How to display featured image caption only if exists?

Question

I'm using this function in my functions.php to display image caption for faetured images:

function the_post_thumbnail_caption() {
global $post;

$thumbnail_id    = get_post_thumbnail_id($post->ID);
$thumbnail_image = get_posts(array('p' => $thumbnail_id, 'post_type' => 'attachment'));

if ($thumbnail_image && isset($thumbnail_image[0])) {
echo '<div class="front-caption">'.$thumbnail_image[0]->post_excerpt.'</div>';
}
} 

And using this in the template file to display the caption:

<?php 
if (the_post_thumbnail_caption()) { 
 the_post_thumbnail_caption(); 
}
?>

In the functions file I have the caption displaying in a div class="front-caption" which I am styling with borders. If the caption does not exist then it still displays the empty bordered div.

If no caption exists I do not want to display the bordered div. I just want it to display nothing.

How can I properly code this to work? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I am a "little late" but this solution worked great for me. It will show the div only if the caption is not empty.

<?php
$get_description = get_post(get_post_thumbnail_id())->post_excerpt;
the_post_thumbnail();
  if(!empty($get_description)){//If description is not empty show the div
  echo '<div class="featured_caption">' . $get_description . '</div>';
  }
?>

Answer 2

Please note that as of WordPress 4.6, the function has been added to core (/wp-includes/post-thumbnail-template.php).

Using the code previously posted here will cause the error:

Fatal error: Cannot redeclare the_post_thumbnail_caption()

To avoid this, please name the function something else, or if catering for earlier versions of WordPress in a theme, add a check like so:

if ( ! function_exists( 'the_post_thumbnail_caption' ) ) {
 function the_post_thumbnail_caption() {
  global $post;

  $thumbnail_id    = get_post_thumbnail_id($post->ID);
  $thumbnail_image = get_posts(array('p' => $thumbnail_id, 'post_type' => 'attachment'));

   if ($thumbnail_image && isset($thumbnail_image[0])) {
    return '<div class="front-caption">'.$thumbnail_image[0]->post_excerpt.'</div>';
   } else {
     return;
   }
 }
}

Answer 3

You could try this :

function the_post_thumbnail_caption() {
 global $post;

 $thumbnail_id    = get_post_thumbnail_id($post->ID);
 $thumbnail_image = get_posts(array('p' => $thumbnail_id, 'post_type' => 'attachment'));

  if ($thumbnail_image && isset($thumbnail_image[0])) {
   return '<div class="front-caption">'.$thumbnail_image[0]->post_excerpt.'</div>';
  } else {
    return;
  }
} 

and then :

echo the_post_thumbnail_caption(); 

Answer 4

Most of these answers appear rather outdated. Please try this function:

the_post_thumbnail_caption();

Ref: https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/the_post_thumbnail_caption/

For example:

<div class="featured-image-caption"><?php echo the_post_thumbnail_caption(); ?></div>