Description

This plugin adds “← Previous” and “Next →” links to the “Edit Post” admin page if a previous and next post are present, respectively. The link titles (visible when hovering over the links) reveal the title of the previous/next post. The links link to the “Edit Post” admin page for the previous/next posts so that you may edit them.

By default, a previous/next post is determined by the next lower/higher valid post based on the date the post was created and which is also a post the user can edit. Other post criteria such as post type (draft, pending, etc), publish date, post author, category, etc, are not taken into consideration when determining the previous or next post.

Users can customize how post navigation ordering is handled via the “Screen Options” panel available at the top of every page when editing a post. A dropdown presents options to order navigation by: ‘ID’, ‘menu_order’, ‘post_date’, ‘post_modified’, ‘post_name’, and ‘post_title’. Post navigation can further be customized via filters (see Filters section).

NOTE: Be sure to save the post currently being edited (if you’ve made any changes) before navigating away to the previous/next post!

Links: Plugin Homepage | Plugin Directory Page | GitHub | Author Homepage

Filters

The plugin is further customizable via six filters. Such code should ideally be put into a mu-plugin or site-specific plugin (which is beyond the scope of this readme to explain).

c2c_admin_post_navigation_orderby (filter)

The ‘c2c_admin_post_navigation_orderby’ filter allows you to change the post field used in the ORDER BY clause for the SQL to find the previous/next post. By default this is ‘post_date’ for non-hierarchical post types (such as posts) and ‘post_title’ for hierarchical post types (such as pages). If you wish to change this, hook this filter. Note: users can customize the post navigation order field for themselves on a per-post type basis via “Screen Options” (see FAQ and screenshot for more info).

Arguments:

$field (string) The current ORDER BY field
$post_type (string) The post type being navigated
$user_id (int) The user’s ID

Example:

/**
 * Modify how Admin Post Navigation orders posts for navigation by changing the
 * ordering of pages by 'menu_order'.
 *
 * @param string $field     The field used to order posts for navigation.
 * @param string $post_type The post type being navigated.
 * @param int    $user_id.  The user's ID.
 * @return string
 */
function custom_order_apn( $field, $post_type, $user_id ) {
    // Only change the order for the 'page' post type.
    if ( 'page' === $post_type ) {
        $field = 'menu_order';
    }

    return $field;
}
add_filter( 'c2c_admin_post_navigation_orderby', 'custom_order_apn', 10, 3 );

c2c_admin_post_navigation_post_statuses (filter)

The ‘c2c_admin_post_navigation_post_statuses’ filter allows you to modify the list of post_statuses used as part of the search for the prev/next post. By default this array includes ‘draft’, ‘future’, ‘pending’, ‘private’, and ‘publish’. If you wish to change this, hook this filter. This is not typical usage for most users.

Arguments:

$post_statuses (array) The array of valid post_statuses
$post_type (string) The post type

Example:

/**
 * Modify Admin Post Navigation to allow and disallow certain post statuses from being navigated.
 *
 * @param array  $post_statuses Post statuses permitted for admin navigation.
 * @param string $post_type     The post type.
 * @return array
 */
function change_apn_post_status( $post_statuses, $post_type ) {
    // Add a post status.
    // Note: by default these are already in the $post_statuses array: 'draft', 'future', 'pending', 'private', 'publish'
    $post_statuses[] = 'trash';

    // Remove post status(es).
    $post_statuses_to_remove = array( 'draft' ); // Customize here.
    if ( 'page' === $post_type ) {
        $post_statuses_to_remove[] = 'pending';
    }
    foreach ( $post_statuses_to_remove as $remove ) {
        if ( false !== $index = array_search( $remove, $post_statuses ) ) {
            unset( $post_statuses[ $index ] );
        }
    }

    return array_values( $post_statuses );
}
add_filter( 'c2c_admin_post_navigation_post_statuses', 'change_apn_post_status', 10, 2 );

c2c_admin_post_navigation_post_types (filter)

The ‘c2c_admin_post_navigation_post_types’ filter allows you to modify the list of post_types used as part of the search for the prev/next post. By default this array includes all available post types. If you wish to change this, hook this filter.

