Custom Guest Authors

Changelog

1.9.1

• Fixed: WordPress.NamingConventions.PrefixAllGlobals.NonPrefixedFunctionFound warnings persisted in Plugin Check despite phpcs.xml declaring cga as an authorised prefix. Plugin Check runs its own internal PHPCS configuration and does not read phpcs.xml — it derives the expected prefix from the plugin slug (custom_guest_authors), which does not match the short cga_ prefix. All 15 cga_* function declarations now carry an inline phpcs:ignore annotation for this specific rule. The phpcs.xml prefix declaration is retained for local PHPCS runs.

1.9.0

• Added: phpcs.xml added to declare cga_ and custom_guest_authors_ as authorised prefixes for WordPress.NamingConventions.PrefixAllGlobals. Without this file the rule had no way to recognise the plugin’s registered prefix and raised a false-positive warning on every global function declaration. Also pins minimum_wp_version to 5.7 and testVersion to 8.5- to align PHPCS analysis with the plugin’s declared requirements.
• Updated: Requires PHP bumped from 7.0 to 8.5 to reflect the current PHP stable release.
• Updated: Tested up to confirmed at 6.9 (WordPress 6.9 “Gene”, released 2 December 2025).

1.8.9

• Fixed: WordPress.DB.DirectDatabaseQuery.DirectQuery warning on the cached transient count query in the Advanced tab debug table. The result of the $wpdb->get_var() SELECT COUNT query is now wrapped with wp_cache_get() / wp_cache_set() using the ‘custom-guest-authors’ cache group. The query runs at most once per page load; subsequent calls within the same request read from the object cache. A phpcs:ignore inline annotation is retained for the query line itself since there is no WordPress API equivalent for a LIKE-pattern option count.

1.8.8

• Fixed: WordPress.Security.ValidatedSanitizedInput.MissingUnslash warning on the nonce check in cga_save_meta_box_data(). $_POST[‘cga_nonce’] is now passed through wp_unslash() before sanitize_text_field() prior to wp_verify_nonce(), matching the pattern already used for all other $_POST reads in the plugin.

1.8.7

• Removed: cga_load_textdomain() and its init hook removed. WordPress automatically loads translations for plugins hosted on WordPress.org as of WP 4.6; an explicit load_plugin_textdomain() call is unnecessary and flagged as a Plugin Check error.

1.8.6

• Fixed: custom_guest_authors_suppress_url() was calling get_post_meta() directly on every author link render, bypassing the transient cache used by the name filter. On archive pages with many posts this produced one uncached database query per post per page load. The function now reads from the cga_{post_id} transient first and falls back to get_post_meta() only on a cache miss, then sets the transient using the same cga_cache_ttl option and TTL logic as custom_guest_authors_name().

1.8.5

• Fixed: get_the_author_display_name is not a registered WordPress core filter hook and was never fired, meaning the guest author override had no effect in any context that calls get_the_author() programmatically. Replaced with the correct get_the_author hook, which WordPress fires whenever get_the_author() is called without arguments.

1.8.4

• Fixed: Active settings tab was not reliably preserved after saving. options.php uses wp_safe_redirect() internally; the existing cga_settings_redirect filter only hooked wp_redirect, so the tab query parameter was silently dropped on hosts where the redirect bypassed that filter. The same callback is now also registered on wp_safe_redirect so both code paths are covered. No change to the function itself.

1.8.3

• Fixed: Join style preview on the Display tab was static and only reflected the last saved value. Switching between Natural, Comma, and Ampersand radio cards now updates both preview outputs immediately without requiring a page save. Preview text is computed client-side from author names and the translated “and” string passed from PHP via wp_localize_script.
• Improved: js/settings.js updated with buildPreview() and updatePreview() functions. The delegated change listener now additionally triggers a preview refresh when the cga_join_style radio group changes.
• Improved: Preview output divs in the Display tab now carry id=”cga-preview-3″ and id=”cga-preview-2″ for reliable JS targeting.
• Improved: wp_localize_script() added to cga_enqueue_settings_assets() passing cgaSettings.previewNames and cgaSettings.i18nAnd so preview names and the conjunction are translation-aware.

1.8.2

• Fixed: Radio cards and checkbox cards on the settings page showed no visual feedback when clicked. The .selected and .wpcp-checkbox-card–checked CSS classes were only applied server-side at page load and did not update on interaction. A new js/settings.js file adds a delegated change listener that keeps card visual state in sync with the underlying input state at all times.
• New: js/settings.js added to /js/ directory and enqueued via wp_enqueue_script() in cga_enqueue_settings_assets(), loaded in the footer with no dependencies.

