Title: Custom Back Button
Last modified: August 30, 2016

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# Custom Back Button

 *  Resolved [MelmoSA](https://wordpress.org/support/users/melmosa/)
 * (@melmosa)
 * [10 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-back-button/)
 * Hi Guys,
 * I would really like to create a custom “Back Button” on the posts of my site 
   and I’d like it to work by retrieving the url for the category/sub-category archive
   to which the post belongs.
 * I’ve done a lot of searching and I’ve tried many things, but nothing has worked
   yet.
 * is it possible?
 * Thank you!

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

 *  [Jay](https://wordpress.org/support/users/phyrax/)
 * (@phyrax)
 * [10 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-back-button/#post-6708844)
 * First initial thought would be to use get_post_categories() – [https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_get_post_categories](https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_get_post_categories)
 * However, then it can be said “what if you have multiple categories?”
 * So let’s say you have a category tree like this and ALL categories are assigned
   to that post.
 *     ```
       |- Cat 1
        |- Sub-Cat 1
       |- Cat 2
        |- Sub-Cat 2
       ```
   
 * Sure you could do some magic to figure out which child category to use in your‘
   Back To..’ link, but you’ll have to choose, and may send the user to the wrong
   sub-category archive.
 * If you want a true ‘Back to’ experience, use wp_get_referer() – [https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_get_referer](https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_get_referer)
 * That way if they came from a sub-category page, wp_get_referer will provide the
   FULL url to that page. Short of it, I had some time, so here ya go: [https://gist.github.com/JayWood/e7f2e83fb4d731abe7fa](https://gist.github.com/JayWood/e7f2e83fb4d731abe7fa)
 * I commented the heck outta the code so I hope it helps!
 * Happy Coding =^.^=
 *  Thread Starter [MelmoSA](https://wordpress.org/support/users/melmosa/)
 * (@melmosa)
 * [10 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-back-button/#post-6708854)
 * Thank you so much, really appreciate the effort 🙂
 * Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be working… But I’m pretty sure I’m using it
   wrong… I used it like this: [ Back text ](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-back-button/ I put it here... ?output_format=md)
 * If that was a ridiculous thing to do, I apologize… Still a little new to this…
 * Any further assistance would be greatly appreciated.
 * Thanks again!
 *  Thread Starter [MelmoSA](https://wordpress.org/support/users/melmosa/)
 * (@melmosa)
 * [10 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-back-button/#post-6708857)
 * Ok, it actually picked up on the link code 0.o
 * ..sorry.
 * Correction:
 * Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be working… But I’m pretty sure I’m using it
   wrong… I used it like this: `<a href=" I put the code here... "> Back </a>`
 *  [Jay](https://wordpress.org/support/users/phyrax/)
 * (@phyrax)
 * [10 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-back-button/#post-6708868)
 * Sorry, probably should have included a usage example:
 *     ```
       <?php 
   
       $link = get_back_to_archive_link();
       if ( ! empty( $link ) ) {
       	echo "<a href='$link'>My Link Text</a>";
       }
       ```
   
 * If you read the comments, you’ll see that it will provide a link, only if a user
   is coming from a category or tag archive page.
 * So let’s say a user came from [http://yoursite.com/category/term_name](http://yoursite.com/category/term_name),
   the script would provide a link back to that page.
 * If, however, they came from [http://yoursite.com/](http://yoursite.com/) ( ie.
   not an archive page ) no link will be given; which is why I use the empty check
   in the above code.
 *  Thread Starter [MelmoSA](https://wordpress.org/support/users/melmosa/)
 * (@melmosa)
 * [10 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-back-button/#post-6708979)
 * It’s Perfect! Thank you so much!
 * Can’t even tell you how many hours I spent on it.
 * Much appreciated 🙂

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

The topic ‘Custom Back Button’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [back button](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/back-button/)
 * [category](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/category/)
 * [custom](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/custom/)
 * [url](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/url/)

 * In: [Hacks](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/plugins-and-hacks/hacks/)
 * 5 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [MelmoSA](https://wordpress.org/support/users/melmosa/)
 * Last activity: [10 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-back-button/#post-6708979)
 * Status: resolved

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