Arguments:

$post_types (array) The array of valid post_types

Examples:

/**
 * Modify Admin Post Navigation to only allow navigating strictly for posts.
 *
 * @param array $post_types Post types that should have admin post navigation.
 * @return array
 */
function change_apn_post_types( $post_types ) {
    return array( 'post' );
}
add_filter( 'c2c_admin_post_navigation_post_types', 'change_apn_post_types' );



/**
 * Modify Admin Post Navigation to disallow navigation for the 'recipe' post type.
 *
 * @param array $post_types Post types that should have admin post navigation.
 * @return array
 */
function remove_recipe_apn_post_types( $post_types ) {
    if ( isset( $post_types['recipe'] ) ) {
        unset( $post_types['recipe'] ); // Removing a post type
    }
    return $post_types;
}
add_filter( 'c2c_admin_post_navigation_post_types', 'remove_recipe_apn_post_types' );

c2c_admin_post_navigation_prev_text (filter)

The ‘c2c_admin_post_navigation_prev_text’ filter allows you to change the link text used for the ‘Previous’ link. By default this is ‘← Previous’.

Arguments:

$text (string) The ‘previous’ link text.

Example:

/**
 * Changes the text for the 'previous' link to 'Older' output by the Admin Post Navigation plugin.
 *
 * @param string $text The text used to indicate the 'next' post.
 * @return string
 */
function my_c2c_admin_post_navigation_prev_text( $text ) {
    return 'Older';
}
add_filter( 'c2c_admin_post_navigation_prev_text', 'my_c2c_admin_post_navigation_prev_text' );

c2c_admin_post_navigation_next_text (filter)

The ‘c2c_admin_post_navigation_next_text’ filter allows you to change the link text used for the ‘Next’ link. By default this is ‘Next →’.

Arguments:

$text (string) The ‘next’ link text.

Example:

/**
 * Changes the text for the 'next' link to 'Newer' output by the Admin Post Navigation plugin.
 *
 * @param string $text The text used to indicate the 'next' post.
 * @return string
 */
function my_c2c_admin_post_navigation_next_text( $text ) {
    return 'Newer';
}
add_filter( 'c2c_admin_post_navigation_next_text', 'my_c2c_admin_post_navigation_next_text' );

c2c_admin_post_navigation_display (filter)

The ‘c2c_admin_post_navigation_display’ filter allows you to customize the output links for the post navigation.

Arguments:

$text (string) The current output for the prev/next navigation link

Example:

/**
 * Change the markup displayed by the Admin Post Navigation plugin.
 *
 * @param string $text The text being output by the plugin.
 * @return string
 */
function override_apn_display( $text ) {
    // Simplistic example. You could preferably make the text bold using CSS.
    return '<strong>' . $text . '</strong>';
}
add_filter( 'c2c_admin_post_navigation_display', 'override_apn_display' );

Screenshots

A screenshot of the previous/next links adjacent to the 'Edit Post' admin page header when Javascript is enabled.
A screenshot of the previous/next links in their own 'Edit Post' admin page sidebar panel when Javascript is disabled for the admin user.

Installation

Unzip admin-post-navigation.zip inside the /wp-content/plugins/ directory for your site (or install via the built-in WordPress plugin installer)
Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ admin menu in WordPress
Optional: When editing a post type that supports admin navigation (which are all post types by default), use the “Screen Options” menu to customize how navigation is handled.
Optional: See documentation for available programmatic customizations

FAQ

Installation Instructions

Unzip admin-post-navigation.zip inside the /wp-content/plugins/ directory for your site (or install via the built-in WordPress plugin installer)
Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ admin menu in WordPress
Optional: When editing a post type that supports admin navigation (which are all post types by default), use the “Screen Options” menu to customize how navigation is handled.
Optional: See documentation for available programmatic customizations

How do I change it so the previous/next links find the adjacent post according to post_date?

See the Filters section for the c2c_admin_post_navigation_orderby filter, which has just such an example.

Can I change the link text to something other than “← Previous” and/or “Next →”?

Yes. See the Filters section for the c2c_admin_post_navigation_prev_text and/or c2c_admin_post_navigation_next_text filters, which have just such examples. To change or amend the overall markup for the links, look into the c2c_admin_post_navigation_display filter.

Reviews

SodaBicarbona 🌸5️⃣ 17, 2023

prev / next speeds up article editing and works with CPT

nadinenb ❄️1️⃣2️⃣ 8, 2020

I tried it out of curiosity but unfortunately I do not see a use for it and security plugins are sending warnings because it has not been updated in 3 years so I'll have to uninstall it. Other than that, if you can find a use for it, then rest assured that it works as advertised.

thehappyhipster ❄️2️⃣ 26, 2019

Great plugin that adds a small but very helpful functionality for a very specific usercase. Thanks for taking the time to publish it.

herrkf 🍂 🔟 24, 2017

Thanks to this plug-in, editing multiple articles became very easy.

rafy777 🌸4️⃣ 14, 2017

There is something wrong, its so random in its operation!

chaug 🍃3️⃣ 7, 2017 1 reply

Navigation is limited to a few posts and makes no sense.

