Prevent post from being published if no category selected

2 comments

1. You can do this easily with jQuery:

   /* Checks if cat is selected when publish button is clicked */
   jQuery( '#submitdiv' ).on( 'click', '#publish', function( e ) {
       var $checked = jQuery( '#category-all li input:checked' );
   
       //Checks if cat is selected
       if( $checked.length <= 0 ) {
           alert( "Please Select atleast one category" );
           return false;
       } else { 
           return true;
       }
   } );
   

   The above code will show an alert box if no category is selected. You can use dialog box instead if you’d like.

2. Here is my solution. I include this .js file on all Admin Pages, but since some of my custom post types don’t include categories, I handle that situation by checking and returning true at the beginning of the function. I’m not an expert at JQuery, so I wrote most of this in straight JavaScript. Note that it specifically checks for the unpublished category, as well as checking the number of categories selected.

   jQuery(document).ready(function ($) {
       // Check for exactly one category before publishing or updating
       $('#publish').click(checkForCategory);
   });
   
   function checkForCategory()
   {
       var categoryBlock = document.getElementById('categorychecklist');
       if categoryBlock == null {
           return true;
       }
       var catList = categoryBlock.getElementsByClassName('selectit');
   
       var error = false;
       var idx;
       var selectedCnt = 0;
       var uncategorized = false;
   
       // Iterate through all of the categories to count the checked ones
       for (idx = 0; idx < catList.length; idx++) {
           inputElements = catList[idx].getElementsByTagName('input');
           if ((inputElements.length > 0) && (inputElements[0].checked)) {
               selectedCnt++;
               if (catList[idx].innerHTML.indexOf('Uncategorized') > 0) {
                   uncategorized = true;
               }
           }
       }
   
       if (uncategorized) {
           alert("You must unselect the Uncategorized category before publishing.");
           error = true;
       }
       else if (selectedCnt == 0) {
           alert("You must select a category before publishing.");
           error = true;
       }
       else if (selectedCnt > 1) {
           alert("You may only select one category when publishing.");
           error = true;
       }
   
       return !error;
   }
   

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