How to use auth_cookie_expired action in WordPress

Hey there! I’m here to help you understand the auth_cookie_expired action hook in WordPress. This hook is triggered once an authentication cookie has expired. To use this hook, you’ll first need to register it using add_action. You can add this code to the functions.php file of your active theme or create a custom WordPress plugin. WePlugins always recommends creating a custom plugin to avoid any issues when updating your theme in the future.

In the live examples below, we’ve defined a function named weplugins_execute_on_auth_cookie_expired_event which takes one parameter. We register it using add_action. The first parameter is the hook’s name auth_cookie_expired, the second is the function name weplugins_execute_on_auth_cookie_expired_event, the third is the priority of the hook, and the last is the number of arguments (if any) to be passed.

Sometimes you might need to remove a registered hook. In such cases, you can use remove_action to remove the auth_cookie_expired action.

Example 1: Basic Hook Implementation

This example demonstrates how to execute a function when the auth cookie expires.

    function weplugins_execute_on_auth_cookie_expired_event($cookie_elements){
       // Execute custom functionality here when the auth cookie expires.
    }
    add_action( "auth_cookie_expired", "weplugins_execute_on_auth_cookie_expired_event" , 10, 1);
    

Example 2: Removing a Hook

If you need to remove a previously added hook, here’s how you can do it.

    remove_action( "auth_cookie_expired", "weplugins_execute_on_auth_cookie_expired_event", 10, 1 );
    

Example 3: Using Parameters

Below is an example of using the parameters passed to the hook.

    function weplugins_handle_auth_cookie_expired($cookie_elements){
       // Use the $cookie_elements array to perform tasks based on expired cookies.
    }
    add_action( "auth_cookie_expired", "weplugins_handle_auth_cookie_expired", 10, 1);
    

Remember, when removing a hook, be sure to provide the same callback function name, priority, and number of arguments.