Custom WordPress user permalink

1 comment

1. the problem with this question, and of a lot of questions like this, is the one pinted out by @Milo in comments: if you write a rewrite rule to handle you custom url, this goes in conflict with WordPress rules, e.g. if your urls are

   htt://example.com/username/city/occupation
   

   how WordPress can know if you are actually lookin for the page occupation child of page city granchild of page username?

   Answer is can’t, unless you do a query on database to see if the username part is a real username or not.

   To simplify things like that I wrote a plugin called Clever Rules and in this answer I will use a technique I used for that plugin. This technique can’t be used inside themes, but need to be used in plugins, so for this anwser I write a little plugin that uses 2 function taken from your code (just little bit optimized) and a small class that will do the magic.

   How it Works

   1. I create a class that extends WP class.
   2. Then I replace the global $wp variable (that normally contain an
      instance of WP) with an instance of my class. This one contain
      only a method: parse_request that override WP method, so when
      WordPress call parse_request the one my class is called instead
      of the core one.
   3. In this method I check the current url, if it seems one we want to target
      I check the first part of the url and if it’s a valid username set
      up the query vars otherwise let core parse_request run.

   Code

   <?php
   /**
    * Plugin Name: GM Custom Author Url WPSE Q#122829
    * Plugin URI: http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/122829/custom-wordpress-user-permalink
    * Author: G.M.
    * Author URI: http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/users/35541/g-m
    *
    */
   class GMWPE extends WP {    
     function parse_request( $extra_query_vars = '' )
     {
       $home_path = trim( parse_url( home_url(), PHP_URL_PATH ), '/' );
       $full = str_replace( $home_path, '', add_query_arg( array() ) );
       $sane_array = explode( '?', $full );
       $sane = trim( $sane_array[0], '/\' );
       $parts = array_filter( explode( '/', $sane ) );
       if ( count($parts) === 3 ) {
         $maybe_author = $parts[0];
         $user = get_user_by('slug', $maybe_author);
         if ( $user !== false ) {
           remove_filter( 'template_redirect', 'redirect_canonical' );
           $this->query_vars = array( 'author' => $user->ID );
           return;
         }
       }
       parent::parse_request( $extra_query_vars = '' );
     } 
   }
   
   add_action( 'setup_theme', 'GMWPE_init', 9999 );
   function GMWPE_init() {
     global $wp;
     if ( get_class( $wp ) === 'WP' ) $wp = new GMWPE();
   }
   
   add_filter( 'author_link', 'gmcau_author_link', 10, 3 );
   function gmcau_author_link( $link, $author_id, $author_nicename )
   {
     $part2 = get_user_meta( $author_id, '_themex_city', true );
     $part3 = get_user_meta( $author_id, '_themex_thesubject', true );
     if ( $part2 && $part3 ) {
       $newlink  = $author_nicename . '/' . $part2 . '/' . $part3;
       $link = home_url( $newlink );
     }
     return $link; 
   }
   
   add_action( 'user_profile_update_errors', 'gmcau_set_user_nicename_to_nickname', 10, 3 );
   function gmcau_set_user_nicename_to_nickname( &$errors, $update, &$user )
   {
     if ( ! empty( $user->nickname ) ) {
      $user->user_nicename = sanitize_title( $user->nickname, $user->display_name );
     }
   }
   

   This is the only thing you need (you can remove the functions you posted). Save this code in a file, put it in your plugins folder and activate it form your dashboard.

   ---

   PS: if you are interested in have a look on my plugin that use this technique to give a flexible urls handling you can find it here.

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