When working with the Settings API (or any other API that handles options, serialization, validation, and page redirections), dealing with custom messages in WordPress isn’t something that we typically have to worry about it.

The API takes care of all of that for us, and if we need to use other pieces of information, like the query string, we’re able to take advantage of API functions like get_query_var to check for the presence of a given value without much thought for how it was added in the first place.

But what about when you’re working on your administration page, and you need to display custom messages in WordPress after a redirect?

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One of the projects I’ve been working on recently presents the user with a comprehensive set of options. As usual, the options take the form of a variety of different elements:

• input text fields,
• radio buttons,
• select elements,
• and more.

In most cases, you should be familiar with initializing default values for all of these element types. Radio buttons may be the exception. And if they are, then you’ve no doubt run into a PHP notice when saving empty radio button values.

And having PHP notices is no good, right?

Regardless of if you’re using the WordPress Settings API or some custom serialization code, these notices can still show up. If you use Query Monitor, then you’ve likely seen this show up in your menu. Similarly, if you use the Console (or another application) to monitor your PHP logs, you’ve probably seen the error as well.

One place in which this can be tricky to deal with is when you’re working with radio buttons without an initial value.

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