Options

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• Overview
• Function Reference
• Examples
• Available options by category
• Discussion
• General
• Links
• Media
• Miscellaneous
• Permalinks
• Privacy
• Reading
• Themes
• Writing
• Uncategorized
• All Settings Screen

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Overview

The Options API is a simple and standardized way of storing data in the database. The API makes it easy to create, access, update, and delete options. All the data is stored in the wp_options table under a given custom name.

This page contains the technical documentation needed to use the Options API. A list of default options can be found in the Option Reference (link to Codex version, waiting for content migration to HelpHub).

Note that the _site_ functions are essentially the same as their counterparts. The only differences occur for WP Multisite, when the options apply network-wide and the data is stored in the wp_sitemeta table under the given custom name.

Function Reference

Add/Delete Option:

• add_option()
• delete_option()
• add_site_option()
• delete_site_option()

Get/Update Option:

• get_option()
• update_option()
• get_site_option()
• update_site_option()

Examples

// Create an option to the database
add_option( $option, $value = , $deprecated = , $autoload = 'yes' );

// Removes option by name.
delete_option( $option );

// Fetch a saved option
get_option( $option, $default = false );

// Update the value of an option that was already added.
update_option( $option, $newvalue );

Available options by category

Discussion

• blacklist_keys: When a comment contains any of these words in its content, name, URL, e-mail, or IP, it will be marked as spam. One word or IP per line. It will match inside words, so “press” will match “WordPress.”
  Default: NULL
  *Data type:*String (possibly multi-line)
• comment_max_links: Hold a comment in the queue if it contains the value of this option or more.
  Default: 2
  *Data type:*Integer
• comment_moderation: Before a comment appears, an administrator must always approve the comment.
  1 : Yes
  0 : False (default)
  *Data type:*Integer
• comments_notify: E-mail me when anyone posts a comment.
  1 : Yes (default)
  0 : No
  *Data type:*Integer
• default_comment_status: Allow comments (can be overridden with individual posts)
  open : Allow comments (default)
  closed : Disallow comments
  *Data type:*String
• default_ping_status: Allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks).
  open : Allow pingbacks and trackbacks from other blogs (default)
  closed : Disallow pingbacks and trackbacks from other blogs
  *Data type:*String
• default_pingback_flag: Attempt to notify any blogs linked to from the article (slows down posting).
  1 : Yes (default)
  0 : No
  *Data type:*Integer
• moderation_keys: When a comment contains any of these words in its content, name, URL, e-mail, or IP, it will be held in the moderation queue. One word or IP per line. It will match inside words, so “press” will match “WordPress.”
  Default: NULL
  *Data type:*String (possibly multi-line)
• moderation_notify: E-mail me when a comment is held for moderation.
  1 : Yes (default)
  0 : No
  *Data type:*Integer
• require_name_email: Before a comment appears, the comment author must fill out his/her name and email.
  1 : Yes (default)
  0 : No
  *Data type:*Integer
• thread_comments: Enable WP-native threaded (nested) comments.
  1 : Yes
  0 : No (default)
  *Data type:*Integer
• thread_comments_depth: Set the number of threading levels for comments.
  1 thru 
  10 : levels
  Default: 5
  *Data type:*Integer
• show_avatars: Avatar Display
  1 : (default) Show Avatars
  0 : Do not show Avatars
  *Data type:*Integer
• avatar_rating: Maximum Rating
  G : (default) Suitable for all audiences
  PG : Possibly offensive, usually for audiences 13 and above
  R : Intended for adult audiences above 17
  X : Even more mature than above
  *Data type:*String
• avatar_default: Default Avatar
  mystery : (default) Mystery Man
  blank : Blank
  gravatar_default : Gravatar Logo
  identicon : Identicon (Generated)
  wavatar : Wavatar (Generated)
  monsterid : MonsterID (Generated)
  retro : Retro (Generated)
  *Data type:*String
• close_comments_for_old_posts: Automatically close comments on old articles
  1 : Yes
  0 : No (default)
  *Data type:*Integer
• close_comments_days_old: Automatically close comments on articles older than x days
  Default: 14
  *Data type:*Integer
• show_comments_cookies_opt_in: Show the cookies opt-in checkbox on the comment form and enable comment cookies
  1 : Yes (default as of 4.9.8)
  0 : No
  *Data type:*Integer
• page_comments: Break comments into pages
  1 : Yes (default)
  0 : No
  *Data type:*Integer
• comments_per_page:
  Default: 50
  *Data type:*Integer
• default_comments_page:
  Default: ‘newest’
  *Data type:*String
• comment_order:
  asc : (default)
  desc :
  *Data type:*String
• comment_whitelist: Comment author must have a previously approved comment
  1 : Yes (default)
  0 : No
  Data type:

