How do you add a custom option to user data?

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I would like to add avatars to my users. I have a limited group on a site I’m working. Uploading isn’t really a problem we can just put the images on the server and use URL’s to set our avatars(Only about 5 people will actually be able to post.). That said how would I add a field to the user page they can fill out with a image URL that can then be fetched later. I know you can fetch user data via the the_author_meta(); function but how do I add a custom user field that can them be filled out and put into the database that is the associated with the user?

Or would if just be better to use something that already exist like the aim field for example since none of us will be filling that out.

1 Answer
1

To add a field to the profile/user edit page you need to use the edit_user_profile hook and show_user_profile hook so:

add_action( 'show_user_profile', 'my_extra_user_fields' );
add_action( 'edit_user_profile', 'my_extra_user_fields' );
function my_extra_user_fields( $user ) 
{ ?>
    <h3>User avatar</h3>

    <table class="form-table">
        <tr>
            <th><label for="user_avatar">User avatar</label></th>
            <td>
                <input id="user_avatar" name="user_avatar" type="text" value="
                    <?php $user_avatar = get_the_author_meta( 'user_avatar', $user->ID ); 
                        echo $user_avatar ? $user_avatar : '';?>" />
                <span class="description"><?php _e("Please enter Avatar URL."); ?></span>
            </td>
        </tr>
    </table>
<?php }

then to save that field you need to use personal_options_update hook and edit_user_profile_update hook so:

add_action( 'personal_options_update', 'save_my_extra_user_fields' );
add_action( 'edit_user_profile_update', 'save_my_extra_user_fields' );

function save_my_extra_user_fields( $user_id ) 
{
    if ( !current_user_can( 'edit_user', $user_id ) ) { return false; }else{

        if(isset($_POST['user_avatar']) && $_POST['user_avatar'] != ""){
            update_usermeta( $user_id, 'user_avatar', $_POST['user_avatar'] );
        }
    }
}

and as you already know you can featch that data using the_author_meta() or get_user_meta()

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