggle. Code Engine treats your functions as first-class building blocks for the whole Meow Apps ecosystem, and for anything that can speak REST. Think out of the box, let your creativity flow, because the possibilities really are endless! ✨ For more, check the official website and come say hi on the Discord. Quick Intro Hello! ☀️ I built Code Engine because I was tired of pasting mystery snippets into functions.php and praying. I wanted a place where small bits of code are organized, safe, AI-assisted, and reusable everywhere. Here’s the idea. You write a function (or let the AI write it for you from a plain-English description). That function immediately shows up in three places: AI Engine: your chatbots and MCP clients (Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code) can call it as a tool, with real arguments. Ask “how many orders shipped today?” and your chatbot runs your function to answer. Workflow Engine: your function appears in the step picker as its very own block. Drag it onto the canvas, wire it between an AI step and a Slack step, done. No glue code. REST / External tools: give it a secure endpoint and a token, then trigger it from Make.com, n8n, Zapier, a cron job, or a webhook. You never wrote an “integration.” You just wrote a function. Code Engine did the rest. 🤝 Core Modules 🧩 Snippets Manager Backend, Frontend, Persistent, Scheduled, Functions, and in-content (PHP/JS) snippets, all in one clean dashboard with tags, search, scope filters, and priorities. 🪄 AI-Assisted Coding Describe what you want in plain English and let AI Engine write the snippet: code, name, arguments, and scope included. Refine existing code or implement it straight from your comments. 🤖 Functions as AI Tools Every Function snippet becomes a function-calling tool and an MCP tool, so your AI Engine chatbots (and external AI agents) can actually do things on your site, not just talk. 🔀 Functions as Workflow Steps Workflow Engine surfaces each of your functions as its own draggable step. Your custom logic becomes a first-class citizen on the automation canvas. 🌐 External Access (REST) Expose any runnable snippet through a secured REST endpoint with a bearer token. Perfect for Make.com, n8n, webhooks, and scheduled external jobs. 🛡️ Safe Mode A snippet that throws a fatal error is automatically caught and disabled before it can take your site down. Code with confidence. ⏰ Scheduling Run a snippet daily at a chosen time via WP-Cron (reports, cleanups, syncs) without touching the server crontab. 🧱 Code Blocks & Shortcodes (Pro) Drop PHP or JS straight into a post or page with a Gutenberg block or the [code-engine] shortcode, with safety guards. 🧩 Snippets, the way they should be Code Engine organizes your code by scope, so each snippet runs exactly where it belongs: Persistent: runs everywhere (frontend and backend). Your everyday “add this to functions.php” code, but managed. Frontend: runs only on the public site. Backend: runs only in the admin. Function: a named, callable function with typed arguments and defaults. This is the reusable building block (see below). Scheduled: runs on a WP-Cron schedule, at the hour and minute you pick. Content (PHP / JS): runs inside a specific post or page, via a Gutenberg Code Block or the [code-engine] shortcode (Pro). Everything is searchable, taggable, sortable by priority, and importable/exportable. The CodeMirror editor gives you proper syntax highlighting and keyboard shortcuts (Cmd+S to save, Cmd+Enter to run). A nikic/php-parser pass validates your PHP before it ever runs. 🪄 Let AI write it for you Don’t feel like writing the boilerplate? Describe the snippet in plain language and Code Engine, powered by AI Engine, generates the whole thing: the code, a sensible name, a description, the right scope, and, for functions, the argument list with names, types, and defaults. Already have code? Ask the AI to modify it from a prompt, or write a few comments describing what you want and let it fill in the implementation. It’s pair programming, right inside your dashboard. ✨ The big idea: write once, use everywhere This is what makes Code Engine different. A Function snippet is not just code you call from other code. It’s a reusable capability that the rest of your stack can plug into. The moment you save it, the same function is available in three places at once: 1. As an AI tool, for chatbots and AI agents With AI Engine active, your functions are exposed through function calling and over MCP (Model Context Protocol). Your on-site chatbot can run them mid-conversation, and external AI agents (Claude, Claude Code, ChatGPT, OpenClaw) can call them too. Want a chatbot that checks stock, looks up a booking, or kicks off a process? Write the function; the chatbot gains the skill. 2. As a workflow step, for automation With Workflow Engine, every active function shows up in the Add-step picker as its own block, named after your snippet, with one input per argument. Drag it onto the canvas and wire it between other steps: an AI step that summarizes, your function that saves, a Social Engine step that posts. There’s also a generic “Execute snippet (by ID / by name)” step when you want to call one dynamically. You never write integration code; your function is the integration. 3. As a REST endpoint, for the outside world Give a snippet a custom endpoint name and a bearer token, and it’s instantly callable from anywhere: POST /wp-json/code-engine/v1/snippets-endpoint/your-endpoint Pass arguments as JSON in the body, secure it with a token, and trigger it from Make.com, n8n, Zapier, GitHub Actions, or a humble cron job. Automation without a middleware bill. 