1.8.1

• Fixed: Classic editor meta box was still hardcoded to appear only on post and page post types, ignoring the Active Post Types setting entirely. It now reads cga_enabled_post_types and registers the meta box only for the selected types.
• Fixed: cga_suppress_schema toggle was not saving correctly. WordPress HTML form submissions send nothing for unchecked checkboxes, so the option could never be saved as false. A hidden companion input now sends 0 when unchecked, and the sanitize callback was changed from rest_sanitize_boolean to a dedicated cga_sanitize_checkbox() function that handles both 0 and 1 correctly.
• Fixed: cga_enabled_post_types checkboxes could not be saved as an empty array — the sanitize callback was returning array(‘post’) as a fallback when nothing was submitted. A hidden sentinel input now ensures the POST key is always present, and the sanitizer filters out the empty sentinel value so all-unchecked correctly saves as an empty array.

1.8.0

• New: General tab — Post type selection. A checkbox grid of all public post types replaces the single “Override on Pages” toggle. The cga_override_on_pages option is superseded by cga_enabled_post_types (array). Posts enabled by default; all other types opt-in.
• New: Display tab — Multi-Author Join Style. Radio card selector: Natural language (A, B and C), Comma only (A, B, C), Ampersand (A & B & C). Stored as cga_join_style.
• New: Display tab — Show Override On. Radio card selector to restrict the override to singular post views only or apply on all views including archive/home loops. Stored as cga_apply_on.
• New: Advanced tab — Cache Lifetime. Configurable transient TTL in hours (default 12, range 1–168). Previously hardcoded.
• New: Advanced tab — Suppress author from JSON-LD schema. Toggle that removes the author property from Article schema. Compatible with Yoast SEO and Rank Math.
• New: Advanced tab — Debug Information. Read-only table showing plugin version, active post types, join style, cache TTL, cached transient count, WordPress version, and PHP version.
• Improved: Settings page CSS updated with checkbox grid, radio card, and debug table component styles.

• Improved: cga_register_settings() expanded with sanitize callbacks for all new options.

• New: General tab — Post type selection. A checkbox grid of all public post types replaces the single “Override on Pages” toggle. The cga_override_on_pages option is superseded by cga_enabled_post_types (array). Posts is enabled by default; all other types are opt-in.

• New: Display tab — Multi-Author Join Style. Radio card selector with three options: Natural language (A, B and C), Comma only (A, B, C), and Ampersand (A & B & C). Stored as cga_join_style.
• New: Display tab — Show Override On. Radio card selector to restrict the override to singular post views only (not archive/home loops) or apply everywhere. Stored as cga_apply_on.
• New: Display tab — Preview updated to show Malay example names and reflect the current join style live.
• New: Advanced tab — Cache Lifetime. Configurable transient TTL in hours (default 12, range 1–168). Previously hardcoded.
• New: Advanced tab — Suppress author from JSON-LD schema. Toggle that removes the author property from Article schema. Compatible with Yoast SEO (wpseo_schema_graph) and Rank Math (rank_math/schema/article).
• New: Advanced tab — Debug Information. Read-only table showing plugin version, active post types, join style, cache TTL, cached transient count, WordPress version, and PHP version.
• Improved: cga_register_settings() expanded with sanitize callbacks for all new options including a dedicated cga_sanitize_post_types() function that validates against get_post_types().
• Improved: settings.css expanded with checkbox grid, radio card, and debug table component styles.

1.7.5

• Removed: Author name prefix feature removed entirely. The theme already outputs its own “Written by” or equivalent label, making the plugin prefix redundant and producing doubled output (e.g. “Written by Oleh John Doe”).
• Fixed: Author name is now output as plain unlinked text. Guest authors are not WordPress users and have no author archive, so the hyperlink generated by the_author_posts_link() was meaningless. A new filter on the_author_posts_link() suppresses the anchor and returns the plain name instead.
• Updated: POT and ms_MY translation files updated to remove prefix-related strings and recompiled.

1.7.4

• New: Added Malay (Malaysia) translation — ms_MY.po and ms_MY.mo included in /languages/. The “and” conjunction correctly outputs as “dan” when WordPress is set to ms_MY locale.
• New: Added POT template file (custom-guest-authors.pot) covering all translatable strings in the plugin.
• Fixed: load_plugin_textdomain() was never called despite the Text Domain header being declared. All __() calls were silently falling back to English regardless of the site locale. The text domain is now properly loaded on init.

1.7.3

• Fixed: Prefix was concatenated directly against the author name with no space, producing output like “ByJohn Doe”. The prefix is now rtrim’d and a single space is always inserted between it and the first author name.
• Improved: Multi-author output now uses smart natural-language joining. Two authors produce “Guest A and Guest B”; three or more produce “Guest A, Guest B and Guest C”. The configurable separator field has been removed as it is superseded by this logic.
• Removed: cga_separator option and its settings field — no longer needed given the smart join behaviour.
• Improved: Display tab preview updated to show both the 2-author and 3-author formats with the current prefix applied.

