John Davidson

Message:

To get a clear view of what I mean, each time you create a wordpress user it gets it's own ID number. This number is always unique. When you delete a user the ID will be unreachable (call the permalink via ID). And when you create a user, a brand new ID is being used.

My author.php page functions as a simple about me page. I'm trying to create a 'previous user' and 'next user' button. Currently this is created using a ACF custom field with manually setting the said users. The issue is when a user is being deleted or new one being created, the acf fields need to be reconnected.

Is there a way to have this automated? (not using acf, just php) So when I create a new user the prev/next buttons show the prev/next user's id?

I know similar can be done for posts, but I can't find anything that works for users.

//author.php - for example on user ID 3

<h2>My profile with some nice text</h2>



// Link to previous user - 2? if deleted 1

Previous user button

<a href="<?php get_author_posts_url($author_id); ?>

">Prev Button</a>



// Link to next user - 4? if deleted 5, 6, 7, etc.

<a href="<?php get_author_posts_url($author_id); ?>

">Next Button</a>

---

My Answer:
You can achieve this by using the `get_users()` function in WordPress to retrieve all users and then loop through them to find the previous and next user based on the current user's ID. Here's an example code snippet that you can use in your author.php file:

php
$current_user_id = get_the_author_meta('ID');
$users = get_users();

$prev_user = null;
$next_user = null;

foreach ($users as $key => $user) {
if ($user->ID == $current_user_id) {
$prev_user = isset($users[$key - 1]) ? $users[$key - 1] : null;
$next_user = isset($users[$key + 1]) ? $users[$key + 1] : null;
break;
}
}

if ($prev_user) {
echo 'Previous User';
}

if ($next_user) {
echo 'Next User';
}


This code will dynamically find the previous and next user based on the current user's ID and display the links to their author pages. You can customize the output as needed to fit your design requirements.