Change the Author Slug from Username to Nickname

Question

Hi to the community,
is it possible to change the default username slug to nickname if is available?

By default the url is something like: http://domain.tld/author/(admin) ,
is it possible to rewrite and change to http://domain.tld/author/(nickname) so if a user change his nickname from the profile page the slug it will change also to the new name given by the user?

thanks a lot!
Philip

Answer 1

I see two ways to solve this problem: changing the data that forms the author URL, or changing the author URL. You probably should handle redirects too, so old URLs to user archives keep working when a user changes their nickname.

Changing the author URL

There are two parts to this question: handle incoming links with the author nickname instead of the author slug, and generate author post urls with the nickname instead of the standard slug.

The first part is solved by hooking into the request filter, checking whether it is an author request, and looking up the author by nickname instead of slug. If we find an author, we change the query parameters to use the author ID.

add_filter( 'request', 'wpse5742_request' );
function wpse5742_request( $query_vars )
{
    if ( array_key_exists( 'author_name', $query_vars ) ) {
        global $wpdb;
        $author_id = $wpdb->get_var( $wpdb->prepare( "SELECT user_id FROM {$wpdb->usermeta} WHERE meta_key='nickname' AND meta_value = %s", $query_vars['author_name'] ) );
        if ( $author_id ) {
            $query_vars['author'] = $author_id;
            unset( $query_vars['author_name'] );    
        }
    }
    return $query_vars;
}

The second part is done by hooking into the author_link filter and replacing the standard author part (indicated by $author_nicename) with the nickname.

add_filter( 'author_link', 'wpse5742_author_link', 10, 3 );
function wpse5742_author_link( $link, $author_id, $author_nicename )
{
    $author_nickname = get_user_meta( $author_id, 'nickname', true );
    if ( $author_nickname ) {
        $link = str_replace( $author_nicename, $author_nickname, $link );
    }
    return $link;
}

Changing the data that forms the author URL

A maybe easier way would be to update the otherwise unused user_nicename field in the database. I think it is generated from the user login and never changed after that. But I'm not an expert in user management, so use it at your own risk.

add_action( 'user_profile_update_errors', 'wpse5742_set_user_nicename_to_nickname', 10, 3 );
function wpse5742_set_user_nicename_to_nickname( &$errors, $update, &$user )
{
    if ( ! empty( $user->nickname ) ) {
        $user->user_nicename = sanitize_title( $user->nickname, $user->display_name );
    }
}

Answer 2

Use this plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/display-name-author-permalink/

Though it's not tested for 3.2.1. I've been using it without a problem.

If you receive a header error when activating the plugin, you'll find a fix here: http://wordpresscloaker.com/blog/how-to-fix-wordpress-plugin-does-not-have-a-valid-header-error.html

Answer 3

Jan Fabry's code snippets are good. However, you don't need the third snippet ("Changing the data that forms the author URL") if you have the Active Directory Integration plugin. You can set that plugin to override the nickname user meta value by going to the plugin's User Meta tab and entering mailnickname:string:nickname in the Additional User Attributes area. Note that you may need to replace mailnickname with whatever Active Directory user attribute works for you.

Note: The Author Slug plugin doesn't work in Multisite/Network mode.

Answer 4

If you change the author slug watch out for broken links, especially in relation to SEO if your site is already live.

Answer 5

a easy way is the plugin Author Slug

Also you can use small code:

add_action('init', 'set_new_author_base');
function set_new_author_base() {
    global $wp_rewrite;
    $author_slug = 'new_slug';
    $wp_rewrite->author_base = $author_slug;
}