1.7.2

• Improved: Settings page completely redesigned to match the established plugin suite design language — wpcp- CSS classes, slate color palette, CSS custom properties, page header with SVG icon and version badge.
• Improved: Tab navigation converted from JavaScript button-based switching to URL ?tab= parameter links, consistent with the suite pattern and requiring no client-side JS.
• Improved: Boolean toggle converted from a plain checkbox to a proper toggle switch component matching the suite style.
• Improved: Form now posts to options.php via the Settings API (settings_fields) instead of self-posting, with a wp_redirect filter to restore the active tab after save.
• Improved: All dashicons removed from the settings page and replaced with inline SVG icons.
• Removed: settings.js no longer needed and removed from the plugin.
• Improved: meta-box.css and gutenberg-sidebar.css updated to use the same CSS variables and class conventions as the suite.

1.7.1

• Fixed: cga_override_on_pages option was registered and displayed in the UI but never read in the front-end filter — pages were always overridden regardless of the checkbox state. The filter now correctly bails on pages when the option is disabled.
• Fixed: The hidden tab input always output ‘cga-tab-general’ on fresh page loads, overriding sessionStorage tab memory and forcing the settings page to always open on the General tab. The input is now empty on GET requests and only populated after a successful POST save.
• Fixed: Removed dead register_setting() calls whose sanitize_callbacks were never invoked since the form posts to self rather than options.php. Manual sanitization in the save handler is now the sole authoritative path.

1.7

• New: Settings page at Settings > Guest Authors with tabbed interface (General and Display tabs).
• New: General tab — configurable default guest author name shown when no per-post guest author is set.
• New: General tab — option to enable guest author overrides on Pages (disabled by default, Posts only).
• New: Display tab — configurable multi-author separator (default “, “; examples: ” & “, ” / “).
• New: Display tab — optional author name prefix (e.g. “By “) prepended to all guest author output.
• New: Display tab — live preview card showing example output with current separator and prefix settings.
• New: Settings page assets (css/settings.css, js/settings.js) properly separated and enqueued only on the settings page hook.
• New: Tab state persisted in sessionStorage so the last active tab is remembered within the admin session.
• Improved: Separator and prefix options wired into the front-end author name filter.

1.6.2

• Fixed: Classic editor meta box was appearing twice in the block editor — once as the dedicated Gutenberg sidebar panel and again as a WordPress compatibility meta box. The classic meta box is now suppressed when the block editor is active for the post type.
• Fixed: Removed unused useDispatch declaration in gutenberg-sidebar.js (dead code).
• Fixed: PluginDocumentSettingPanel now resolves from wp.editor (canonical WP 6.6+ location) with a fallback to wp.editPost, eliminating deprecation notices in the browser console on WP 6.6+.
• Improved: Added wp-editor to Gutenberg sidebar script dependencies to support the wp.editor fallback.

1.6.1

• Fixed: JavaScript crash in Gutenberg sidebar on initial render when post type is not yet resolved by the block editor store.
• Fixed: use_block_editor_for_post_type() deprecated since WP 6.5 — replaced with wp_use_block_editor_for_post_type() with a backwards-compatible shim for older WP versions.
• Fixed: Potential PHP warning on post-new.php when get_current_screen()->post_type returns an empty string before the post type is determined.

1.6

• New: Dedicated “Guest Authors” sidebar panel in the classic editor (meta box).
• New: Dedicated “Guest Authors” sidebar panel in the block editor (Gutenberg PluginDocumentSettingPanel).
• New: Post meta registered via register_post_meta() with REST API exposure, enabling full Gutenberg read/write support.
• New: CSS and JS assets separated into /css/ and /js/ directories and properly enqueued via WordPress APIs.
• New: Minimalist slate-toned styling for the meta box and Gutenberg panel, consistent with the plugin suite design language.
• New: Plugin constants defined (CGA_VERSION, CGA_PLUGIN_DIR, CGA_PLUGIN_URL) for cleaner asset enqueuing.
• Improved: Classic editor assets only load on post edit screens and only when the block editor is not active, preventing unnecessary asset loading.
• Requires at least: WordPress 5.7 (useEntityProp introduced in core-data).

1.5

• Fixed: Transient cache is now invalidated immediately on post save, preventing stale guest author names from displaying after an update.
• Fixed: Cache invalidation also fires on direct post meta updates (e.g. via REST API or programmatic writes) that bypass save_post.
• Improved: Transient key shortened and namespaced to cga_{post_id} for consistency.
• Improved: Default guest author option key namespaced to cga_default_guest_author to prevent collision with other plugins.
• Improved: Added ABSPATH exit guard as standard security practice.
• Improved: Empty author entries are now filtered out from comma-separated lists.

1.2

• Support for multiple guest authors separated by commas.

1.1

• Transient caching for performance.
• Security measures: input sanitization and output escaping.

1.0

• Initial release.