Allow users to specify "primary" category

[markjaquith]

For people with category-based permalink structures, the ability to set a primary category which would be used to craft the URL would be very valuable.

See: ​http://nslog.com/2007/05/25/wordpress_22_changes_category_order_behavior

The tricky part here is UI... get those gears churning.

[starlyth]

My UI suggestion would be a simple drop down menu above the current category menu selection "window".

I also have to say that, while I will not change the properties, I think this is a defect, as it does mess your permalink structure. I feel this is just below blocker as a priority. My guess that the major ramification is that this would be a one way database upgrade.

[nickgeorgakis]

This might not be the right place to add this (Feel free to delete this post if inappropriate) but I have developed a custom plugin to do just that - specify a custom primary category that is used to generate the permalinks
​/ NG Primary Category Plugin
Currently I have to modify the categories checkboxes through PHP output buffering using preg_replace - maybe a new WordPress hook would make it easier.
By adding the primary category ID in post meta data no Database changes are required.
I had to copy parts of Wordpress
\wp-includes\link-template.php: function get_permalink() in my plugin
Couldn't be possible to implement something similar in a future WP version?
Any suggestions are welcomed!

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

no interest in over 2 years...

[bozzmedia]

Any new thoughts or movement on this? This remains a valuable enhancement proposal.

[SergeyBiryukov]

This is fixed in [21169] by introducing a filter. Closing as a duplicate of #18752.