Title: Primary Categories
Author: Jacob McKinney
Published: <strong>maý 17, 2016</strong>
Last modified: awgust 5, 2018

---

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![](https://ps.w.org/primary-categories/assets/banner-772x250.png?rev=1419117)

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/primary-categories/assets/icon-128x128.png?rev=1419117)

# Primary Categories

 By [Jacob McKinney](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jacobmc/)

[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/primary-categories.zip)

 * [Details](https://tuk.wordpress.org/plugins/primary-categories/#description)
 * [Reviews](https://tuk.wordpress.org/plugins/primary-categories/#reviews)
 *  [Installation](https://tuk.wordpress.org/plugins/primary-categories/#installation)
 * [Development](https://tuk.wordpress.org/plugins/primary-categories/#developers)

 [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/primary-categories/)

## Description

WordPress plugin for setting and displaying primary categories for posts and custom
post types*.

This plugin creates a meta box on the post edit screen titled “Primary Category”
containing a drop down menu populated with all categories associated with that post**.
Selecting a primary category and updating the post saves this data into a custom
field with a meta key of “primary-category”.

To display a list of all posts with a particular primary category, use the shortcode[
primary-category name=”cat_name”] where cat_name is the name of the primary category
you wish to display. If a name is not specified, the shortcode will default to all
posts with “uncategorized” set as the primary category.

*Note: Custom post types must support both categories and custom fields.

**Note: As new categories are added to a post, the post must be updated before those
new categories will be available for selection as a primary category.

## Screenshots

 * [[
 * Example of post edit screen with primary category meta box.
 * [[
 * Example of shortcode being used in page.
 * [[
 * Example output of shortcode.

## Installation

This section describes how to install the plugin and get it working.

 1. Upload the ‘primary-categories’ directory to your ‘/wp-content/plugins/’ directory,
    or install the plugin through the WordPress plugins screen directly
 2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ screen in WordPress
 3. Select the primary category for each post via the post edit screen
 4. Place shortcode to the content of any post type or access the data via the post
    meta key ‘primary-category’

## FAQ

  How can I access the primary category data?

A post’s primary category is stored in the post meta under the key ‘primary-category’.

  What shortcode can I use to display posts with a particular primary category?

[primary-category name=””]

*Note: Name should reference the primary category that is to be displayed, if no
name is specified, the name parameter defaults to ‘uncategorized’.

  Why isn’t the category I added available as a primary category?

Users must update a post after adding a new category before that category will be
available as a primary category.

## Reviews

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b828a77df9d90f9254e7f0eeb2ca11b77987aab1bbb6ffc05d6f7ce3a89aa669?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Well structured code, works as expected](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/well-structured-code-works-as-expected/)󠁿

 [jgangso](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jgangso/) iýun 29, 2017

The plugin does just what it says. The code is well-structured and seems very lightweight.
What would make it 5 stars were: – possibility to control which post types the plugin
applies to by filter – localization – (perhaps out-of-scope) allow developers to
control which taxonomy is used on each post type by filter (custom post types often
have custom taxonomies as well)

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/97bbe4fe76251bd8de789468d4e055a2a38da2615beb64caba53e5aff6c24084?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[Works fine,thanks](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/works-finethanks-2/)󠁿

 [General Seed](https://profiles.wordpress.org/autocultivo/) sentýabr 3, 2016

Thanks Jacob for this plugin, works fine and is very usefull.Keep update when need
it because it,s a necesary plugin. Five Stars, thanks.

 [ Read all 2 reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/primary-categories/reviews/)

## Contributors & Developers

“Primary Categories” is open source software. The following people have contributed
to this plugin.

Contributors

 *   [ Jacob McKinney ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jacobmc/)

[Translate “Primary Categories” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/primary-categories)

### Interested in development?

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

## Changelog

#### 1.0.0

Initial Commit

## Meta

 *  Version **1.0.0**
 *  Last updated **8 years ago**
 *  Active installations **20+**
 *  WordPress version ** 3.4 or higher **
 *  Tested up to **4.9.29**
 *  Language
 * [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/primary-categories/)
 * Tags
 * [categories](https://tuk.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/categories/)[shortcodes](https://tuk.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/shortcodes/)
 *  [Advanced View](https://tuk.wordpress.org/plugins/primary-categories/advanced/)

## Ratings

 4.5 out of 5 stars.

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

[Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/primary-categories/reviews/#new-post)

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

## Contributors

 *   [ Jacob McKinney ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jacobmc/)

## Support

Got something to say? Need help?

 [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/primary-categories/)