Show posts based on user preference in wordpress
This is an interesting snippet that will help you to set a preference for the users, so that they will choose their favorite categories and they will see posts from these categories only.
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| <?php | |
| add_action( 'show_user_profile', 'extra_fields' ); | |
| add_action( 'edit_user_profile', 'extra_fields' ); | |
| add_action( 'personal_options_update', 'save_fields' ); | |
| add_action( 'edit_user_profile_update', 'save_fields' ); | |
| add_action( 'pre_get_posts', 'exclude_category' ); | |
| function extra_fields($user) { | |
| $pref_cat = explode( ',', get_user_meta( $user->ID, 'pref_cat', true ) ); | |
| ?> | |
| <h3><?php _e("Extra profile information", "DOMAIN"); /*DOMAIN = Lang domain for l10n (optional)*/ ?></h3> | |
| <table class="form-table"> | |
| <tbody> | |
| <tr> | |
| <th><?php _e("Your preferred categories", "DOMAIN"); /*DOMAIN = Lang domain for l10n (optional)*/ ?></th> | |
| <td> | |
| <?php | |
| $categories = get_categories( array( 'type' => 'post' ) ); | |
| foreach( $categories as $cat ){ | |
| ?> | |
| <label><input <?php echo in_array( $cat->term_id, $pref_cat ) ? 'checked' : '' ?> type="checkbox" name="pref_cat[]" value="<?php echo $cat->term_id ?>"> <?php echo $cat->name ?></label> | |
| <?php | |
| } | |
| ?> | |
| </select> | |
| </tr> | |
| </tbody> | |
| </table> | |
| <?php | |
| } | |
| function save_fields( $user_id ) { | |
| if ( !current_user_can( 'edit_user', $user_id ) ) { return false; } //Checking if the current user has ability to edit the user profile information | |
| update_user_meta( $user_id, 'pref_cat', implode( ',', $_POST['pref_cat'] ) ); | |
| } | |
| function exclude_category( $query ) { | |
| if( is_user_logged_in() ) { | |
| $current_user = wp_get_current_user(); | |
| if ( $query->is_home() && $query->is_main_query() ) { | |
| $query->set( 'cat', get_user_meta( $current_user->ID, 'pref_cat', true ) ); | |
| } | |
| } | |
| } |
You can add those codes in your functions.php in the theme, if you think your theme won’t be changed. Otherwise mu-plugins is the best solution. To use mu-plugins, go to /wp-content/ and find the folder with name ‘mu-plugins’. If there is no folder in that name, then create a folder, name it ‘mu-plugins’, create a file inside that, give any name you like and paste the code in there. You don’t need to activate that plugin. Mu-plugins means must use plugins, so it will be activated automatically always. If you use mu-plugins then add a php start tag at the beginning of the code.
Enjoy! 
