Document

The term "Document" refers to a single piece of content that created by Elementor, such as a post, page, or a saved template. It's used only in the code.

Each document has its own type and features.

A document is saved as a post in WordPress' wp_posts table, while its elements and settings are saved as metadata in the wp_postmeta table.

In PHP, the document is represented by the Elementor\Base\Document class.

This class is like a DB Model that knows how to save and load its data.

Why "Document"?

In WordPress, contents are called posts. It's an historical term that was introduced in the days when WordPress was just a blogging system instead of the CMS it became to be today.

In Elementor, on the other hand, many document types can share the same post_type. For example, "Page" and "Section" templates both have an elementor_library post type even though those are different document types.

The term document is used instead, as the browser called his DOM content as a "document".

Main Features

• Get the data from DB
• Save the data in DB
• Get the elements and settings
• Get metadata like URLs to create, edit and preview the document
• Get the WP_Post object
• Get the list of widgets categories to display in the panel

How to create a new Document type?

A new type of document can be used in order to create special functionality for it.

For example, a Header in Elementor Pro is a new type of document that knows to appear in the header of the site.

A new document type should be created by extending the Elementor\Base\Document class, and defining its type and the post type it will be used in.

Example:

class Article extends \Elementor\Core\Base\Document {
	public static function get_type() {
		return 'article';
	}
	
	public static function get_properties() {
		$properties = parent::get_properties();
	
		// Which post type the document will be used in
		$properties['cpt'] = [ 'article' ];
	
		return $properties;
	}
}

And then, register the new document type:

add_action( 'elementor/documents/register', function( Documents_Manager $documents_manager ) {
	$documents_manager->register_document_type( Article::get_type(), Article::get_class_full_name() );
} );

Once it's registered, it will appear in the templates list: WP Admin > Templates > Add New.

Then the URL to create a new Article document is available at:

$create_url = Article::get_create_url();

A Template Document

In order to create a document type as a template (For internal use) it should extend the \Elementor\Modules\Library\Documents\Library_Document class without setting a cpt since it will use the template's one.

class Article extends \Elementor\Modules\Library\Documents\Library_Document {
	public static function get_type() {
		return 'article';
	}
	
	public static function get_title() {
		return esc_html__( 'Article', 'plugin-textdomain' );
	}
}

How to change the widget categories order?

The widgets categories order is defined by the get_editor_panel_categories method of the document type. In order to change the order, the get_editor_panel_categories method should be overridden.

class Article extends \Elementor\Modules\Library\Documents\Library_Document {
	public static function get_type() {
		return 'article';
	}
	
	public static function get_title() {
		return __( 'Article', 'plugin-textdomain' );
	}
	
	// Assume that there are widgets that belong to a new category called `article-elements`.
	protected static function get_editor_panel_categories() {
		$categories = [
			'article-elements' => [
				'title' => __( 'Article', 'plugin-textdomain' ),
				'active' => true,
			],
		];

		// Put the `article-elements` category first.
		return $categories + parent::get_editor_panel_categories();
	}
}