General

• admin_email: Administrator email
  Default: ‘you@example.com’
  *Data type:*String
• blogdescription: Blog tagline
  Default: ‘__(‘Just another WordPress weblog’)’
  *Data type:*String
• blogname: Blog title
  Default: ‘__(‘My Blog’)’
  *Data type:*String
• comment_registration: Users must be registered and logged in to comment
  1 : Yes
  0 : No (default)
  *Data type:*Integer
• date_format: Default date format
  Default: ‘__(‘F j, Y’)’
  *Data type:*String
• default_role: The default role of users who register at the blog.
  subscriber (default)
  administrator
  editor
  author
  contributor
  *Data type:*String
• gmt_offset: Times in the blog should differ by this value.
  -6 : GMT -6 (aka Central Time, USA)
  0 : GMT (aka Greenwich Mean Time)
  Default: date(‘Z’) / 3600
  *Data type:*Integer
• home: Blog address (URL)
  Default: wp_guess_url()
  *Data type:*String (URI)
• siteurl: WordPress address (URL)
  Default wp_guess_url()
  *Data type:*String (URI)
• start_of_week: The starting day of the week.
  0 : Sunday
  1 : Monday (default)
  2 : Tuesday
  3 : Wednesday
  4 : Thursday
  5 : Friday
  6 : Saturday
  *Data type:*Integer
• time_format: Default time format
  Default: ‘__(‘g:i a’)’
  *Data type:*String
• timezone_string: Timezone
  Default: NULL
  *Data type:*String
• users_can_register: Anyone can register
  1 : Yes
  0 : No (default)
  *Data type:*Integer

Links

• links_updated_date_format:
  Default __('F j, Y g:i a')
  *Data type:*String
• links_recently_updated_prepend:
  Default empty
  Data type: String
• links_recently_updated_append
  Default empty
  *Data type:*String
• links_recently_updated_time
  Default: 120
  *Data type:*Integer

Media

• thumbnail_size_w:
  Default: 150
  *Data type:*Integer
• thumbnail_size_h:
  Default: 150
  *Data type:*Integer
• thumbnail_crop: Crop thumbnail to exact dimensions (normally thumbnails are proportional)
  1 : Yes (default)
  0 : No
  *Data type:*Integer
• medium_size_w:
  Default: 300
  *Data type:*Integer
• medium_size_h
  Default: 300
  *Data type:*Integer
• large_size_w
  Default: 1024
  *Data type:*Integer
• large_size_h
  Default: 1024
  *Data type:*Integer
• embed_autourls: Attempt to automatically embed all plain text URLs
  Default: 1
  *Data type:*Integer
• embed_size_w
  Default: NULL
  *Data type:*Integer
• embed_size_h
  Default: 600
  *Data type:*Integer

Miscellaneous

• hack_file: Use legacy my-hacks.php file support
  1 : Yes
  0 : No (default)
  *Data type:*Integer
• html_type: Default MIME type for blog pages (text/html, text/xml+html, etc.)
  Default: ‘text/html’
  *Data type:*String (MIME type)
• secret: Secret value created during installation used with salting, etc.
  Default: wp_generate_password(64)
  *Data type:*String (MD5)
• upload_path: Store uploads in this folder (relative to the WordPress root)
  Default: NULL
  *Data type:*String (relative path)
• upload_url_path: URL path to upload folder (will be blank by default – Editable in “All Settings” Screen.
  *Data type:*String (URL path)
• uploads_use_yearmonth_folders: Organize my uploads into month- and year-based folders
  1 : Yes (default)
  0 : No (default for safe mode)
  *Data type:*Integer
• use_linksupdate: Track links’ update times
  1 : Yes
  0 : No (default)
  *Data type:*Integer

Permalinks

• permalink_structure: The desired structure of your blog’s permalinks. Some examples:
  /%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/: Date and name based
  /archives/%post_id%/: Numeric
  /%postname%/: Post name-based
  Default: NULL
  *Data type:*String
• category_base: The default category base of your blog categories permalink.
  Default: NULL
  *Data type:*String
• tag_base: The default tag base for your blog tags permalink.
  Default: NULL
  *Data type:*String

Privacy

• blog_public:
  1 : I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Sphere, Technorati) and archivers. (default)
  0 : I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors.
  *Data type:*Integer

