Opened 23 months ago

Last modified 3 weeks ago

#18042 new enhancement

Need a way to override wp_link_query()

Reported by: philfreo Owned by:
Priority: normal Milestone: 3.6
Component: Editor Version: 3.2
Severity: normal Keywords: has-patch
Cc: bainternet, pavelevap@…, xoodrew@…, pippin@…, coenjacobs@…, goldenapplesdesign@…, brady@…, piemanek@…

Description (last modified by DrewAPicture)

In previous versions of WordPress, we were able to write a plugin which called add_filter on tiny_mce_before_init and then we were able to specify external_link_list_url which we gave it a list of all of the URLs on our site (we primarily linked to non-WordPress URLs on our site from this tool). Then when an author created a Link in the post tool the little popup would include a dropdown of all of the URLs/page titles that we specified.

In WordPress 3.2 you have the new fancy "link to existing content" feature in the popup.

The problem is that there is NO hook, filter, or pluggable function whatsoever to allow you to override the functionality of this.

I needed to make the search results box return a list of pages (urls and titles) that I specified from a different database. In order order to do that I had to re-create the entire wp_link_query() function from wp-admin/includes/internal-linking.php to make it return search results from my own database. I put that function into a Plugin (to keep it out of Core) but then I had to hack core to rename wp_link_query() to wp_link_query_ORIGINAL() to get it to use my function and not the existing one.

Either wp_link_query() needs to be a pluggable function or there need to be hooks that let you completely replace how it works.

Attachments (2)

18042.diff (618 bytes) - added by goldenapples 8 months ago.
Since #21861 was closed, I've moved @CoenJacobs's patch from that ticket here. Also added a filter on the return value so plugins can rearrange the order that custom post types appear in the returned array.
18042.2.diff (624 bytes) - added by SergeyBiryukov 2 months ago.

Download all attachments as: .zip

Change History (26)

  • Type changed from defect (bug) to enhancement

We definitely need hooks here. +1

  • Cc bainternet added
  • Version changed from 3.2 to 3.2.1
  • Version changed from 3.2.1 to 3.2

The version field is used to track when a bug was first reported.

@dd32yea sorry about that,


anyway +1 for either hooks or pluggable.

Definitely +1 for a hook or pluggable. Need a way to add items other than just published posts to the list of available items to link to.

  • Cc pavelevap@… added

is there a date set for updating this feature?

  • Cc xoodrew@… added

#19718 closed as duplicate

Definitely +1 for a hook or pluggable.

Agreed, unfortunately looks like a core hack for the time being...ugh. +1 for hook or pluggable.

  • Cc pippin@… added
  • Keywords needs-patch added

Duplicate: #21861

  • Cc coenjacobs@… added
  • Cc goldenapplesdesign@… added

Since #21861 was closed, I've moved @CoenJacobs's patch from that ticket here. Also added a filter on the return value so plugins can rearrange the order that custom post types appear in the returned array.

  • Keywords has-patch added; needs-patch removed
  • Cc brady@… added

A hook would definitely be nice here.

I developed a plugin a few months ago (Better Internal Link Search), without realizing this ticket existed, to modify the results and ended up having to filter the AJAX request and recreate a bit of wp_link_query(). The plugin adds a whole lot of useful features and improvements and can be easily extended for anyone that needs this functionality right away. If any of it looks useful for core, I'm happy to help learn how to contribute.

#23241 was marked as a duplicate.

  • Component changed from Plugins to Editor
  • Milestone changed from Awaiting Review to 3.6
  • Cc piemanek@… added

+1 for this making it into 3.6

18042.2.diff passes $query to the resulting filter too.

  • Description modified (diff)

Both filters added in 18042.2.diff work as expected for me. +1

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