By default, wordpress only allows a single author for any post. The coauthors shortcode is used to display multiple authors and / or editors as is more common with scientific papers and articles.

Currently, it appears on posts, in the header and the footer of the article pages and is called by using the [authors-editors] shortcode.

The relevant code can be found in the theme under inc/shortcodes/coauthors.php.

<?php
function authors_editors_shortcode() {
    $post_id = get_the_ID();
    $original_author_id = get_post_field('post_author', $post_id);
    $original_author = get_the_author_meta('display_name', $original_author_id);
    $original_author_url = get_author_posts_url($original_author_id);

    $coauthors = get_field('coauthors', $post_id);

    $content = '';
    if (!$coauthors) {
        $content .= "Written by: <a href='{$original_author_url}'>{$original_author}</a>";
    } else {
        $authors = array("<a href='{$original_author_url}'>{$original_author}</a>");
        $editors = array();

        if (have_rows('select_coauthors', $post_id)) {
            while (have_rows('select_coauthors', $post_id)) {
                the_row();
                $type = get_sub_field('type');
                $user = get_sub_field('select_user');

                if ($user) {
                    $user_name = $user['display_name'];
                    $user_url = get_author_posts_url($user['ID']);
                    $user_link = "<a href='{$user_url}'>{$user_name}</a>";

                    if ($type === 'author') {
                        $authors[] = $user_link;
                    } elseif ($type === 'editor') {
                        $editors[] = $user_link;
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        $content .= "Written by: " . implode(', ', $authors);

        if (!empty($editors)) {
            $content .= "<br>Edited by: " . implode(', ', $editors);
        }
    }

    return '<div id="authors-editors">' . $content . '</div>';
}
add_shortcode('authors_editors', 'authors_editors_shortcode');

Roadmap

  • For completeness, the Latest Article and Article repeater blocks will also need updated to reflect multiple authors on the homepage. There is more of a space consideration on the homepage, so will probably just display as the main author plus ‘et al.’ on the homepage, then clicking into the article displays full credits.