Move custom meta box above editor

I know you aren’t suppose to bump, but it’s been over a week. Anyone?

Still looking for help on this one… found this post:

https://www.farinspace.com/move-and-position-wordpress-visual-editor/

which talks about using JS to move the editor into a custom meta box… but I’m looking for a WordPress only solution, if one exists.

I’m with you. I have a few option boxes like an SEO options box and since I set the size of the post box to be larger than the default so I can write much more without scrolling the editor, if I want to edit an option I DO have to scroll the page down to the bottom.

The SEO options are needed and priority so there’s no use in them being so low down the page.

I do understand you can move those options boxes above or below one another but that doesn’t help me.

Meta boxes are added using the add_meta_box() function. Among the various paramenters that you can pass this function are two in particular that allow you to specify the location/position of the meta box. The particular parameters are $context and $priority.

The $context parameter allows you to specifiy whether it appears in the main body of the page or on the side of the page. The $priority parameter allows you to specify it’s priority in relation to the other boxes on the screen.

Depending on your theme, you’ll most likely find this call in functions.php.

Check out the following for more information on the add_meta_box() function…
https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Function_Reference/add_meta_box

Thanks for the reply ahortin… I fully understand how to add a meta box. In fact, I do this dynamically through a nice function where all I have to do is create an array to hold meta box details. My functions create the meta boxes and the content inside each meta box based off the array.

The issue I’m facing is moving the “editor” meta box. You know, the default meta box containing the main editor? I don’t really want to change the core, but if I could find a hook, or the piece of core code that places that meta box on a post or page, I might be able to add that snippet of code to my functions.php to change it’s order there. This way I won’t break core code on updates.

P.S. I write my own themes from scratch… Not using any default themes or templates.

… but I’m looking for a WordPress only solution, if one exists.

My solution:

add_action( 'add_meta_boxes', 'action_add_meta_boxes', 0 );
function action_add_meta_boxes() {
	global $_wp_post_type_features;
	if (isset($_wp_post_type_features['post']['editor']) && $_wp_post_type_features['post']['editor']) {
		unset($_wp_post_type_features['post']['editor']);
		add_meta_box(
			'description_section',
			__('Description'),
			'inner_custom_box',
			'post', 'normal', 'high'
		);
	}
	if (isset($_wp_post_type_features['page']['editor']) && $_wp_post_type_features['page']['editor']) {
		unset($_wp_post_type_features['page']['editor']);
		add_meta_box(
			'description_sectionid',
			__('Description'),
			'inner_custom_box',
			'page', 'normal', 'high'
		);
	}
}
function inner_custom_box( $post ) {
	the_editor($post->post_content);
}

Brilliant!!! Just what I was looking for. I knew there must have been something better than JavaScript to do this. Thanks so much.

You are welcome ??

P.S.
Tested on versions 3.2.1 and 3.3.1

Just a small correction.
The function the_editor is deprecated(but still works) in WP3.3, use wp_editor instead.

So I attempted to get this working, and maybe I’m missing something, but I wasn’t successful. After plugging in this block of code into my functions.php, I wasn’t sure what else to do in order to get this working. I added my custom meta box, played around with the priorities, etc., and nothing. What am I missing? Here is the sample code from my meta box:

function df_press_about1_html() {
    global $post;
    $about1title = get_post_meta($post->ID, '_df_press_about1title', true);
    echo '<label>About the 3rd party title</label><input type="text" name="_df_press_about1title" value="' . $about1title  . '" class="widefat" />';
    $about1body = get_post_meta($post->ID, '_df_press_about1body', true);
    echo '<label>About the 3rd party provider content here</label><textarea class="wp-editor-area" rows="7" cols="95" name="_df_press_about1body">"' . $about1body  . '"</textarea>';
}

And this is the meta box add:

add_meta_box('df_press_about1', 'About 3rd Party', 'df_press_about1_html', 'press', 'normal', 'default');

I have more boxes than this, but this one gets it in there. I’ve adjusted the normal, default values to no avail, and have reverted them back to this.

Let me know if you guys have any ideas.

The code from @troydesign worked perfectly for me. Thanks!

I modified it to only target a single CPT, so in the code below replace {post-type} with the post type you want to target: post, page, my_custom_post_type, etc…

add_action( 'add_meta_boxes', 'jb_make_wp_editor_movable', 0 );
	function jb_make_wp_editor_movable() {
		global $_wp_post_type_features;
		if (isset($_wp_post_type_features['{post-type}']['editor']) && $_wp_post_type_features['{post-type}']['editor']) {
			unset($_wp_post_type_features['{post-type}']['editor']);
			add_meta_box(
				'description_sectionid',
				__('Description'),
				'jb_inner_custom_box',
				'{post-type}', 'normal', 'high'
			);
		}
	}
	function jb_inner_custom_box( $post ) {
		the_editor($post->post_content);
	}

Works great Troy! Just one question – my editors main div has changed its background color now from its default white to a gray color…any idea why, or how to get the default CSS back?? Thanks again for the solution!

Hello Shaun, there are many way to do that. The simpler, I think, is to output a style in the head.
I have updated my solution here:
https://software.troydesign.it/php/wordpress/move-wp-visual-editor.html
look at “action_admin_head”.

Thanks so much! Where would I add my own custom post type to this script if you dont mind me asking? It seemed to work perfect for regular posts but my editor wouldnt appear on any CPT’s.

I have ‘editor’ enabled in my supports, for future reference.