Add Custom Column to Taxonomies Table in Wordpress

WordPress shows default fields Name, Description, Slug and Posts count in the taxonomies admin table. Learn how to show a custom column in WordPress taxonomies table without using a plugin.

Displaying a custom column in the taxonomies table is useful to show associated Taxonomy Term Meta in the taxonomies table. We will need to utilize the filter and action hooks of WordPress. In this post, we are going to learn how to customize taxonomy table columns in WordPress and show an additional column in the taxonomies table without using a plugin.

We have a taxonomy named "Property City", which also has an associated term meta named "zip code". We will display this zip code term meta in the taxonomies table.

 

WordPress Hooks to Manage Taxonomies Table Columns

add_filter('manage_edit-{$taxonomy}_columns', string[] $columns);
do_action('manage_{$taxonomy}_custom_column', string $content, string $column_name, int $term_id);

The "manage_edit-{$taxonomy}_columns" is for adding a new column to the table columns array, while "manage_{$taxonomy}_custom_column" is for displaying the content of that new column, and $taxonomy is the slug of the taxonomy we want to add a column for.

add_filter("manage_edit-{$taxonomy}_columns", string[] $columns);

• $columns: (array)  - Associative array of column heading strings.

do_action("manage_{$taxonomy}_custom_column", string $content, string $column_name, int $term_id);

• $content: (string): The content as a string of columns.
• $column_name: (string)  - The name of the column for which we are adding the content.
• $term_id: (int): The id of the current taxonomy term.

 

Add Column to WordPress Taxonomies Table

We will create the taxonomy-columns.php file and include it in the functions.php file. Steps to add a column to WP taxonomies table:

• Register a filter hook manage_edit-{$taxonomy}_columns for the column heading.
• Add a column to the $columns array.
• Sort the columns array to change the position of the column in the table.
• Register an action hook manage_{$taxonomy}_custom_column to display the content of each column.
• Add a switch statement to check the column and add content accordingly.

taxonomy-columns.php

<?php
// Filter hook to add zipcode column
add_filter('manage_edit-property-city_columns', 'register_property_city_columns');
function register_property_city_columns($columns): array
{
    $sorted_columns = [];
    // Get array of column keys for sorting, You can prepare a static array of columns if columns are already known
    $column_keys = array_keys($columns);


    // Add price column to second last position in columns
    array_splice($column_keys, count($column_keys) - 1, 0, ['zipcode']);

    // Add both columns to original columns at the end
    $columns['zipcode'] = __('Zipcode', 'text-domain');

    // Loop through keys and prepare new sorted array of columns
    foreach ($column_keys as $column_key) {
        $sorted_columns[$column_key] = $columns[$column_key];
    }

    return $sorted_columns;
}

// Action hook to display zipcode content or value
add_action('manage_property-city_custom_column', 'add_property_city_columns_content', 10, 3);
function add_property_city_columns_content($string, $columns, $term_id): void
{
    switch ($columns) {
        case 'zipcode':
            echo esc_html(get_term_meta($term_id, 'zipcode', true));
            break;
    }
}

Now we will include this taxonomy-columns.php in our functions.php to make it work.

include('taxonomy-columns.php');

This is how the property cities list table will look like:

This new column will also show in screen options like this:

That is it! We now have a working custom column configuration for the taxonomies table. This code will display custom columns in the taxonomies table and can be used in queries and templates of the theme.