Solution:
Redirecting users on first login in WordPress
On membership-based WordPress sites and other sites where you want to display a special welcome message or instructions to new users, you can implement some custom login redirect functionality. This functionality would kick in only once (or for the first few logins) per user.
The important elements on the code-side for such functionality is to use the built-in WordPress “login_redirect” filter, and to store information on whether or not the user has gotten the “first login” treatment. There are a couple of possible approaches to store the information, either in a cookie or in the user’s meta information (stored in the WordPress database in the “wp_usermeta” table).
Here is some sample code you can use in your theme’s functions.php file or in a plugin:
Cookie-based solution
// Send new users to a special page
function redirectOnFirstLogin( $redirect_to, $requested_redirect_to, $user )
{
// URL to redirect to
$redirect_url = 'http://yoursite.com/firstloginpage';
// How many times to redirect the user
$num_redirects = 1;
// Cookie-based solution: captures users who registered within the last n hours
// The reason to set it as "last n hours" is so that if a user clears their cookies or logs in with a different browser,
// they don't get this same redirect treatment long after they're already a registered user
// 172800 seconds = 48 hours
$message_period = 172800;
// If they're on the login page, don't do anything
if( !isset( $user->user_login ) )
{
return $redirect_to;
}
$key_name = 'redirect_on_first_login_' . $user->ID;
if( strtotime( $user->user_registered ) > ( time() - $message_period )
&& ( !isset( $_COOKIE[$key_name] ) || intval( $_COOKIE[$key_name] ) < $num_redirects )
)
{
if( isset( $_COOKIE[$key_name] ) )
{
$num_redirects = intval( $_COOKIE[$key_name] ) + 1;
}
setcookie( $key_name, $num_redirects, time() + $message_period, COOKIEPATH, COOKIE_DOMAIN );
return $redirect_url;
}
else
{
return $redirect_to;
}
}
add_filter( 'login_redirect', 'redirectOnFirstLogin', 10, 3 );
Download the cookie-based redirect on first login plugin
User meta table based solution
// Send new users to a special page
function redirectOnFirstLogin( $redirect_to, $requested_redirect_to, $user )
{
// URL to redirect to
$redirect_url = 'http://yoursite.com/firstloginpage';
// How many times to redirect the user
$num_redirects = 1;
// If implementing this on an existing site, this is here so that existing users don't suddenly get the "first login" treatment
// On a new site, you might remove this setting and the associated check
// Alternative approach: run a script to assign the "already redirected" property to all existing users
// Alternative approach: use a date-based check so that all registered users before a certain date are ignored
// 172800 seconds = 48 hours
$message_period = 172800;
// If they're on the login page, don't do anything
if( !isset( $user->user_login ) )
{
return $redirect_to;
}
$key_name = 'redirect_on_first_login';
// Third parameter ensures that the result is a string
$current_redirect_value = get_user_meta( $user->ID, $key_name, true );
if( strtotime( $user->user_registered ) > ( time() - $message_period )
&& ( '' == $current_redirect_value || intval( $current_redirect_value ) < $num_redirects )
)
{
if( '' != $current_redirect_value )
{
$num_redirects = intval( $current_redirect_value ) + 1;
}
update_user_meta( $user->ID, $key_name, $num_redirects );
return $redirect_url;
}
else
{
return $redirect_to;
}
}
add_filter( 'login_redirect', 'redirectOnFirstLogin', 10, 3 );