🛡️ Safe by default Running arbitrary code is powerful, so Code Engine takes safety seriously: Safe Mode catches fatal errors and auto-disables the offending snippet, so a typo never white-screens your site. REST whitelisting means global snippets only run on trusted REST routes by default, so you choose what to open up. Per-snippet tokens secure your external endpoints. Validation with a real PHP parser before code is saved. For developers who want fewer guardrails, there’s a “Bypass REST Security” option and filters (mwcode_rest_authorized, mwcode_rest_whitelist) to tailor exactly what’s allowed. Works beautifully with the Meow Apps family Code Engine is one engine in a connected set, each one useful alone, magical together: AI Engine: chatbots, content generation, and MCP. Turns your functions into AI tools. Workflow Engine: visual automation. Turns your functions into draggable steps. SEO Engine: smart, lightweight AI SEO. Social Engine: schedule and automate social posts. Why Code Engine? Reusable, not throwaway Other snippet plugins give you a place to paste code. Code Engine gives you a place to build capabilities that your AI, your workflows, and your external tools can all use. Native to WordPress Clean, fast, and built the WordPress way. No clunky external dashboards, no bloat. AI-native Write snippets with AI, expose them to AI. The whole loop lives in your wp-admin. Developer friendly REST API, MCP tools, function calling, scheduling, import/export, and plenty of filters to hook into. Cared for Part of the Meow Apps family, with regular updates and a real human behind it. 💕

News-parser WordPress Plugin News-parser is a plugin for WordPress that allows you to easily receive the full text of the article, as well as images from the site using an RSS feed. Parsed information from the site is saved as a draft,which you can just publish or edit at your discretion. This makes it easy to create content for your site. New Features The following new features are available in the new version of the plugin: * Sitemap Parsing: You can now parse information directly from sitemap files, expanding the sources of data for your content. * Yoast SEO Integration for AI Descriptions: Seamlessly integrate with Yoast SEO to automatically generate compelling post descriptions using AI, enhancing your SEO efforts. * Expanded AI Provider Support: Enjoy greater flexibility with added support for DeepSeek and Anthropic AI APIs, alongside existing providers. * CSS Selector Parsing Templates: Create custom parsing templates using CSS selectors for precise and targeted data extraction from websites. * Autopilot Post Filtering: Implement advanced filtering options when using the autopilot function, giving you more control over the content processed automatically. Website and Documentation Explore the plugin`s resources: Website: https://www.news-parser.com/ Documentation: Docs Features Gutenberg editor support. Autopilot Function for Automatic RSS Parsing Visual content extractor. WP-CLI support Flexible template creation system to speed up parsing. Ability to parse not only from RSS XML source but also from url. Sitemap Parsing: Parse information directly from sitemap files. Yoast SEO Integration for AI Descriptions: Generate post descriptions using AI and integrate seamlessly with Yoast SEO. Expanded AI Provider Support: Supports DeepSeek, Anthropic, and other AI APIs. CSS Selector Parsing Templates: Create parsing templates using CSS selectors for precise data extraction. Autopilot Post Filtering: Advanced filtering options for autopilot function. Installing You can clone the GitHub repository: https://github.com/zalevsk1y/news-parser.git Or download it directly as a ZIP file: https://github.com/zalevsk1y/news-parser/archive/master.zip This will download the latest developer copy of News-parser. How to use NewsParser plugin? Parsing RSS To parse RSS, go to the News-Parsing->Parsing RSS menu in the admin panel of your site. Enter the RSS feed address in the search bar. Click on the Parse RSS Feed button. When parsed data is fetched from the server,it will appear on your screen. You can open the visual extractor by clicking on the icon and create a template for parsing posts from this RSS source or simply select the content you are interested in and save it as a draft. Watch this short video to learn HOW TO PARSE FROM RSS with news-parser plugin: To parse several posts, select posts and press the Parse Selected button. Wait for the data to be saved,you`ll be notified by the message at the top of the screen. The icon at the bottom of the post allows you to go on to edit or publish a saved draft.Note that parsing selected post could be done only if you created parsing template! Watch this short video to learn HOW TO PARSE SEVERAL POSTS with news-parser plugin: Visual Constructor. To create a template or simply select the content you are interested in, use the visual constructor. You can open visual constructor by clicking icon at the bottom of post box. To select content, click on the block that you need in the main window and it will be marked with a turquoise frame. When you hover over the content, the expected area will be painted in turquoise color. To cancel the selection, click on the block again. Try to separate different types of content (pictures, video, text) into separate blocks. The YouTube video will be replaced with a picture of the YouTube logo. You can extrude it and this video will be inserted into your post. Parsing videos from other sources is not yet supported. Pictures are inserted into your post as