Title: Required/Mandatory fields in WordPress Admin
Last modified: May 14, 2020

---

# Required/Mandatory fields in WordPress Admin

 *  [devSoupGuy61](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mbavosa/)
 * (@mbavosa)
 * [6 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/required-mandatory-fields-in-wordpress-admin/)
 * Looking for a solution for WordPress Admin where fields such as Title, Excerpt,
   Category are required before being able to publish. Warning message or alert 
   displaying what is missing because it is required. I have found old solutions
   that work for classic editor, but they do not work with the block editor, and
   ones that do work for block editor do not work for classic editor . Have not 
   found anything out there that works for both. Looking to plug in some code in
   the functions.php file. Any help would be appreciated for a jr dev here in WordPress.
 * In my functions.php file
 * This works for classic editor only
 *     ```
           /** ADD Validation for title */
           function force_post_title_init()
       {
           wp_enqueue_script('jquery');
       }
       function force_post_title()
       {
           echo "<script type='text/javascript'>\n";
           echo "
         jQuery('#publish').click(function(){
               var testervar = jQuery('[id^=\"titlediv\"]')
               .find('#title');
               if (testervar.val().length < 1)
               {
                   jQuery('[id^=\"titlediv\"]').css('border', '2px solid red');
                   alert('Post title is required');
                   return false;
               }
           });
         ";
           echo "</script>\n";
       }
       add_action('admin_init', 'force_post_title_init');
       add_action('edit_form_advanced', 'force_post_title');
       add_action('edit_page_form', 'force_post_title');
       ```
   
 * This works on classic editor but on block editor just refreshes back to the same
   post in draft.
 *     ```
       /**
        * Checks for empty post title, if empty sets the post status to draft
        *
        * @param $data
        * @param $postarr
        *
        * @return array
        */
       function abc_check_post_title( $data, $postarr ) {
           if ( is_array( $data ) && 'publish' == $data['post_status'] && empty( $data['post_title'] ) ) {
               $data['post_status'] = 'draft';
               update_option( 'abc_post_error', 'empty_title' );
           }
   
           return $data;
       }
       add_filter( 'wp_insert_post_data', 'abc_check_post_title', 10, 2 );
   
       /**
        * If the post title was empty, do not show post published message
        */
       add_filter( 'post_updated_messages', 'abc_remove_all_messages' );
   
       function abc_remove_all_messages( $messages ) {
           if ( get_option( 'abc_post_error' ) ) {
               return array();
           } else {
               return $messages;
           }
       }
   
       /**
        * Show admin notice for empty post title
        */
       add_action( 'admin_notices', 'abc_show_error' );
       function abc_show_error() {
           $screen = get_current_screen();
           if ( $screen->id != 'post' ) {
               return;
           }
           if ( ! get_option( 'abc_post_error' ) ) {
               return;
           }
           echo '<div class="error"><p>' . esc_html__( "You need to enter a Post Title in order to publish it.", "wse" ) . '</p></div>';
           delete_option( 'abc_post_error' );
       }
       ```
   

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  Moderator [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * (@bcworkz)
 * [6 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/required-mandatory-fields-in-wordpress-admin/#post-12845241)
 * [@mbavosa](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mbavosa/) – we have hijacked you
   topic for moderation purposes, apologies.
 * To answer your question, in order to display warnings prior to publishing, you
   need jQuery or JavaScript to intercept the publish click action and check if 
   the required fields have values or not. Because the different editors use different
   elements the same code cannot work for both.
 * If you really need to enforce the required fields, you cannot rely upon client
   side scripts. You must backup what the scripts check for by checking again server
   side. Here you could use the ‘wp_insert_post_data’ filter to verify required 
   fields. Unfortunately there is no elegant way to return a warning from here. 
   You could simply call `wp_die()` with a message to go back and supply missing
   information. It’s crude but effective. A more elegant response is feasible but
   takes some creative coding.
 * [@aamirkhatri](https://wordpress.org/support/users/aamirkhatri/) – thanks for
   understanding. If you’re willing to help through communication on the forums 
   and making your effort publicly available, you’re more than welcome to do so.
   I’m sure others would appreciate the effort. If that’s too much to ask, that’s
   OK too. We’re all volunteers here and each as their limits of what they can contribute.
   Any contribution that complies with [our guidelines](https://wordpress.org/support/guidelines/),
   no matter how small, is welcome.
 *  Thread Starter [devSoupGuy61](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mbavosa/)
 * (@mbavosa)
 * [6 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/required-mandatory-fields-in-wordpress-admin/#post-12853755)
 * [@bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/) thank you for your response.
   So how would you write a function for functions.php so that any post missing 
   a title cannot be published and will set to draft using the wp_die() to display
   a message?
 *  Moderator [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * (@bcworkz)
 * [6 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/required-mandatory-fields-in-wordpress-admin/#post-12859139)
 * Your existing ‘wp_insert_post_data’ callback would still be effective. The problem
   you’re having is more in that a message back to the user of the block editor 
   does not happen. I don’t have much experience with the block editor and don’t
   know how its messaging works. I imagine it involves a particular kind of API 
   response. You can alter the response with the ‘rest_post_dispatch’ filter. I 
   don’t know what sort of response would be meaningful though.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘Required/Mandatory fields in WordPress Admin’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [admin](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/admin/)
 * [editor](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/editor/)
 * [validation](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/validation/)

 * In: [Developing with WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/wp-advanced/)
 * 3 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * Last activity: [6 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/required-mandatory-fields-in-wordpress-admin/#post-12859139)
 * Status: not resolved

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