[Support request] Add Second Author to Post (Co-Author)

[Chris]

Hello,

I am trying to add a second author (“Co-Author”, “Reviewed by”, “Medically Reviewed by”, etc.) to a post. Most of the big medical and finance websites do this now and it’s common practice. It would be great to have the second author displayed in the post meta at the top, as well as in an additional author box at the bottom.

A great example is this: https://www.bankrate.com/banking/federal-reserve/fed-interest-rate-decision-biggest-winners/

When I searched the GP forums there are something like 15+ threads of people trying to do the same thing. However, none of the solutions provided really helped or were straightforward. GP support used to recommend installing some outdated third-party plugin with bad reviews. In the newer threads there are confusing instructions with code snippets that may or may not work anymore.

Could you please provide a guide on how to achieve this with Generate Blocks in 2022 from start to finish? I think it would help a lot of people.

Also please consider adding it as a standard feature to your theme. It’s something that will only get more important over time as Google will continue to value Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EAT) as an important ranking factor.

Thanks!

[David]

Hi there,

True co-authors, where many users are saved as the author, and said post shows up in each of their author archives are complicated. Simply because WordPress only allows a Single Author to be saved in the post database.

There has been an open core trac on the subject for many years:

https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/7650

And its still marked as a maybe later feature. In the meantime its left down to two plugins to handle.
It really is a core issue or something a plugin should be used to resolve, as adding this kind of function in the theme, would lead to theme lock, and thats something we don’t really advocate.

If you need the full co-author features ( not just a custom post meta with another name and avatar ) on the post then this is possibly the better plugin ( simply because it works out the box):

https://wordpress.org/plugins/publishpress-authors/

If its just meta values of a user name and avatar thats required for the second author then that could be accomplished with custom fields. But for a nice UX you would need something like ACF or MetaBox to handle it.

[Chris]

Thanks for your reply!

I think most people really only need to be able to:

1. Add a second or third author or editor somewhere in the post editor. In other words just being able to select one of the WP users in a custom drop down.
2. Then that author or editor to show up in the meta description: “Written by [name1], (reviewed by) [name2]” where “, (reviewed by) [name2]” only shows if multiple authors are selected.
3. As well as a second author box below the post, which only only shows if multiple authors are selected.

The functionality of having this post in multiple author archives seems to unimportant, at least for me. And in the example I mentioned the article doesn’t show up either when you click on the editor profile.

Would that be achievable with Advanced Custom Fields being the only third-party plugin needed? I would like to keep using Generate Blocks for the meta description and the author boxes.

[Ying]

Hi Chris,

You can use ACF plugin to create a custom field for single posts, eg. co-author.

Then you can use a GB headline block to call this post meta.

[Chris]

Thank you!

Could you please add a “User Avatar” option to the GP Dynamic Image block? I think it could help with the above.

[David]

Use ACF to add the custom fields you require for getting the co-author name and image,
You can then use the GenerateBlocks Image Block to display the Post Meta ( ACF Field name ) for your second image.

[Chris]

Thank you.

I still think a “User Avatar” option for the GP Dynamic Image feature would be a great addition.

[Ying]

GenerateBlocks’s image block does have an author avatar option.

But as David explained before, WordPress only allows a Single Author to be saved in the post database. So the option will only work for the true author.

The 2nd author image will need to be stored as a custom field, the same as the name.

[Myles]

I’m running into the same exact issue as the original poster.

I saw this:

“You can use ACF plugin to create a custom field for single posts, eg. co-author.

Then you can use a GB headline block to call this post meta.”

Can you elaborate on what to do here? I know of the ACF plugin, but not sure about anything else like how to create a custom field for single posts.

Can you please advise?

[David]

Hi there,

before we get into the details. How many actual authors do you have on the site ?
OR is it ok, that the Co-author is just a name ?

[Myles]

Hi David,

Just including the name would be fine in the by-line.

Though, if I could have another author box, that would be great–though I’m trying to avoid using other plugins.

That said, I’m not sure how it works out if there are two others in the by-line by only one author box. Who gets assigned the author box?

[Ying]

Hi Myles,

GB is just a tool to call the post meta.

For how to create a co-author post meta using ACF, it’s better to reach out ACF plugin, I found a support topic on ACF’s website:
https://support.advancedcustomfields.com/forums/topic/multiple-authors-per-post-acf/

[Alfredo]

I just ran into this issue. I understood about creating post meta for co-authors with ACF.

However, if I want the co-authors to have their author page as well I don’t think that is a good solution as there won’t be a link to their page. I would like to treat co-authors just as regular WordPress authors because these co-authors can be single authors in other posts.

What’s the solution if I want the co-authors to have the same features as the single authors?

[David]

Hi there,

Would both of the co-authors need to have the post listed in their author archive?
If it does then you would need a Co-author plugin, theres a couple of options in the WordPress.org plugin repository.

[Author]

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