Require authors to set featured image for post

3 comments

1. You need to hook the Publish Action in a custom PlugIn you write. Although this is to require a title, this should get you started, you just need to check if a featured image was assigned.

   add_action( 'pre_post_update', 'bawdp_dont_publish' );
   
   function bawdp_dont_publish()
   {
       global $post;
       if ( strlen( $post->title ) < 10 ) {
           wp_die( 'The title of your post have to be 10 or more !' );
       }
   }
   

   Look at (has_post_thumbnail( $post->ID )) to determine if a post has a featured image.

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2. Given Gary’s example above, I’ve written the following to my functions.php file:

   function featured_image_requirement() {
        if(!has_post_thumbnail()) {
             wp_die( 'You forgot to set the featured image. Click the back button on your browser and set it.' ); 
        } 
   }
   add_action( 'pre_post_update', 'featured_image_requirement' );
   

   I’d much rather see this in a plugin as well – there’s one called Mandatory Field but it doesn’t work with scheduled posts. Both are not really eloquent solutions.

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3. you can use a plugin

   https://wordpress.org/plugins/require-featured-image/
   

   or you can copy and paste below code in your wordpress theme functions.php file:

   <?php
   /**
    * Require a featured image to be set before a post can be published.
    */
   add_filter( 'wp_insert_post_data', function ( $data, $postarr ) {
       $post_id              = $postarr['ID'];
       $post_status          = $data['post_status'];
       $original_post_status = $postarr['original_post_status'];
       if ( $post_id && 'publish' === $post_status && 'publish' !== $original_post_status ) {
           $post_type = get_post_type( $post_id );
           if ( post_type_supports( $post_type, 'thumbnail' ) && ! has_post_thumbnail( $post_id ) ) {
               $data['post_status'] = 'draft';
           }
       }
       return $data;
   }, 10, 2 );
   add_action( 'admin_notices', function () {
       $post = get_post();
       if ( 'publish' !== get_post_status( $post->ID ) && ! has_post_thumbnail( $post->ID ) ) { ?>
           <div id="message" class="error">
               <p>
                   <strong><?php _e( 'Please set a Featured Image. This post cannot be published without one.' ); ?></strong>
               </p>
           </div>
       <?php
       }
   } );
   

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