How to use author_rewrite_rules filter in WordPress

author_rewrite_rules filter

Author archives in WordPress often follow patterns like /author/author-name/, and may also include pagination and feed paths. To tap into these rewrite rules, WordPress offers the author_rewrite_rules filter. For all you WordPress enthusiasts looking to tweak these rules, you can use this filter by registering it with add_filter. You can write this code into the functions.php of your activated theme or in a custom WordPress Plugin. At WePlugins, we always recommend creating a custom WordPress Plugin for such modifications. This way, when you update your WordPress Theme, nothing breaks. If at any point you need to remove this filter, you can do so with remove_filter.

Parameters

Below is the parameter required to use this hook:

• $author_rewrite: (string[]) Array of rewrite rules for author archives, keyed by their regex pattern.

Live Example 1: Modifying Author Rewrite Rules

In this example, we define a function weplugins_modify_author_rewrite_rules_defaults which updates the rewrite rules according to your needs.

    function weplugins_modify_author_rewrite_rules_defaults($author_rewrite) { 
        // Update the $author_rewrite variable according to your website requirements and return this variable.
        return $author_rewrite; 
    }
    // add the filter
    add_filter( "author_rewrite_rules", "weplugins_modify_author_rewrite_rules_defaults", 10, 1 );
    

Live Example 2: Removing the Filter

Sometimes you might want to remove a filter you’ve added. Here’s how you can remove the author_rewrite_rules filter using remove_filter.

    remove_filter( "author_rewrite_rules", "weplugins_modify_author_rewrite_rules_defaults", 10, 1 );
    

Ensure you provide the same callback function name, priority, and number of arguments while removing the hook callback.

Live Example 3: Applying the Filter

To apply the filter, you can use the apply_filters function as shown below:

    apply_filters( 'author_rewrite_rules', array() );
    

If you’re having any trouble using this hook, please don’t hesitate to contact us for customization support.