Title: Published By
Author: Scott Reilly
Published: <strong>01 Avril 2014</strong>
Last modified: 11 Sgiugn 2018

---

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![](https://ps.w.org/published-by/assets/banner-772x250.png?rev=885841)

This plugin **hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress**.
It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when
used with more recent versions of WordPress.

![](https://ps.w.org/published-by/assets/icon-128x128.png?rev=972925)

# Published By

 By [Scott Reilly](https://profiles.wordpress.org/coffee2code/)

[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/published-by.1.3.zip)

 * [Details](https://lmo.wordpress.org/plugins/published-by/#description)
 * [Reviews](https://lmo.wordpress.org/plugins/published-by/#reviews)
 *  [Installation](https://lmo.wordpress.org/plugins/published-by/#installation)
 * [Development](https://lmo.wordpress.org/plugins/published-by/#developers)

 [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/published-by/)

## Description

This plugin records which user actually published a post, which in a multi-author
environment may not always be the original post author. This helps to maintain accountability
for who was ultimately responsible for a post appearing live on a site.

The admin listing of posts is amended with a new “Published By” column that shows
the name of the person who published the post (for those posts that have actually
been published). A dropdown above admin post listings allows for the listing to 
be filtered by a particular publishing user (but only includes posts with a known
publishing user).

For posts that were published prior to the use of this plugin (and thus the plugin
could not directly record who published those posts), the plugin makes a best guess
attempt to ascertain who published the post. After failing to find the publisher
of the post as recorded by the plugin, it checks for who last edited the post, then
who is responsible for the latest revision of the post, and finally failing those,
it assumes it was the post author. In cases where it had to go through this process,
the name of the person it deduced as the likely publisher appears italicized and
with a question mark at the end. If you’d rather the plugin not make an attempt 
to guess the publisher, you can disable the checks by including this snippet in 
your theme’s functions.php (or, ideally, a site-specific mu-plugin):

    ```
    <?php add_filter( 'c2c_published_by_skip_guessing', '__return_true' ); ?>
    ```

Links: [Plugin Homepage](http://coffee2code.com/wp-plugins/published-by/) | [Plugin Directory Page](https://wordpress.org/plugins/published-by/)
| [GitHub](https://github.com/coffee2code/published-by/) | [Author Homepage](http://coffee2code.com)

## Screenshots

 * [[
 * A screenshot of the admin post listing showing the added “Published By” column.
   It demonstrates the mix of a post puublished by the current user, a post poblished
   by another user and two posts that existed before the plugin was activated (one
   guessed to be published by the current user and one guessed to be published by
   yet another user).
 * [[
 * A screenshot of the Publish metabox for a published post showing the current 
   user who published the post.
 * [[
 * A screenshot of the Publish metabox for a published post showing another user
   who published the post.

## Installation

 1. Install via the built-in WordPress plugin installer. Or download and unzip `published-
    by.zip` inside the plugins directory for your site (typically `wp-content/plugins/`)
 2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ admin menu in WordPress

## FAQ

  Installation Instructions

 1. Install via the built-in WordPress plugin installer. Or download and unzip `published-
    by.zip` inside the plugins directory for your site (typically `wp-content/plugins/`)
 2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ admin menu in WordPress

  If a post is published, then changed back to a draft, and then published a second
time by a different user, who is noted as the publishing user?

The user most recently responsible for a post getting published will be recorded
as the publishing user. Editing a published post does not change the publishing 
user.

  How do I see (or hide) the “Published By” column in an admin listing of posts?

In the upper-right of the page is a “Screen Options” link that reveals a panel of
options. In the “Columns” section, check (to show) or uncheck (to hide) the “Published
By” option.

  Why does the person’s name listed as the “Published By” user appear in italics
with a question mark at the end?

It’s an indication that for the given post the name shown is a guess by the plugin
based on existing post data. For posts that were published prior to the use of this
plugin (and thus the plugin could not directly record who published those posts),
the plugin makes a best guess attempt to ascertain who published the post. After
failing to find the publisher of the post as recorded by the plugin, it checks for
who last edited the post, then who is responsible for the latest revision of the
post, and finally failing those, it assumes it was the post author. It’s likely 
that the guess is correct, but it’s impossible to say for certain when the plugin
isn’t activated when posts were published.

  Does this plugin include unit tests?

Yes.

## Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

## Contributors & Developers

“Published By” is open source software. The following people have contributed to
this plugin.

Contributors

 *   [ Scott Reilly ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/coffee2code/)

[Translate “Published By” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/published-by)

### Interested in development?

[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/published-by/), check
out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/published-by/), or subscribe
to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/published-by/) by
[RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/published-by/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).

