WordPress Change Preview Post Link Button URL Via preview_post_link Filter

Author: Vivek Gite Last updated: September 14, 2012 7 comments

How do change the default “preview” button when posting using wordpress user/admin panel?

Tutorial details
Difficulty	Easy (rss)
Root privileges	No
Requirements	Wordpress v2.0.11+
Time	N/A

You need use the hook or filter called preview_post_link under wordpress to change the default “preview” button when posting. According to wordpress filter documentation:

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preview_page_link – Applied to the link on the page editing screen that shows the page preview at the bottom (or right) of the screen.
preview_post_link – Applied to the link on the post editing screen that shows the post preview at the bottom (or right) of the screen.

You need to use functions.php a functions file, which resides in the theme subdirectory. This file acts like a plugin, and if it is present in the theme you are using, it is automatically loaded during WordPress initialization. Edit file using a text editor such as vim:
$ vi functions.php
Append the following code:

// Change post preview button url 
// Change www.cyberciti.biz/faq/?p=124&preview=true
// To server1.cyberciti.biz/faq/?p=124&preview=true
function nixcraft_preview_link() {
    $slug = basename(get_permalink());
    $mydomain = 'http://server1.cyberciti.biz';
    $mydir = '/faq/'; 
    $mynewpurl = "$mydomain$mydir$slug&amp;preview=true";
    return "$mynewpurl";
}
add_filter( 'preview_post_link', 'nixcraft_preview_link' );

Save and close the file. Another example:

function nixcraft_update_post_link($link) {
        //replace www part with server1 using the following php function
        //preg_replace ( patter, replace, subject ) syntax
        $link = preg_replace('/www/', 'server1', $link); 
        return $link;
}
add_filter('preview_post_link', 'nixcraft_update_post_link');

You can use the same filter when previewing to posts from a secure page (taken from secure-admin plugin):

function sa_post_link($link) {
	global $pagenow;
	if ( ('on' == $_SERVER['HTTPS']) && ('wp-comments-post.php' != $pagenow) )
		$link = preg_replace('/^https?/', 'https', $link);
	return $link;
}
add_filter('preview_post_link', 'sa_post_link');
add_filter('preview_page_link', 'sa_post_link');

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7 comments… add one

Paul Thomson Apr 1, 2013 @ 15:31
Why on earth would you ever need to do this??
Reply Link
- Mehdi Apr 8, 2013 @ 13:38
  Because sometimes you need a different url structure (for your posts or pages), so the preview url has to reflect the real url structure, or it could show a 404 instead of the post preview.
  Reply Link
- Alex Leonard Feb 7, 2014 @ 2:02
  I have a perfect use-case. I’m using WordPress as an API for post content but the posts are actually appearing on a Laravel driven bespoke web-app.
  As a result WordPress is not handling front-end display of post content at all.
  Thank you NixCraft for sharing this!
  Reply Link
Terry May 31, 2013 @ 23:17
I am having a problem where all of my links all show the same preview under them..
Whatever the top post is reading as a preview is being put under all other posts, any idea why?
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Matthias Max Jul 10, 2015 @ 20:49
This doesn’t seem to work for me in WP 4.
Did anyone else try it?
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toddkh Nov 19, 2015 @ 17:01

Thanks for sharing, this is great, I have it working like this: (in wp 4.3.1

function update_preview_link() {
    $slug = get_the_ID();
    $mydomain = 'http://myreviseddomain.com';
    $mynewpurl = "$mydomain/preview/$slug";
    return "$mynewpurl";
}
add_filter( 'preview_post_link', 'update_preview_link' );

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Tim Oct 13, 2016 @ 20:27
Absolutely needed this today! We build a custom preview engine and needed to change these links globally!
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