ImagePress: How to get random authors with at least one published image

ImagePress Author Discovery — Photo by Shane Hauser on Unsplash

This small function allows you to get random authors with at least one published image, excluding the ones you follow. This is a great feature for author discovery and new follows.

This feature works with ImagePress version 7 or higher.

add_action('pre_user_query', function($query) {
    if ('rand' === $query->query_vars['orderby']) {
        $query->query_orderby = str_replace('user_login', 'RAND()', $query->query_orderby);
    }
});

function get_random_feed_authors($number, $currentUserId) {
    $myFollowers = array(pwuf_get_following($currentUserId));
    $myFollowers = array_unique($myFollowers);
    $myFollowersToString = implode(',', $myFollowers[0]);

    $users = get_users(array(
        'fields' => array('ID', 'display_name'),
        'orderby' => 'rand',
        'number' => $number,
        'who' => 'authors',
        'exclude' => $myFollowers[0],
        'has_published_posts' => get_post_types(array('public' => true)),
        // 'query_id' => 'authors_with_posts', // not used anymore
    ));

    //shuffle($users); // optional

    return $users;
}

Use this in your theme’s functions.php file or in a custom plugin.