Conditionally Redirect WordPress Users After Login

by Vishavjeet | Aug 23, 2022 | blog, WordPress

How To Conditionally Redirect WordPress Users After Login

In WordPress, it is possible to redirect users to specific pages after they have logged in, based on certain conditions. This can be useful if you want to direct different types of users to different areas of your website after they have logged in. For example, you may want to redirect administrators to the admin dashboard, while directing other users to the homepage.

To achieve this, we can use the login_redirect filter in WordPress. The login_redirect filter allows you to modify the URL that a user is redirected to after logging in. By default, this filter redirects users to the previous page they were on before logging in or to the homepage if no previous page is set.

Here is an example of how you can use the login_redirect filter to redirect users based on their role:

function my_login_redirect( $redirect_to, $request, $user ) {
    // Check if the user is an administrator
    if ( is_a( $user, 'WP_User' ) && in_array( 'administrator', $user->roles ) ) {
        // Redirect administrators to the admin dashboard
        return admin_url();
    } else {
        // Redirect other users to the homepage
        return home_url();
    }
}
add_filter( 'login_redirect', 'my_login_redirect', 10, 3 );

This code uses the login_redirect filter to redirect users to different pages based on their role. Administrators are redirected to the admin dashboard, while other users are redirected to the homepage. The function accepts three parameters: $redirect_to, $request, and $user. $redirect_to is the URL that the user will be redirected to, $request is the original request, and $user is the user object of the user that has just logged in.

You can also redirect users based on custom user meta data, for example:

if ( $user->get( 'custom_meta' ) === 'true' ) {
    // Redirect to custom page
    return home_url('custom-page');
}

This code will check if a user has a custom meta data “custom_meta” and if it is set to “true”, then it will redirect the user to a custom page.

It is important to note that the login_redirect filter only affects the redirection of users who have successfully logged in. If a user’s login attempt is unsuccessful, the login_redirect filter will not be applied.

To implement this code, you can add it to your theme’s functions.php file or create a custom plugin for it. This will ensure that the code remains active even if you change your theme in the future.

In conclusion, the login_redirect filter in WordPress is a powerful tool that can be used to redirect users to specific pages based on certain conditions, such as their role or custom meta data. This can be useful for directing different types of users to different areas of your website, helping to enhance the user experience