![\"\"](\"https:\/\/intelliwolf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018-09-23-filter-wp-users.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nSo how do you add a custom filter to the WordPress users list?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Create the filter dropdown and button inside a function<\/li>
- Add that function to the 'restrict_manage_users<\/em>' action<\/li>
- Add a new filter for 'pre_get_users<\/em>'<\/li>
- Look at the $_GET<\/em> parameters to see which button was clicked<\/li>
- Change the meta query accordingly<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
I'll walk through those steps below, but here's the code I used if you just want that...<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\/*** Sort and Filter Users ***\/\nadd_action('restrict_manage_users', 'filter_by_job_role');\n\nfunction filter_by_job_role($which)\n{\n \/\/ template for filtering\n $st = '<select name=\"job_role_%s\" style=\"float:none;margin-left:10px;\">\n <option value=\"\">%s<\/option>%s<\/select>';\n\n \/\/ generate options\n $options = '<option value=\"job_seeker\">Seeker<\/option>\n <option value=\"job_lister\">Hirer<\/option>';\n \n \/\/ combine template and options\n $select = sprintf( $st, $which, __( 'Job Role...' ), $options );\n\n \/\/ output <select> and submit button\n echo $select;\n submit_button(__( 'Filter' ), null, $which, false);\n}\n\nadd_filter('pre_get_users', 'filter_users_by_job_role_section');\n\nfunction filter_users_by_job_role_section($query)\n{\n global $pagenow;\n if (is_admin() && 'users.php' == $pagenow) {\n \/\/ figure out which button was clicked. The $which in filter_by_job_role()\n $top = $_GET['job_role_top'] ? $_GET['job_role_top'] : null;\n $bottom = $_GET['job_role_bottom'] ? $_GET['job_role_bottom'] : null;\n if (!empty($top) OR !empty($bottom))\n {\n $section = !empty($top) ? $top : $bottom;\n \n \/\/ change the meta query based on which option was chosen\n $meta_query = array (array (\n 'key' => 'membership_user_role',\n 'value' => $section,\n 'compare' => 'LIKE'\n ));\n $query->set('meta_query', $meta_query);\n }\n }\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nYou put that code inside the functions.php<\/em> file of your child theme. Or you could add it to a WordPress plugin that you're building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let's go through the code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Create the filter dropdown and button inside a function<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We create a function which will have \"top\" or \"bottom\" passed through to it, depending on whether the user tries to filter the users with the buttons above or below the user list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
function filter_by_job_role($which)\n{\n \/\/ template for filtering\n $st = '<select name=\"job_role_%s\" style=\"float:none;margin-left:10px;\">\n <option value=\"\">%s<\/option>%s<\/select>';\n\n \/\/ generate options\n $options = '<option value=\"job_seeker\">Seeker<\/option>\n <option value=\"job_lister\">Hirer<\/option>';\n \n \/\/ combine template and options\n $select = sprintf( $st, $which, __( 'Job Role...' ), $options );\n\n \/\/ output <select> and submit button\n echo $select;\n submit_button(__( 'Filter' ), null, $which, false);\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n$which<\/em> will be either \"top\" or \"bottom\".<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We setup a template using $st<\/em> to make it easier to see and change our options. The %s<\/em> parts are going to be strings that we'll pass into the template later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I added style=\"float:none;margin-left:10px;\"<\/em> just for the visuals. You can leave that out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$options<\/em> contains the actual options we'll use. To make your code simpler and more robust, set the value<\/em> to be whatever the meta values you have for sorting the users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If for some reason you can't set the values here to your meta values, you'll have to conditionally filter the meta query in the other function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The $select<\/em> variable does most of the heavy lifting, combining your template with the other parts. The way it does this is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Pulls in the $st<\/em> template<\/li>
- Puts the value of $which<\/em> into the first %s<\/em> of $st<\/em><\/li>
- Adds \"Job Role...<\/em>\" as the first, valueless option (the second %s<\/em> of $st<\/em>)<\/li>
- Adds the rest of the options from $options<\/em> to the third %s<\/em> of $st<\/em> <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
The rest of the code in the function outputs the dropdown you just created and a button called \"Filter<\/em>\" that triggers the selection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Add that function to the 'restrict_manage_users' action<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Once you've done all that, hook that function into the 'restrict_manage_users' action with the usual add_action<\/em> function like so:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
add_action('restrict_manage_users', 'filter_by_job_role');<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nAdd a new filter for 'pre_get_users'<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
We create a function called filter_users_by_job_role_section<\/em> to filter the users and hook it into pre_get_users<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
add_filter('pre_get_users', 'filter_users_by_job_role_section');\n\nfunction filter_users_by_job_role_section($query)\n{\n global $pagenow;\n if (is_admin() && 'users.php' == $pagenow) {\n \/\/ put the filtering code in here\n }\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nWe bring in the WordPress global $pagenow<\/em> so we can check which page we're on. We only want to execute it on the users.php<\/em> page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We also double check that the user is logged in with Administrator privileges, which is just good practice for executing code like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Look at the $_GET parameters to see which button was clicked<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
There are a number of ways you can do this. PHP 7.0+ has some fancy filtering options with nested functions, but I went with simple and clear and backwards compatible:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$top = $_GET['job_role_top'] ? $_GET['job_role_top'] : null;\n$bottom = $_GET['job_role_bottom'] ? $_GET['job_role_bottom'] : null;\nif (!empty($top) OR !empty($bottom))\n{\n $section = !empty($top) ? $top : $bottom;\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nThis code essentially pulls in the values of the top and bottom buttons, checks that one of them has a value and then attaches that value to $section<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Worth noting is that with the way the buttons are setup, you're not going to have a situation where both<\/em> top and bottom buttons have a value. But even if you did, it would go with the value of the top button.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Change the meta query accordingly<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Because we're using add_filter<\/em> rather than add_action<\/em> here, we don't actually have to return<\/em> anything. We can just make a change to the $query<\/em>, which was passed into the function initially. We do that with this code:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$meta_query = array (array (\n 'key' => 'membership_user_role',\n 'value' => $section,\n 'compare' => 'LIKE'\n));\n$query->set('meta_query', $meta_query);<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\nI put this inside the if (!empty($top) OR !empty($bottom))<\/em>, but if you have other code that needs executing, then you might put it elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The $meta_query<\/em> has to be an array of an array because you can use this query for filtering on multiple meta keys. I'll go into that later in this post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The key<\/em> is the meta_key<\/em> in the wp_usermeta<\/em> table that you want to filter on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The value<\/em> is which meta_value<\/em> you want to show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In our setup, each user has a meta_key<\/em> of membership_user_role<\/em>. Job Seekers have the meta_value<\/em> of job_seeker<\/em>, while Hirers have the meta_value<\/em> of job_lister<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you use this code to filter your own users, you'll change
membership_user_role<\/em> <\/em>to whatever you use for filtering.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe compare<\/em> allows you to do a range of comparisons. We only need LIKE<\/em>, but you might use:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- LIKE<\/li>
- NOT LIKE<\/li>
- IN<\/li>
- NOT IN<\/li>
- EXISTS<\/li>
- NOT EXISTS<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
You can also use various operators and even some regex. See the WP_Meta_Query reference<\/a> for more ideas and implementation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Puts the value of $which<\/em> into the first %s<\/em> of $st<\/em><\/li>
- Add a new filter for 'pre_get_users<\/em>'<\/li>