How to hide, and not to remove the attributes metabox?

Question

I need to hide, and not to remove the attributes meta box in the backend.

The following code is removing the metabox:

function hide_meta_box_attributes() {
remove_meta_box('pageparentdiv', 'post', 'normal'); } 
add_filter('add_meta_boxes', 'hide_meta_boxes_attributes');

The problem is, that I am running hierarchical posts, which means I need to have the possibility to have posts and subposts which is enabled by this metabox. When I am removing the metabox, the functionality is not working anymore. But for my authors, I need to hide these attributes metabox.

Anybody has a clue how to get a solution on this?

Answer 1

The get_hidden_meta_boxes function (source link) provides two filters that you can use to hide the meta box. (Pick just one of them.)

The first is default_hidden_meta_boxes (source), adding the metabox to the $hidden array will hide the metabox by default, but the user can select the screen options tab and choose to enable it.

The second filter is called hidden_meta_boxes (source), adding the metabox to the $hidden array here should just hide that metabox, period.

Example using hidden_meta_boxes filter:

function hide_meta_box_attributes( $hidden, $screen) {

    $hidden[] = 'pageparentdiv';
    return $hidden;

} 
add_filter('hidden_meta_boxes', 'hide_meta_box_attributes', 10, 2);