How can I make it so the Add New Post page has Visibility set to Private by default?

Question

I'm trying to create a plugin that alters the Add New Post page so the Visibility field says "Private" by default:

Status: Draft
Visibility: **Private**
Publish immediately

[Publish]

...as opposed to what WordPress normally assumes:

Status: Draft
Visibility: **Public**
Publish immediately

[Publish]

At the moment, I'm using the "wp_insert_post_data" filter, and that is allowing me to change any posts with a post_status of "auto-draft" to "private". While this works, there is an unintended side-effect: Changing the post_status to "private" seems to publish the post automatically, changing the button in the editor to "Update". Furthermore, if the user saves before specifying a title, the post will be published with the title "Auto-Draft".

Is there any way I can simply change Visibility to Private by the default, in a manner that doesn't auto-publish the post, and change the button to "Update"? In vanilla WordPress, users can manually change the visibility to Private, and the button remains as Publish... I just need to achieve that via a plugin. I also want to ensure that "public" can still be selected by the user, should they desire to.

Thanks!

Answer 1

since you're developing a plug-in, I assume you don't want to touch any files outside of wp-content/plugins or ../themes for that matter.

However, if that's not the case, follow along:
Go to wp-admin/includes/meta-boxes.php and find:

$visibility = 'public';
$visibility_trans = __('Public');

Now change it to the obvious:

$visibility = 'private';
$visibility_trans = __('Private');

Again, this affects the meta-boxes.php file which is outside of the plugins folder. Nonetheless, I think the approach you should be taking is creating a new meta box, adding your custom visibility setting (i.e. private) and make the latter override the default WP visibility setting.

Best,
Chris

Answer 2

from the plugin; uses action 'post_submitbox_misc_actions' and some query to catch the user Publish form: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/private-post-by-default/

function default_post_visibility(){
global $post;

if ( 'publish' == $post->post_status ) {
    $visibility = 'public';
    $visibility_trans = __('Public');
} elseif ( !empty( $post->post_password ) ) {
    $visibility = 'password';
    $visibility_trans = __('Password protected');
} elseif ( $post_type == 'post' && is_sticky( $post->ID ) ) {
    $visibility = 'public';
    $visibility_trans = __('Public, Sticky');
} else {
    $post->post_password = '';
    $visibility = 'private';
    $visibility_trans = __('Private');
} ?>

<script type="text/javascript">
    (function($){
        try {
            $('#post-visibility-display').text('<?php echo $visibility_trans; ?>');
            $('#hidden-post-visibility').val('<?php echo $visibility; ?>');
            $('#visibility-radio-<?php echo $visibility; ?>').attr('checked', true);
        } catch(err){}
    }) (jQuery);
</script>
<?php
}

add_action( 'post_submitbox_misc_actions' , 'default_post_visibility' );

?>

Answer 3

The correct way to automatically mark a post as private is to do it with the wp_insert_post_data filter. It's very straightforward:

add_filter( 'wp_insert_post_data', 'mark_post_private' );
function mark_post_private( $data ) {
    if ( 'your_post_type_goes_here' == $data['post_type'] ) {
        $data['post_status'] = 'private';
    }

    return $data;
}