[Resolved] show just primary category on meta-entry-items

Hi there,

are you using RankMath on your site ?

So that code requires RankMath SEO plugin, are you using any SEO plugin eg. Yoast ?

Yeah, its a plugin thing.
And its complicated. See here where Tom originally created a shortcode to display a Primary Category if one existed, if not it displays the firsst term.

I tweaked that code to work with the Themes post meta. Try this PHP Snippet:

add_filter('generate_category_list_output', 'dynamic_category_link_function');
function dynamic_category_link_function($category){
    if ( 'post' !== get_post_type() ) {
	return;
    }
    $categories = get_the_category();
    $category_link = '';
	
    if ( class_exists('WPSEO_Primary_Term') ) {
        // Show the post's 'Primary' category, if this Yoast feature is available, & one is set
        $wpseo_primary_term = new WPSEO_Primary_Term( 'category', get_the_id() );
        $wpseo_primary_term = $wpseo_primary_term->get_primary_term();
        $term = get_term( $wpseo_primary_term );

        if ( is_wp_error( $term ) ) {
            // Default to first category (not Yoast) if an error is returned
            $category_link = get_category_link( $categories[0]->term_id );
            $term_name = get_term( $categories[0]->term_id  )->name;
        } else {
            // Yoast Primary category
            $category_link = get_category_link( $term->term_id );
            $term_name = get_term( $term->term_id )->name;
        }
    } else {
        // Default, display the first category in WP's list of assigned categories
        $category_link = get_category_link( $categories[0]->term_id );
        $term_name = get_term( $categories[0]->term_id  )->name;
    }

    return sprintf(
        '<span class="cat-links">%1$s<span class="screen-reader-text">%2$s</span>
        <a href="%3$s" rel="category tag">%4$s</a>
        </span> ',
        apply_filters( 'generate_inside_post_meta_item_output', '', 'categories' ),
        esc_html_x( 'Categories', 'Used before category names.', 'generatepress' ),
        $category_link,
        $term_name
    );
}

So here in the code, we set a get out clause. ie. if its NOT a POST, eg. its a Page or other post type. then just return the standard categories:

if ( 'post' !== get_post_type() ) {
	return;
}

for example you could change this to:

if ( 'post' !== get_post_type() || is_single() ) {
	return;
}

And this would mean it would show the regular categories on a single post. So now only archives showing the post post type will show just the primary category.

Let us know where you want to show primary and where you want to show ALL categories and we can help with the code.

Ok, instead use the original code Tom provided here:

https://generatepress.com/forums/topic/category-link-issue-on-gp-element/page/2/#post-1761111

This will create the a shortcode: [dynamic_category_link]

The in appearance > Elements, create a new Hook Element.
In the text area add the shortcode.
Set the Hook to generate_after_entry_title
Check the Execute Shortcodes
Set the Display Rules to Blog and All Archives

This should not break anything 🙂 And just return the primary category after the first Date

Yeah sorry in couldn’t make that work.
If you have time to revisit in the future then let us know 🙂