Stable tag: 4.1.3
Requires at least: 6.4
Tested up to: 7.0
Requires PHP: 7.4
License: GPLv2 or later
License URI: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
Tags: authors, users, multiple authors, co-authors, multi-author
Contributors: batmoo, danielbachhuber, automattic, GaryJ
Assign multiple bylines to posts, pages, and custom post types with a search-as-you-type input box.
Assign multiple bylines to posts, pages, and custom post types via a search-as-you-type input box. Co-authored posts appear on a co-author's archive page and in their feed. Co-authors may edit the posts they are associated with, and co-authors who are contributors may only edit posts if they have not been published (as is core behavior).
Add writers as bylines without creating WordPress user accounts. Simply create a guest author profile for the writer and assign the byline as you normally would.
On the frontend, use the Co-Authors Plus template tags or the block editor blocks to list co-authors anywhere you'd normally list the author.
Guides for site owners, themers and developers live in the docs/ directory on GitHub (they are not bundled in the distribution ZIP):
- Guest authors and roles and capabilities
- Template tags and blocks
- Querying posts by author or co-author
- Customizing Co-Authors Plus: recipes for the most common filters
- Filters and actions and the REST API
- WP-CLI commands
- Upgrading to 4.0
Co-Authors Plus is an almost complete rewrite of the Co-Authors plugin originally developed by Weston Ruter (2007). The original plugin was inspired by the 'Multiple Authors' plugin by Mark Jaquith (2005).
- IMPORTANT: If you are using the original Co-Authors plugin, disable it before installing Co-Authors Plus.
- Extract the co-authors-plus.zip file and upload its contents to the
/wp-content/plugins/directory. Alternately, you can install directly from the Plugin directory within your WordPress Install. - Activate the plugin through the "Plugins" menu in WordPress.
- Place co-authors template tags in your template.
- Add co-authors to your posts and pages.
- Multiple authors can be added to a Post, Page, or Custom Post Type using an auto-complete interface.
- Guest authors allow you to assign bylines without creating WordPress user accounts. You can also override existing WordPress account meta by mapping a guest author to a WordPress user.
If you've just installed Co-Authors Plus, you might notice that the bylines are being added in the backend but aren't appearing on the front end. You'll need to add the template tags to your theme before the bylines will appear.
When a user is deleted from WordPress, they will be removed from all posts for which they are co-authors. If you reassign their posts to another user, that user will be the co-author instead.
Yes! You can use Co-Authors Plus on WordPress multisite. Co-Authors Plus can be activated on a site-by-site basis or network-activated. If you create guest authors, however, those guest authors will exist on a site-by-site basis.
By default, a WordPress user needs the edit_others_posts capability to assign co-authors to posts, or the equivalent for other post types, such as edit_others_pages for pages. This is typically granted to the Editor role but can be altered with the coauthors_plus_edit_authors filter. The roles and capabilities guide has an example that lets the Author role assign co-authors.
A WordPress user will need the list_users capability to open the Guest Authors screen. This is typically granted to the Administrator role but can be altered with the coauthors_guest_author_manage_cap filter. The roles and capabilities guide covers every permission check in detail.
Yes! You can create a list of all co-authors with a template tag coauthors_wp_list_authors() template tag. This template tag accepts many of the same arguments as wp_list_authors(). Look in template-tags.php for more details.
Yes! You can disable guest authors entirely through a filter. Having the following line load before init (for example in your theme's functions.php or in a plugin) will do the trick:
add_filter( 'coauthors_guest_authors_enabled', '__return_false' )
Yes. Many parts of Co-Authors Plus can be changed with a filter, for example making every byline come from guest authors, or stopping author archives from matching on the post's WordPress author. See Customizing Co-Authors Plus for recipes, and the filters and actions reference for the full list.
The highlights of recent releases are below. Every change, including older releases, is listed in CHANGELOG.md.
- Changed: Co-authors now get the rights the post's author would have under the co-author's own role. A Subscriber credited on a post can no longer edit it, and co-authors can trash posts they are credited on when their role allows it for their own posts.
- Changed: Only Administrators can link a guest author to a WordPress account by default. Change this with the
coauthors_guest_author_manage_capfilter. - Security: Tighten permission checks when changing a post's co-authors, linking guest authors to accounts, and reading author details through the REST API.
- Security: Tighten permission checks when changing a post's co-authors. Thanks to Faisal Ahammad for responsibly disclosing the issue.
Security release that tightens several co-author permission checks. Co-authors now get the rights the post's author would have under their own role, and only Administrators can link guest authors to accounts by default. Updating is recommended.
Security release that tightens permission checks when changing a post's co-authors. Updating is recommended.