a link; the exception is a featured image which is saved in your media library. In the sidebar, you can change the featured image of your post. Just select the appropriate image on the left side of the designer and click the Change Image button. The last image you selected will be selected as featured image. You can also create a post without featured image. Just click on No featured image. You can change the name of the post in the next submenu ‘Post title’. Write your version of the post title in textaria and click the Change Title button. To add a source link, check the box labeled ‘Add source link’ to the post. in the ‘Extra Options’ submenu. Beyond visual content selection, you can now also leverage the power of AI directly within the constructor. A dedicated ‘AI’ tab is now available in the panel, allowing you to generate content using AI models. Simply navigate to the ‘AI’ tab to explore the available options and create engaging content. Furthermore, to optimize your posts for search engines, you can now easily add AI-generated SEO descriptions.Within the panel, you will find an ‘SEO’ tab. In the ‘SEO’ tab, you can utilize AI to create compelling post descriptions, enhancing your SEO directly from the post visual creation interface. Watch this short video to learn HOW TO USE VISUAL CONSTRUCTOR: Create Parsing Template To save the template, it is necessary to mark the content in the main window of the visual constructor, select the ‘Save parsing template that you can use in automatic parsing from this source item.’ and click the Save Template button. It is important to understand that individual posts even from one source can be very different, therefore parsed pages may not contain the content you need. Now, you can also create powerful parsing templates using CSS selectors. In the ‘Template’ tab within the Visual Constructor, you’ll find a new section called ‘Template Patterns’. As you visually select elements in the main window, you will see their corresponding CSS selectors populate in the ‘Template Patterns’ block. If you select the ‘Save Parsing Template’ checkbox, you unlock the ability to directly edit these template patterns. Two editable parameters become available: ‘Elements pattern’ and ‘Exclude elements pattern’. It’s important to note that when you edit the ‘Elements pattern’ field, the elements you selected visually in the constructor will be disregarded. Therefore, if you intend to primarily use the visual constructor for creating parsing rules, leave the ‘Elements pattern’ field empty. When editing the pattern fields, separate each CSS selector with a comma. Once you have finished editing your CSS selector patterns, click the ‘Update’ button to apply the changes and save your template. This allows for fine-grained control over content selection using the precision of CSS selectors. Watch this short video to learn HOW TO CREATE PARSING TEMPLATE: Parse single page. To parse a single page, select News-Parsing-> Parse Page in the admin panel of your site. In the search bar, enter the site address URL and press Parse Page button. Visual constructor will open. In the visual constructor, select the content and click the Create Post Draft button. The draft will be automatically created and you can edit it in the Posts editor.If everything suits you, you can simply publish this post or edit it at your discretion. Watch this short video to learn HOW TO PARSE SINGLE PAGE with news-parser plugin: Autopilot Function for Automatic RSS Parsing The autopilot function is now available to automatically parse posts from an RSS feed. Please note that the WordPress cron system (wp-cron – https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/cron/) is used for scheduling the autopilot function. WP-Cron triggers the task scheduler only when your website receives a visit. If you experience any issues with the autopilot function not running as expected, you can add the following line to your wp-config.php file: define('ALTERNATE_WP_CRON', true); This can sometimes improve the reliability of WP-Cron. To configure the autopilot settings, please follow these steps: Navigate to the Autopilot tab in the menu (News Parser -> Autopilot). In the Schedule Options, select the URL that corresponds to the RSS source you want to parse from. Click the Select button. Once the data is loaded, the following configuration options will become available: Status: Determines whether the autopilot is active (enabled) or inactive (disabled) for this specific source. Maximum Number of Posts: Set the maximum number of posts to be parsed in a single autopilot run from this source. Maximum Number of Autopilot Runs: Specify the total number of times the autopilot should run for this source before it automatically stops. Parsing Frequency: Define how often parsing should occur from this source. You can set intervals like hourly, daily, etc. Use Original Post Creation Date: Enable this option to use the original publication date from the source post as the creation date for your parsed post. If disabled, the post will be dated when it is parsed and published on your site. Filter Type: Choose the type of filtering condition to apply. Available options are Include and Exclude. Filter Object: Determines which post parameter will be used as the object for filtering rules. You can select from three options: URL: Filter based on the URL of the source post. Title: Filter based on the title of the source post. Meta: Filter based on meta data from the source post. Filtering Expression: Define the words or phrases to be used for filtering. Separate words with | (OR) or & (AND). For example: apple|grape (includes posts with “apple” OR “grape”) or apple&grape (includes posts with “apple” AND “grape”). If ‘Meta’ is selected as the Filter Object: You will need to specify the name attribute of the tag. The Filtering Expression will then be applied to the content attribute of the specified meta tag. Additionally, in this menu, you can delete previously saved parsing templates. The Autopilot feature for automatically parsing RSS feeds has been significantly enhanced with new logging capabilities, removal of run and post limits, and more granular control over parsing behavior. Watch this short video to learn HOW TO USE AUTOPILOT with news-parser plugin: AI Feature To use AI feature you need to get API key from OpenAI or from Google. To use AI for generating content on your website, follow these instructions: 1. Set up the Open API Key: – To setup OpenAPI key, open the wp-config.php file and add the following line to define your API key: define('NEWS_PARSER_OPENAI_API_KEY', 'your_key'). – To setup Google key, open the wp-config.php file and add the following line to define your API key: define('NEWS_PARSER_GEMINI_API_KEY','your_key'). 2. Access the Visual Constructor: Go to the Visual Constructor within your website’s admin panel. 3. Select the AI Provider: In the AI tab of the Visual Constructor, you will see a list of available AI providers. Choose the desired provider from the list. 3. Generate Featured Image: In the Featured Image section, check the “Generate using AI” option if you want to generate a new featured image for your post. Select the model and enter a prompt. Use ${title} in the prompt wherever you want to insert the original title. 4. Generate Post Title: In the Post Title section, check the “Generate using AI” option if you want to generate a new title for your post. Select the model and enter a prompt. Use ${title} in the prompt wherever you want to insert the original title. 5. Generate Post Body: In the Post Body section, select the model for generating the post’s content. Enter a prompt in the request field and use ${post} where you want to include the original article’s text and you can use tag ${title} here as well. 6. Add Pipeline (Optional): If you need to modify the text using multiple requests, open the “Add Pipeline” tab. Enter the additional request text, which will automatically include the result of the previous request. Click “Add Prompt” to add this request to the pipeline. With the pipeline, you can ask the AI to review the results of the previous generation or request translation of the generated text into another language. 7. Apply AI Modifications: After configuring the AI settings for content modification, you can apply them immediately by selecting the content in the Visual Constructor and clicking the “Create Post” button. Alternatively, you can save these settings as a template for applying them during RSS parsing or when using the autopilot function. Please note that when using AI for content generation, it requires making API requests to the OpenAI API, which will incur charges on your OpenAI account. Additionally, the AI generation process can take a significant amount of time. By following these instructions, you can use artificial intelligence to create content for your website, whether it’s parsing individual pages, parsing from RSS feeds, or using the autopilot function. SEO Feature This tab contains three sections: Post Description, SEO Plugins, and Description AI Generation. Post Description – This section displays the current post description and allows you to replace it with a custom description that you provide. To enable this feature and make the description visible in search results, you need to have an SEO plugin installed, such as Yoast SEO, and activate the SEO Integration within the plugin settings. SEO Plugins – To utilize the SEO plugin integration, you must check the Enable SEO Integration option. Then, select your desired SEO plugin from the dropdown menu to establish the integration. Description AI Generation – This section enables you to create and modify post descriptions using AI. When crafting your AI prompt, you can include the original post description by using the placeholder ${description}. This allows the AI to incorporate the existing description into the newly generated one if desired. WP-CLI Support With the latest update, a new feature has been introduced that leverages wp-cli. This feature enables users to activate an autopilot function, allowing for automated parsing and saving of posts from RSS feeds. The autopilot function can now be accessed directly from the command-line interface, providing a convenient way to manage this process. To utilize this functionality, you’ll need to install wp-cli and execute the command wp autopilot in the command-line interface. Additionally, you’ll need to specify the desired interval at which the autopilot function should be triggered by including the additional parameter wp autopilot --interval=. This allows you to customize the frequency of the autopilot function according to your specific needs. By incorporating wp-cli and the new “wp autopilot” command, managing the automatic parsing and saving of posts from RSS feeds becomes more efficient and streamlined. This feature provides enhanced control and flexibility, empowering users to automate their post management tasks with ease. Example: wp autopilot --interval=hourly Dependencies * php-simple-html-dom-parser https://github.com/sunra/php-simple-html-dom-parser Bugs If you find an issue, let us know here or Discord Contacts GitHub Discord Instagram