Reading

• blog_charset: Encoding for pages and feeds. The character encoding you write your blog in (UTF-8 is recommended).
  Default: UTF-8
  *Data type:*String
• gzipcompression: WordPress should compress articles (with gzip) if browsers ask for them.
  1 : Yes
  0 : No (default)
  *Data type:*Integer
• page_on_front: The ID of the page that should be displayed on the front page. Requires show_on_front‘s value to be page.
  *Data type:*Integer
• page_for_posts: The ID of the page that displays posts. Useful when show_on_front‘s value is page.
  *Data type:*Integer
• posts_per_page: Show at most x many posts on blog pages.
  Default: 10
  *Data type:*Integer
• posts_per_rss: Show at most x many posts in RSS feeds.
  Default: 10
  *Data type:*Integer
• rss_language: Language for RSS feeds (metadata purposes only)
  Default: en
  *Data type:*String (ISO two-letter language code)
• rss_use_excerpt: Show an excerpt instead of the full text of a post in RSS feeds
  1 : Yes
  0 : No (default)
  *Data type:*Integer
• show_on_front: What to show on the front page
  posts : Your latest posts (default)
  page : A static page (see page_on_front)
  *Data type:*String

Themes

• template: The slug of the currently activated theme (how it is accessed by path, ex. /wp-content/themes/my-theme (my-theme would be the value of this option).
  Default: ‘default’
  *Data type:*String
• stylesheet: The slug of the currently activated stylesheet (style.css) (how it is accessed by path, ex. /wp-content/themes/my-style (my-style would be the value of this option)
  Default: ‘default’
  *Data type:*String

Writing

• default_category: ID of the category that posts will be put in by default
  Default: 1
  *Data type:*Integer
• default_email_category: ID of the category that posts will be put in by default when written via e-mail
  Default: 1
  *Data type:*Integer
• default_link_category: ID of the category that links will be put in by default
  Default: 2
  *Data type:*Integer
• default_post_edit_rows: Size of the post box (in lines)
  Default: 10
  *Data type:*Integer
• mailserver_login: Mail server username for posting to WordPress by e-mail
  Default: ‘login@example.com’
  *Data type:*String
• mailserver_pass: Mail server password for posting to WordPress by e-mail
  Default: ‘password’
  *Data type:*String
• mailserver_port: Mail server port for posting to WordPress by e-mail
  Default: 110
  *Data type:*Integer
• mailserver_url: Mail server for posting to WordPress by e-mail
  Default: ‘mail.example.com’
  *Data type:*String
• ping_sites: When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services. For more about this, see Update Services. Separate multiple service URLs with line breaks. Requires blog_public to have a value of 1.
  Default: ‘http://rpc.pingomatic.com/’
  *Data type:*String (possibly multi-line)
• use_balanceTags: Correct invalidly-nested XHTML automatically
  1 : Yes
  0 : No (default)
  *Data type:*Integer
• use_smilies: Convert emoticons like :-) and :P to graphics when displayed
  1 : Yes (default)
  0 : No
  *Data type:*Integer
• use_trackback: Enable sending and receiving of trackbacks
  1 : Yes
  0 : No (default)
• enable_app: Enable the Atom Publishing Protocol
  1 : Yes
  0 : No (default)
  *Data type:*Integer
• enable_xmlrpc: Enable the WordPress, Movable Type, MetaWeblog and Blogger XML-RPC publishing protocols
  1 : Yes
  0 : No (default)
  *Data type:*Integer

Uncategorized

• active_plugins: Returns an array of strings containing the path of the main php file of the plugin. The path is relative to the plugins folder. An example of path in the array : /mainpage.php.
  Default: array()
  *Data type:*Array
• advanced_edit:
  Default: 0
  *Data type:*Integer
• recently_edited:
  Default: NULL
  Data type:
• image_default_link_type:
  Default: ‘file’
  Data type: ‘file’, ‘none’
• image_default_size:
  Default: NULL
  Data type: ‘thumbnail’, ‘medium’, ‘large’ or Custom size
• image_default_align:
  Default: NULL
  Data type: ‘left’, ‘right’, ‘center’, ‘none’
• sidebars_widgets: Returns array of sidebar states (list of active and inactive widgets).
  Default:
  *Data type:*Array
• sticky_posts:
  Default: array()
  Data type:
• widget_categories:
  Default: array()
  Data type:
• widget_text:
  Default: array()
  Data type:
• widget_rss:
  Default: array()
  Data type:

All Settings Screen

WordPress 3.0 removed Settings > Miscellaneous screen and some of the options cannot be reached (e.g. upload_url_path). You may use the All Settings Screen to view and change almost all options listed above. It is accessible by visiting /wp-admin/options.php