## Changelog

#### 1.3 (2018-04-24)

 * New: Add ability to filter the admin listing of posts by the publishing user
 * New: Delete reference to user when user is deleted, or reassign to another user
   if deleted user’s posts/comments get reassigned
 * Fix: Show column even when post listing is being filtered
 * Fix: Properly close a ‘span’ tag
 * Change: Ensure user profile URL is sanitized before display (hardening)
 * New: Add README.md
 * Change: Minor whitespace tweaks to unit test bootstrap
 * Change: Add GitHub link to readme
 * Change: Note compatibility through WP 4.9+
 * Change: Update copyright date (2018)
 * Change: Update installation instruction to prefer built-in installer over .zip
   file

#### 1.2 (2017-01-12)

 * New: When showing the ‘Published by’ user, link their display name to their profile
   page.
    - Add `get_user_url()` to get the link to the user’s profile
    - Add styles for the ‘Published by:’ metabox appearance
 * New: Visually indicate when the ‘published by’ user for a post is guessed
    - Add `is_publisher_id_guessed()` to determine if the publisher_id for a given
      post was guessed
    - Display guessed publisher’s name in italics with question mark at the end
 * Change: Register meta field via `register_meta()`
    - Add own `register_meta()`
    - Remove `hide_meta()` in favor of use of `register_meta()`
    - Include meta field and value in REST API responses for posts
 * Change: Modify handling for ‘c2c_published_by_post_status’ filter
    - Add and internally use`get_post_statuses()` as getter for post statuses that
      should have the ‘Published By’ column
    - Allow more dynamic filtering by running the filter in `get_post_statuses()`
      rather than just once on ‘init’
 * Change: If the current user is the person who published the post, then simply
   state “you” as the name.
 * Change: Add more unit tests.
 * Change: Ensure `get_publisher_id()` returns an integer value.
 * Change: Enable more error output for unit tests.
 * Change: Default `WP_TESTS_DIR` to `/tmp/wordpress-tests-lib` rather than erroring
   out if not defined via environment variable.
 * Change: Note compatibility through WP 4.7+.
 * Change: Remove support for WordPress older than 4.6 (should still work for earlier
   versions)
 * New: Add FAQ about showing or hiding the “Published By” column.
 * Change: Update existing two screenshots and add a third.
 * Change: Update copyright date (2017).

#### 1.1 (2016-03-21)

 * Change: Add support for language packs:
    - Don’t load plugin translations from file.
    - Remove ‘Domain Path’ from plugin header.
    - Remove .pot file and /lang subdirectory.
 * Change: Explicitly declare methods in unit tests as public.
 * New: Add LICENSE file.
 * New: Add empty index.php to prevent files from being listed if web server has
   enabled directory listings.
 * Change: Note compatibility through WP 4.4+.
 * Change: Update copyright date (2016).

#### 1.0.3 (2015-09-02)

 * Change: Use `dirname(__FILE__)` instead of `__DIR__` since the latter is only
   available on PHP 5.3+.
 * Change: Minor tweaks to formatting for inline docs.
 * Change: Note compatibility through WP 4.3+.

#### 1.0.2 (2015-02-17)

 * Minor additions to unit tests
 * Use **DIR** instead of `dirname(__FILE__)`
 * Note compatibility through WP 4.1+
 * Update copyright date (2015)
 * Regenerate .pot

#### 1.0.1 (2014-08-25)

 * Minor amendment to documentation
 * Minor tweak to an FAQ question
 * Change documentation links to wp.org to be https
 * Change donate link
 * Note compatibility through WP 4.0+
 * Add plugin icon

#### 1.0

 * Initial public release

## Meta

 *  Version **1.3**
 *  Last updated **8 years ago**
 *  Active installations **60+**
 *  WordPress version ** 4.6 or higher **
 *  Tested up to **4.9.29**
 *  Language
 * [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/published-by/)
 * Tags
 * [author](https://lmo.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/author/)[editor](https://lmo.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/editor/)
   [post](https://lmo.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/post/)[publish](https://lmo.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/publish/)
   [publisher](https://lmo.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/publisher/)
 *  [Advanced View](https://lmo.wordpress.org/plugins/published-by/advanced/)

## Ratings

 5 out of 5 stars.

 *  [  1 5-star review     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/published-by/reviews/?filter=5)
 *  [  0 4-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/published-by/reviews/?filter=4)
 *  [  0 3-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/published-by/reviews/?filter=3)
 *  [  0 2-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/published-by/reviews/?filter=2)
 *  [  0 1-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/published-by/reviews/?filter=1)

[Add my review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/published-by/reviews/#new-post)

[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/published-by/reviews/)

## Contributors

 *   [ Scott Reilly ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/coffee2code/)

## Support

Got something to say? Need help?

 [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/published-by/)

## Donate

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