Simple Category Order

A lightweight plugin that enables drag-and-drop ordering of categories and custom taxonomies in WordPress admin, with frontend display support.

Description

Simple Category Order provides an intuitive way to reorder your categories and custom taxonomies directly from the WordPress admin interface. Key features:

• Drag-and-drop term ordering in admin
• Works with both categories and custom taxonomies
• Stores order in term meta (custom_order)
• Automatically orders terms on frontend
• Includes shortcode for displaying ordered terms
• Lightweight with no database overhead
• Supports hierarchical taxonomies

Installation

1. Upload the plugin files to the /wp-content/plugins/simple-category-order directory
2. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' screen in WordPress
3. Visit any taxonomy screen (like Categories) to start reordering

Upon activation, the plugin will automatically set default order values for all existing terms.

Usage

Admin Interface:

1. Go to any taxonomy screen (Posts > Categories, or your custom taxonomy)
2. You'll see a new "Order" column with numbers
3. Simply drag and drop terms to reorder them
4. The order is saved automatically

Frontend Display: The plugin automatically modifies term queries to use your custom order. No additional setup needed.

Using the Shortcode: Display an ordered list of terms anywhere using:

[ordered_categories taxonomy="category" hide_empty="false"]

Parameters:

• taxonomy: The taxonomy to display (default: 'category')
• hide_empty: Whether to hide empty terms (default: false)

Custom Queries: You can create custom term queries using the 'custom_order' meta key:

$terms = get_terms([
    'taxonomy' => 'your_taxonomy',
    'orderby' => 'meta_value_num',
    'order' => 'ASC',
    'meta_key' => 'custom_order',
    'hide_empty' => false,
]);