Automatic Header Anchors for WordPress

Header Anchors with AnchorJS for WordPress is nothing but so easy to set up… No shitty plugin is necessary: just some code snippets here and there, a JavaScript library, and voila the magic is happening ????

It creates ID for your headers, and attach a hover anchor to them. ABSOLUTE development laziness, I love that.

Bonus: just adding the AnchorJS library + the JS snippet to your site will just work as fine!

EDIT 2020-03-19: This is broken since WP 5.2 – ETA to fix: n/a

Header Anchors for WordPress Step by Step Process:

• Install WP CDNjs Reborn plugin + AnchorJS Library
• Install Custom CSS & JS plugin for WordPress
• Create a JS snippet
• Create a CSS snippet
• Modify your Theme (optional)

Install WP CDNjs Reborn Plugin + AnchorJS Library

You need the AnchorJS library in the footer, and this can be done with another great plugin of mine: WP CDNjs reborn. You can download WP CDNjs Reborn here or via the plugin browser.

Install Custom CSS & JS Plugin for WordPress

Now you need to add CSS and JS snippets to your site. The best WordPress plugin around is Custom CSS & JS plugin for WordPress. Let’s add the two snippets bellow:

Create A JS Snippet

$(document).ready(function() {
  //https://www.bryanbraun.com/anchorjs/#basic-usage
  anchors.options.placement = 'left';

  //If no selector is provided, it falls back to a default selector of: 'h2, h3, h4, h5, h6'
  anchors.add('.dmbs-main .post-single h2, .dmbs-main .post-single h3');
});

By default, anchors are added to every h1 to h6 on the page. However, you certainly do not want useless anchors on:

• headers in widgets
• headers in the front page
• h1 headers in your site header

[callout type=”info” size=”lg”]

Container Class Containing the Headers

The container class for your posts may differ from theme to theme. Mine is called dbms-main for instance. Also, to have the anchors only with single posts and pages, I added a class called single-post in the theme functions that generate single posts and pages.

[/callout]

You can place your anchors left or right. A lot of options are available:

Create A CSS Snippet

.anchorjs-link{
  color:inherit
}
@media (max-width:480px){
  .anchorjs-link{
    display:none
  }
}
:hover>.anchorjs-link{
  opacity:.75;
  -webkit-transition:color .16s linear;
  -o-transition:color .16s linear;
  transition:color .16s linear
}
.anchorjs-link:focus,:hover>.anchorjs-link:hover{
  text-decoration:none;
  opacity:1
}

This will format your anchors to my theme. Adapt it for your theme or ask for a quote ????

Modify Your Theme

This is optional, if your want to have anchors only on single posts and pages main content.

What you need to do is simple: add a class called single-post or whatever you like, in your page.php and index.php, and use it in the JS snippet as well.

• Example for index.php:

if ( is_single() ) : ?>
  <div <?php post_class('post-single'); ?>>

    <h2 class="page-header"><?php the_title() ;?></h2>
    ...

• Example for page.php:

<div class="col-md-<?php devdmbootstrap3_main_content_width(); ?> dmbs-main">
  <div class="post-single">
    <?php // theloop
    if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
    ...

Again, this may be totally different in your theme.

No useless WordPress plugin necessary!

Addendum

Why do you need to add a class to identify single posts and pages? Because WordPress makes no difference between them and the posts excerpts on the Front page. The classes added to the post ID are exactly the same!

[callout type=”default” size=”lg”]

WordPress Function Reference/post class:

The post_class CSS classes appear based upon the post pageview Conditional Tags as follows.

Front Page
If posts are found on the front page of the blog, be it static or not, the class selectors are: post post-id hentry

Single Post
Single post template files and pageviews feature the class selectors: post post-id hentry

[/callout]