Read all 38 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Admin Post Navigation” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Scott Reilly

“Admin Post Navigation” has been translated into 5 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “Admin Post Navigation” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

2.1 (2017-12-26)

New: Add ability for users to customize the navigation order via a Screen Options dropdown.
- Add optional $user_id arg to get_post_type_orderby(), and use it, to take into account user preference.
- Add $user_id arg to ‘c2c_admin_post_navigation_orderby’ filter.
- Add get_setting_name() helper function for getting the setting name for the given post type.
- Add screen_settings() to output the dropdown.
- Add save_screen_settings() to save user’s preference.
Fix: Resolve issue where navigation links failed to appear on posts with an apostrophe in their titles.
New: Add is_valid_orderby() helper function to verify a given orderby value is valid.
New: Add get_post_statuses() for getting post statuses valid for navigation of a given post type.
New: Abstract logic for determining the orderby for a given post type into get_post_type_orderby().
New: Abstract logic for determining if a post type has admin navigation enabled into is_post_type_navigable().
New: Add README.md.
Change: Use get_the_title() instead of the_title_attribute() to get post titles.
Change: Discontinue sending $user_id arg to ‘c2c_admin_post_navigation_post_statuses’ filter.
Change: Remove pre-WP 4.3 support for JS relocation of prev/next links.
Change: Use sprintf() to format output markup rather than concatenating strings, variables, and function calls.
Change: For unit tests, enable more error output.
Change: For unit tests, default WP_TESTS_DIR to /tmp/wordpress-tests-lib rather than erroring out if not defined via environment variable.
Change: Add GitHub link to readme.
Change: Note compatibility through WP 4.9+.
Change: Remove support for WordPress older than 4.7 (should still work for earlier versions)
Change: Minor whitespace tweaks in unit test bootstrap

2.0 (2016-01-14)

New: Add support for RTL display.
New: Enable post navigation for media when viewed/edited from list mode.
New: Move CSS into enqueuable .css file.
New: Move JS into enqueueable .js file.
Bugfix: Navigate non-hierarchical posts by post_date by default for more expected ordering.
Change: Use the_title_attribute() to get post title for use in attribute.
Remove: Delete add_css() and add_js().
Change: Add support for language packs:
- Don’t load plugin translations from file.
- Remove .pot file and /lang subdirectory.
Change: Note compatibility through WP 4.4+.
Change: Remove support for WordPress older than 4.0.
Change: Explicitly declare methods in unit tests as public.
New: Add inline documentation for class variables.
New: Create empty index.php to prevent files from being listed if web server has enabled directory listings.

1.9.2 (2015-08-19)

Bugfix: Fix so navigation links appear in WordPress 4.3 (by targeting h1 instead of h2). Backwards compatibility maintained.
Update: Note compatibility through WP 4.3+

1.9.1 (2015-07-08)

Bugfix: Fix JS placement of navigation links to target the desired h2, which may not always be the first on the page
Update: Add additional unit test using example for customizing post status navigation
Update: Fix incorrect example for excluding post statuses via filter
Update: Improve example for using hook to define custom order for navigation
Update: Remove unused line of code.
Update: Note compatibility through WP 4.2+

1.9 (2015-03-14)

Fix to only append navigation to the first h2 on the page. props @pomegranate
Add filter ‘c2c_admin_post_navigation_prev_text’ to allow customization of the previous navigation link text. props @pomegranate
Add filter ‘c2c_admin_post_navigation_next_text’ to allow customization of the next navigation link text. props @pomegranate
Restrict orderby value to be an actual posts table field
Add unit tests
Prevent querying for a post if there isn’t a global post_ID set or if no valid post_statuses were set
Cast result of ‘c2c_admin_post_navigation_post_statuses’ filter to an array to avoid potential PHP warnings with improper use
Improved sanitization of values returned via the ‘c2c_admin_post_navigation_post_statuses’ filter
Add docs for new filters
Documentation improvements
Reformat plugin header
Note compatibility through WP 4.1+
Minor code reformatting (bracing, spacing)
Change documentation links to wp.org to be https
Add plugin icon
Regenerate .pot

1.8 (2013-12-29)

Hide screen option checkbox for metabox if JS hides metabox for inline use
Improve spacing within its metabox (when shown if JS is disabled)
Note compatibility through WP 3.8+
Change donate link
Minor readme.txt tweaks (mostly spacing)
Update banner
Update screenshots

1.7.2

Add check to prevent execution of code if file is directly accessed
Note compatibility through WP 3.5+
Move screenshots into repo’s assets directory

1.7.1

Use string instead of variable to specify translation textdomain
Re-license as GPLv2 or later (from X11)
Add ‘License’ and ‘License URI’ header tags to readme.txt and plugin file
Add banner image for plugin page
Remove ending PHP close tag
Minor documentation tweaks
Note compatibility through WP 3.4+

