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First Image as Featured

Scans posts, mimics a browser to download the first image, converts it, and sets it as the featured image in WordPress.

by AniKaizoku · github.com/anikaizoku/first-image-as-featured · website

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Install

No release zip yet. The repository archive installs, but the folder name will carry the branch suffix and updates will not flow:

wp plugin install https://github.com/anikaizoku/first-image-as-featured/archive/refs/heads/main.zip
Readme github.com/anikaizoku/first-image-as-featured ↗

A simple WordPress plugin that scans all posts and sets the first image from the content as the featured image if one is not already set.

Description

This plugin provides a utility for WordPress sites where featured images were not consistently set. It adds a tool page in the WordPress admin area that allows an administrator to run a one-time process. The script intelligently finds posts without a featured image, downloads the first image from the post's content, and sets it as the post's featured image.

Features

  • ✅ Bulk Processing: Scans all published posts on your site in one click.
  • ✅ Smart Detection: Automatically skips posts that already have a featured image.
  • ✅ Image Conversion: Converts non-JPEG images (like PNG, WebP, GIF) to the more compatible JPEG format.
  • ✅ Browser Mimicking: Downloads images using a browser user-agent to bypass hotlink protections and "Too Many Requests" errors.
  • ✅ Safe & Polite: Includes a 1-second delay between processing posts to avoid rate-limiting issues.
  • ✅ Live Logging: Shows a detailed log of its actions directly on the admin page as it runs.

Installation

  1. Download the latest release from the Releases page.
  2. In your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Plugins > Add New.
  3. Click on Upload Plugin and select the .zip file you downloaded.
  4. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress.

How to Use

  1. After activating, navigate to Tools > First Image as Featured in your WordPress admin panel.
  2. Read the instructions on the page.
  3. Click the "Scan Posts and Set Featured Images" button to start the process.
  4. Do not navigate away from the page while the process is running. You will see a live log of the progress.
  5. Once the process is complete, a "Process complete!" message will appear at the end of the log.

Changelog

1.3.0

  • Feature: Replaced download_url with wp_remote_get to mimic a browser request.
  • Fix: Resolves errors from sites with hotlink protection by sending a common User-Agent header.

1.2.0

  • Feature: Added a 1-second sleep() delay between each post to prevent rate-limiting errors.
  • Fix: Resolves "Too Many Requests" errors from external image hosts.

1.1.0

  • Feature: Added automatic image conversion of non-JPEG formats to JPEG for better compatibility.
  • Feature: Added a check to ensure the server has the required GD library.

1.0.0

  • Initial release.

License

This plugin is licensed under the GPL-2.0+. See the LICENSE file for more details.