Assistance Changing Author Permalink / URL

Travis Tubbs
(@travistubbs)

16 years, 5 months ago
This is one that I’ve been fiddling with, but since I have no idea what I’m doing, I’m not getting very far.

By default, the Author page is located at http://www.mydomain.com/author/%5Bauthor username]

Unfortunately, when using E-mail Addresses as your WordPress username, the author name gets a little long ([firstname][lastname][mydomaincom]). What I would like to do is instead use a combination of the First and Last Name of the Author to construct the permalink/url or use the Author Nickname field instead.

From a previous post, I can see where you can modify the slug used for authors in rewrite.php (located in wp-includes)…
```
class WP_Rewrite {
	var $permalink_structure;
	var $use_trailing_slashes;
	var $category_base;
	var $tag_base;
	var $category_structure;
	var $tag_structure;
	var $author_base = 'author';
	var $author_structure;
...
```
Sadly, that just results in 404 errors after making changes to that slug, so we’ll move on. Next, I can see where the author permalink is created in that same file…
```
function get_author_permastruct() {
	if (isset($this->author_structure)) {
		return $this->author_structure;
	}

	if (empty($this->permalink_structure)) {
		$this->author_structure = '';
		return false;
	}
```
… but I can’t really can’t make anything out of that.

Finally, I noticed another file called author-template.php (also in wp-includes) that gave a little more insight on how the permalink is constructed…
```
function get_author_posts_url($author_id, $author_nicename = '') {
	global $wpdb, $wp_rewrite, $post;
	$auth_ID = (int) $author_id;
	$link = $wp_rewrite->get_author_permastruct();

	if ( empty($link) ) {
		$file = get_option('home') . '/';
		$link = $file . '?author=' . $auth_ID;
	} else {
		if ( '' == $author_nicename ) {
			$user = get_userdata($author_id);
			if ( !empty($user->user_nicename) )
				$author_nicename = $user->user_nicename;
		}
		$link = str_replace('%author%', $author_nicename, $link);
		$link = get_option('home') . trailingslashit($link);
	}

	$link = apply_filters('author_link', $link, $author_id, $author_nicename);

	return $link;
}
```
… but once again, I have no idea what I’m looking at. Any thoughts and suggestions into this would be grateful. Thanks in advance!

Viewing 12 replies - 1 through 12 (of 12 total)

Jupitercow
(@jcow)

16 years, 4 months ago

Not sure if this will help, but make sure that if you make any changes to the rewrite.php file, that you go into your admin area and update your permalink structure. This will make sure that your new rules end up in actual use.

Example. I changed “var $author_base = ‘author’;” to “var $author_base = ‘blogs’;” (thanks for the heads up on taht). After I changed this, it broke and gave me a 404, but when i updated the permalink structure, everything works perfectly.

Options -> Permalinks -> Update Permalink Structure

Jupitercow
(@jcow)

16 years, 4 months ago

Also. It isn’t the user_login that is technically used for the url of the page, it is the user_nicename in the database. So after signing up a new user, you could go change their nicename.

Not the most dynamic method, but maybe it will help.

craigchilds
(@craigchilds)

16 years, 2 months ago

just to add to the rewrite.php edit:
if you want to completely remove any base ie: blog.com/name instead of blog.com/author/name
then only one extra change needs to be made:
leave the author_base blank
and then find this code below:

function get_author_permastruct() {
if (isset($this->author_structure)) {
return $this->author_structure;
}

if (empty($this->permalink_structure)) {
$this->author_structure = ”;
return false;
}

$this->author_structure = $this->front . $this->author_base . ‘/%author%’;

return $this->author_structure;
}

and remove the forward slash from here:
$this->author_base . ‘/%author%’;

so

$this->author_base . ‘%author%’;

and you’re sweet. no author base, no double foward slash.

alexleonard
(@alexleonard)

15 years, 10 months ago

And would it be simple to change the “author_base” value?

Eg I want it to display

url/artist/$author_nicename/

instead of

url/author/$author_nicename/

Doodlebee
(@doodlebee)

15 years, 9 months ago

sweet! I know this is an old thread, but Alex’s last post wasn’t answered. I needed Craig’s little advice there – and it works like a charm. Take jcow’s advice as well and redo your permalink structure (just save it again) and it works like a charm. Awesome tidbit! (Running 2.5.1, by the way…)

alexleonard
(@alexleonard)

15 years, 8 months ago

I’d love if someone could point that one out to me – ideally without messing around with wp install files.. I try to avoid doing that if at all possible. Managing 20 WP sites and trying to remember which ones have hacks and which ones don’t is a bad idea. Everything’s got to be altered via a plugin or functions.php in my mind..!
Jeremy Boggs
(@jeremyboggs)

15 years, 7 months ago
Alex – I’ve used this code in a plugin, and it works OK for me:
```
function change_author_permalinks() {

    global $wp_rewrite;

    // Change the value of the author permalink base to whatever you want here
    $wp_rewrite->author_base = 'artist';

    $wp_rewrite->flush_rules();
}

add_action('init','change_author_permalinks');
```
This does a couple of things:

1) allows you to redefine the $author_base property in rewrite.php without actually editing that file.
2) flushes the rewrite rules so they reflect the change in teh author base, instead of you having to save your permalink structure again through the admin.

You can change ‘artist’ to whatever you want the author permalink base to be.

Hope this helps.
ddesbiens
(@ddesbiens)

15 years, 7 months ago

jeremyboggs, many thanks for this hack. I was installed Advanced Permalinks plugin just to change the author permalink. I haved many bugs in my permalinks with it.

With your hack, all work fine !

amitsuman
(@amitsuman)

15 years, 7 months ago

Hi All
I have use it but i need to
blog.com/name instead of blog.com/author/name
So i use craigchilds comment but it don’t work.
So if any one have any idea about theis then please reply.
Thanks

alexleonard
(@alexleonard)

15 years, 5 months ago

@jeremyboggs – that looks great! I’ll test that out now 🙂

alexleonard
(@alexleonard)

15 years, 5 months ago

Score! That worked beautifully. Thanks Jeremy.

Prasad Thombre
(@prasadthombre)

15 years, 5 months ago

amitsuman

I have tested craigchilds comment and its working fine with my website…http://www.myloverswish.com.

craigchilds Many Thanks for your valuable input.