1.7

Add support for localization
Use post type label instead of post type name, when possible, in link title attribute
Use larr/rarr characters to denote direction of navigation instead of larquo/rarquo
Enhanced styling of navigation links
Hook ‘admin_enqueue_scripts’ action instead of ‘admin_head’ to output CSS
Hook ‘load-post.php’ to add actions for the post.php page rather than using $pagenow
Add version() to return plugin version
Add register_post_page_hooks()
Remove admin_init() and hook ‘do_meta_boxes’ in register_post_page_hooks() instead
Update screenshots for WP 3.3
Note compatibility through WP 3.3+
Drop compatibility with versions of WP older than 3.0
Update screenshots for WP 3.3
Tweak plugin description
Add link to plugin directory page to readme.txt
Minor code reformatting
Minor readme.txt reformatting

1.6.1

Use ucfirst() instead of strtoupper() to capitalize post type name for metabox title
Note compatibility through WP 3.2+
Minor code formatting changes (spacing)
Add FAQ section to readme.txt
Fix plugin homepage and author links in description in readme.txt

1.6

Add support for navigation in other post types
- Add filter ‘c2c_admin_post_navigation_post_types’ for customizing valid post_types for search
- Enable navigation for all post types by default
- Allow per-post_type sort order for navigation by adding $post_type argument when applying filters for ‘c2c_admin_post_navigation_orderby’
- Pass additional arguments ($post_type and $post) to functions hooking ‘c2c_admin_post_navigation_post_statuses’
Ensure post navigation only appears on posts of the appropriate post_status
For hierarchical post types, order by ‘post_title’, otherwise order by ‘ID’ (filterable)
Move application of filters from admin_init() into new do_meta_box(), which is hooking ‘do_meta_box’ action, so they only fire when actually being used
Output JavaScript via ‘admin_print_footer_scripts’ action rather than ‘admin_footer’
Rename class from ‘AdminPostNavigation’ to ‘c2c_AdminPostNavigation’
Switch from object instantiation to direct class invocation
Explicitly declare all functions public static and class variables private static
Documentation tweaks
Note compatibility through WP 3.1+

1.5

Change post search ORDER BY from ‘post_date’ to ‘ID’
Add filter ‘c2c_admin_post_navigation_orderby’ for customizing search ORDER BY field
Add filter ‘c2c_admin_post_navigation_post_statuses’ for customizing valid post_statuses for search
Deprecate (but still support) ‘admin_post_nav’ filter
Add filter ‘c2c_admin_post_navigation_display’ filter as replacement to ‘admin_post_nav’ filter to allow modifying output
Retrieve post title via get_the_title() rather than directly from object
Also strip tags from the title prior to use in tag attribute
Don’t navigate to auto-saves
Check for is_admin() before defining class rather than during constructor
esc_sql() on SQL strings that have potentially been filtered
Use esc_attr() instead of attribute_escape()
Store plugin instance in global variable, $c2c_admin_post_navigation, to allow for external manipulation
Fix localization of the two strings
Instantiate object within primary class_exists() check
Note compatibility with WP 3.0+
Drop compatibility with version of WP older than 2.8
Minor code reformatting (spacing)
Remove docs from top of plugin file (all that and more are in readme.txt)
Remove trailing whitespace in header docs
Add Upgrade Notice and Filters sections to readme.txt
Add package info to top of plugin file

1.1.1

Add PHPDoc documentation
Note compatibility with WP 2.9+
Update copyright date
Update readme.txt (including adding Changelog)

1.1

Add offset and limit arguments to query()
Only get ID and post_title fields in query, not *
Change the previous/next post query to ensure it only gets posts the user can edit
Note compatibility with WP 2.8+

1.0

Initial release

Description

Filters

c2c_admin_post_navigation_orderby (filter)

c2c_admin_post_navigation_post_statuses (filter)

c2c_admin_post_navigation_post_types (filter)

c2c_admin_post_navigation_prev_text (filter)

c2c_admin_post_navigation_next_text (filter)

c2c_admin_post_navigation_display (filter)

Screenshots

Installation

FAQ

Reviews

Contributors & Developers

Interested in development?

Changelog

2.1 (2017-12-26)

2.0 (2016-01-14)

1.9.2 (2015-08-19)

1.9.1 (2015-07-08)

1.9 (2015-03-14)

1.8 (2013-12-29)

1.7.2

1.7.1

1.7

1.6.1

1.6

1.5

1.1.1

1.1

1.0

Meta

Ratings

Contributors

Support

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