Auto sort the wp-admin post list by a meta key

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I am using this following code in my functions file to hide and add some custom columns to my post-edit screen in wp-admin.

I am now trying to get the post list to sort by a post meta field (last name). I’ve read through many tutorials on how to do this, but I can’t find anything that matches what I have.

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I don’t need the column to be sortable, I just want the list to automatically sort itself by a custom meta key. And, just FYI, I’m not using a custom post type. This just the regular post type.

Can somebody shove me in the right direction on how to do this? 

    //Add a First and Last Name column to the post edit table
function topo_modify_post_table( $column ) {
    $column['first_name'] = 'First Name';
    $column['last_name'] = 'Last Name';

    return $column;
}
add_filter( 'manage_posts_columns', 'topo_modify_post_table' );


function topo_modify_post_table_row( $column_name, $post_id ) {

    $custom_fields = get_post_custom( $post_id );

    switch ($column_name) {
        case 'first_name' :
            ?><a style="font-weight:bold;" href="<?php echo admin_url(); ?>post.php?post=<? echo get_the_ID(); ?>&action=edit"><?php the_field('actor-first-name'); ?></a><?php
            break;
        case 'last_name' : ?>
            <a style="font-weight:bold;" href="<?php echo admin_url(); ?>post.php?post=<? echo get_the_ID(); ?>&action=edit"><?php the_field('actor-last-name'); ?></a><?php
            break;

        default:
    }
}

add_filter( 'manage_posts_custom_column', 'topo_modify_post_table_row', 10, 2 );




//Remove columns
add_filter('manage_post_posts_columns', 'ST4_columns_remove_category');

// REMOVE DEFAULT COLUMNS
function ST4_columns_remove_category($defaults) {
    // to get defaults column names:
    // print_r($defaults);
    unset($defaults['comments']);
    unset($defaults['date']);
    unset($defaults['author']);
    unset($defaults['title']);
    return $defaults;
}
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2 comments

  1. Something like this should work:

    function wpa84258_admin_posts_sort_last_name( $query ){
    global $pagenow;
    if( is_admin()
        && 'edit.php' == $pagenow
        && !isset( $_GET['orderby'] )
        && !isset( $_GET['post_type'] ) ){
            $query->set( 'meta_key', 'last_name' );
            $query->set( 'orderby', 'meta_value' );
            $query->set( 'order', 'ASC' );
    }
}
add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'wpa84258_admin_posts_sort_last_name' );

  2. Instead of relying on the $_GET variables, the orderby value is also passed in the $query class itself. So you could also write it like this:

    add_action('pre_get_posts', function($query) {
    if ($query->query['orderby'] == "actor-last-name") {
        $query->set('meta_key', 'actor-last-name');
        $query->set('orderby', 'meta_value');
    }
});