Display Users login time on WP Admin Users Table

Using the wp_login hook, we could save an users login time. One usage of saving login time would be, to check who were recently logged-in to the site.

wp_login action is called when a user successfully authenticate using his username/password. This action provides two information user_login (username) and userdata. And we will use this hook to save the time with the user id when user login.

add_action( 'wp_login', 'myplugin_wp_login', 10, 2);
function myplugin_wp_login( $user_login, $user )
{
    update_user_meta( $user->ID, 'last_login', current_time('mysql') );
}

Here, we have used Three most important WordPress native function, add_action(), update_user_meta() & current_time().

  • add_action() is used to bind an function on an pre specified event to do custom processing, It’s similar to JavaScript event binding.
  • update_user_meta() is used to update WordPress User’s meta table information, with specific user id.
  • current_time() is a similar function as like PHP’s time. difference is time() returns Unix localized timestamp, and current_time() return your WordPress Setup specific timestamp. WordPress site timezone can be changed from General Options page on WP Admin area. current_time() accept one argument, and that can be used to return a formatted date rather than the timestamp, what we have actually used on our example here

You can also read about the usage of add_action function here.


Next, we well be showing this piece of information on the users column (on wp admin). For that, We will add a new column. manage_users_columns is the hook used to add addition table columns on Users table, and manage_users_custom_column action is used to display additional column information.

add_filter( 'manage_users_columns', 'myplugin_manage_users_columns');
function myplugin_manage_users_columns( $columns ){
    $columns['last_login'] = __('Last login', 'last_login');
    return $columns;
}

add_filter is another most important function, it is used to sanitize, modify information using callback/hook. As like add_action, add_filter is also used on a pre specified events.

Now, to display the time information on the newly created column, use the following code

add_filter('manage_users_custom_column',  'myplugin_manage_users_custom_column', 10, 3);
function myplugin_manage_users_custom_column( $value, $column_name, $user_id ){
    $user = get_userdata( $user_id );
    if ( 'last_login' == $column_name && $user->last_login)
        echo date("g:i a - d-M-y", strtotime( $user->last_login));
    return $value;
}

manage_users_custom_column filter provides three information to its callback, ‘column_value’, ‘column_name’ & user_id.

Displaying Users login time – Complete Code

add_action( 'wp_login', 'myplugin_wp_login', 10, 2);
function myplugin_wp_login( $user_login, $user )
{
    update_user_meta( $user->ID, 'last_login', current_time('mysql') );
}

add_filter( 'manage_users_columns', 'myplugin_manage_users_columns');
function myplugin_manage_users_columns( $columns )
{
    $columns['last_login'] = __('Last login', 'last_login');
    return $columns;
}

add_filter('manage_users_custom_column',  'myplugin_manage_users_custom_column', 10, 3);
function myplugin_manage_users_custom_column( $value, $column_name, $user_id )
{
    $user = get_userdata( $user_id );
    if ( 'last_login' == $column_name && $user->last_login)
        $value = date("g:i a - d-M-y", strtotime( $user->last_login));
    return $value;
}

After adding this on your plugin or theme’s functions.php file, you should see a new column on your WP Admin -> Users table.


Extending It More

Modifying the above code, you could add more columns and information. If you have any plugin/theme that is extending the default profile fields, and allowing user to add there social links (ex: facebook, twitter, google+ etc), you can create a column for that also. Quick reference –

add_filter( 'manage_users_columns', 'myplugin_manage_users_columns');
function myplugin_manage_users_columns( $columns ){
    $columns['last_login'] = __('Last login', 'last_login');
    $columns['social_links'] = __('Social Profile', 'last_login');
    return $columns;
}

add_filter('manage_users_custom_column',  'myplugin_manage_users_custom_column', 10, 3);
function myplugin_manage_users_custom_column( $value, $column_name, $user_id )
{
    $user = get_userdata( $user_id );
    if ( 'last_login' == $column_name ){
        $last_login = get_user_meta( $user_id, 'last_login', true );
        return mysql2date( "g:i a - d-M-y", $last_login );
    }

    if( 'social_links' == $column_name ){
        // we assume this information is saved using facebook meta key
        $fb = get_user_meta( $user_id, 'facebook', true );
        if( $fb ){
            return '<a href="'. $fb .'">Facebook</a>';
        }
    }
    return $value;
}

So, finally users table should look like this –
wordpress-additional-users-column