Thorsten Frommen

Have you ever wanted to integrate external content such as a specific post of an external website into your WordPress website? But treat it like any other post? That is, have it appear as teaser or part of a specific (pseudo) archive?
This is exactly when External Content kicks in.
<h4>Usage</h4>
External Content registers a custom post type that, by default, supports title, content, excerpt and thumbnail. This can be customized, though. Managing your posts in your backend is no different from any other post type. Create a new post, give it a title, write some text, define an individual excerpt, and set a post thumbnail, if you wish. Then assign each post an individual external URL by means of the according meta box. This external URL will be used as the post’s permalink.
Filters
In order to customize certain aspects of the plugin, it provides you with several filters. For each of these, a short description as well as a code example on how to alter the default behavior is given below. Just put the according code snippet in your theme’s <code>functions.php</code> file or your customization plugin, or to some other appropriate place.
<code>external_content_args</code>
If you want to alter a specific post type argument but you can’t find a fitting filter, there’s <code>external_content_args</code>, which provides you with the complete args array.
<pre><code>/**
 * Filter the post type args.
 *
 * @param array $args Post type args.
 */
add_filter( 'external_content_args', function( $args ) {

 // Use hierarchical external content
 $args[ 'hierarchical' ] = TRUE;

 return $args;
} );
</code></pre>
<code>external_content_description</code>
The post type description can be customized by using the <code>external_content_description</code> filter.
<pre><code>/**
 * Filter the post type description.
 *
 * @param string $description Post type description.
 */
add_filter( 'external_content_description', function() {

 // Provide a description
 return 'Simple post type for handling external content like any other post.';
} );
</code></pre>
<code>external_content_labels</code>
In case you don’t like the labels, easily adapt them to your liking.
<pre><code>/**
 * Filter the post type labels.
 *
 * @param array $labels Post type labels.
 */
add_filter( 'external_content_labels', function( $labels ) {

 // A little more horror, please...
 $labels[ 'not_found' ] = 'ZOMG, no external content found!!1!!1!!oneone!!!1!eleven!1!';

 return $labels;
} );
</code></pre>
<code>external_content_meta_key</code>
If you want to alter the meta key for the external URL, feel free to do it via this filter.
<pre><code>/**
 * Filter the meta key.
 *
 * @param string $meta_key Meta key.
 */
add_filter( 'external_content_meta_key', function() {

 // Let's Shrekify the meta key
 return 'far_far_away';
} );
</code></pre>
<code>external_content_post_type</code>
Yes, you can also alter the post type (slug).
<pre><code>/**
 * Filter the post type.
 *
 * @param string $post_type Post type.
 */
add_filter( 'external_content_post_type', function() {

 return 'exotic_stuff';
} );
</code></pre>
<code>external_content_supports</code>
This filter provides you with the post type supports.
<pre><code>/**
 * Filter the post type supports.
 *
 * @param array $supports Post type supports.
 */
add_filter( 'external_content_supports', function( $supports ) {

 // If your theme uses the excerpt for teasers, just remove the editor to prevent confusion
 foreach ( $supports as $key => $value ) {
 if ( 'editor' === $value ) {
 unset( $supports[ $key ] );
 }
 }

 return $supports;
} );
</code></pre>
<code>external_content_use_external_url</code>
The permalink of external content is, by default, replaced with the post’s according external URL (i.e., post meta). To disable this behavior, just do the following:
<pre><code>/**
 * Filter the usage of the external URL as permalink.
 *
 * @param bool $use_external_url Use the external URL as permalink?
 */
add_filter( 'external_content_use_external_url', '__return_false' );
</code></pre>
<h4>Contribution</h4>
To contribute to this plugin, please see its <a href="https://github.com/tfrommen/external-content" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub repository</a>.
If you have a feature request, or if you have developed the feature already, please feel free to use the Issues and/or Pull Requests section.
Of course, you can also provide me with translations if you would like to use the plugin in another not yet included language.

External Content

This plugin registers a custom post type to handle external content like any other post. The post permalink is replaced by a custom post meta that hol …

Daan van den Bergh

In January, 2022 <a href="https://ffw.press/blog/gdpr/google-fonts-violates-gdpr-germany/" rel="nofollow ugc">a German court ruled</a> that a website owner was in breach of GDPR and should pay a € 100,- fine, because embedded Google Fonts were used, essentially transferring the user’s personal data (IP address) without the user’s prior consent.
<h4>What’s embedding?</h4>
When an external (i.e. loaded from another server, besides your own) resource is embedded into a webpage, it basically means that the resource behaves as if it’s loaded from the same server hosting the webpage.
<h4>Why is using embedded resources in breach of GDPR?</h4>
Because of <a href="https://ffw.press/blog/how-to/google-fonts-gdpr/" rel="nofollow ugc">the way the internet works</a>. When a browser (i.e. computer) requests a file (e.g. an image or a font file), the server needs the IP address of that computer to send it back. All these requests (including the IP address) are logged in a so-called <code>access.log</code>.
Once this IP address leaves the European Union, your website is violating the GDPR.
<h4>What does this plugin do?</h4>
GDPRess scans your homepage for 3rd party scripts (JS) and stylesheets (CSS), and:
<ul>
<li>Allows you to download or exclude them from downloading,</li>
<li>Parses the stylesheets for loaded font files, downloads them, and rewrites the stylesheet to use the local copies,</li>
<li>Makes sure the local copies of each script/stylesheet are used in your site’s frontend.</li>
</ul>
In short, it makes sure no requests are made to external/embedded/3rd party scripts and stylesheets.

GDPRess | Eliminate external requests to increase GDPR compliance

Good job! Works even on my WP6++ sites.

Checked in Browser and it works as expected.

Thanks for this plugin.

Ralph Rathmann

Great Job. It Works! Installed and configured in less than 100seconds ;-)


Used it to localize Font Awesome CSS and font files. Works like a charm. Just perfect! Thank you for your hard work @daanvandenbergh


Great plugin!

In January, 2022 a German court ruled that a website owner was in breach of GDPR and should pay a € 100,- fine, because embedded Google Fonts were use …

External Content vs GDPRess | Eliminate external requests to increase GDPR compliance