Change order of custom columns for edit panels

Question

When you register a custom column like so:

//Register thumbnail column for au-gallery type
add_filter('manage_edit-au-gallery_columns', 'thumbnail_column');
function thumbnail_column($columns) {
$columns['thumbnail'] = 'Thumbnail';
return $columns;
}

by default it appears as the last one on the right. How can I change the order? What if I want to show the above column as the first one or the second one?

Thank you in advance

Answer 1

Hi @Mirko:

You are basically asking a PHP question, but I'll answer it because it's in the context of WordPress. You basically need to rebuild the columns array, inserting your column before the column you want it to be left of:

add_filter('manage_posts_columns', 'thumbnail_column');
function thumbnail_column($columns) {
  $new = array();
  foreach($columns as $key => $title) {
    if ($key=='author') // Put the Thumbnail column before the Author column
      $new['thumbnail'] = 'Thumbnail';
    $new[$key] = $title;
  }
  return $new;
}

Answer 2

the only way i know how is to create your own array of columns

// Add to admin_init function
add_filter('manage_edit-au-gallery_columns', 'add_my_gallery_columns');

function add_my_gallery_columns($gallery_columns) {
        $new_columns['cb'] = '<input type="checkbox" />';

        $new_columns['id'] = __('ID');
        $new_columns['title'] = _x('Gallery Name', 'column name');
                // your new column somewhere good in the middle
        $new_columns['thumbnail'] = __('Thumbnail');

        $new_columns['categories'] = __('Categories');
        $new_columns['tags'] = __('Tags');
        $new_columns['date'] = _x('Date', 'column name');

        return $new_columns;
    }

and then render this extra added columns like you normally would

// Add to admin_init function
    add_action('manage_au-gallery_posts_custom_column', 'manage_gallery_columns', 10, 2);

    function manage_gallery_columns($column_name, $id) {
        global $wpdb;
        switch ($column_name) {
        case 'id':
            echo $id;
                break;

        case 'Thumbnail':
            $thumbnail_id = get_post_meta( $id, '_thumbnail_id', true );
                // image from gallery
                $attachments = get_children( array('post_parent' => $post_id, 'post_type' => 'attachment', 'post_mime_type' => 'image') );
                if ($thumbnail_id)
                    $thumb = wp_get_attachment_image( $thumbnail_id, array($width, $height), true );
                elseif ($attachments) {
                    foreach ( $attachments as $attachment_id => $attachment ) {
                        $thumb = wp_get_attachment_image( $attachment_id, array($width, $height), true );
                    }
                }
                if ( isset($thumb) && $thumb ) {echo $thumb; } else {echo __('None');}
            break;
        default:
            break;
        } // end switch
}

Hope This Helps