1. Registrations
  2. Profile updates
  3. Removing users

Sync Users Between Sites

In this post we are going to talk about REST API, particularly about how to sync user registrations, profile updates and removals between two completely separate WordPress websites.

If you need to sync posts instead, then I can suggest you a tutorial and a plugin.

Create a User on the Second Website Automatically

When a user is created on a WordPress website either by a registration form or manually, in both cases user_register action hook is going to be fired. So our goal is to add a REST API request to an external website to the hook.

This is how we can do it:

add_action( 'user_register', 'rudr_register_user_both_sites', 10, 2 );

function rudr_register_user_both_sites( $user_id, $user_data ) {

	$login = '';
	$pwd = '';

	$request = wp_remote_post(
		'https://WEBSITE-DOMAIN/wp-json/wp/v2/users',
		array(
			'headers' => array(
				'Authorization' => 'Basic ' . base64_encode( "$login:$pwd" )
			),
			'body' => array(
				'username'    => $user_data[ 'user_login' ],
				'first_name'  => $user_data[ 'user_login' ],
				'last_name'   => $user_data[ 'last_name' ],
				'email'       => $user_data[ 'user_email' ],
				'url'         => $user_data[ 'user_url' ],
				'roles'       => $user_data[ 'role' ],
				'password'    => $user_data[ 'user_pass' ],
			)
		)
	);
	
	if( 'Created' === wp_remote_retrieve_response_message( $request ) ) {
		$body = json_decode( wp_remote_retrieve_body( $request ) );
		update_user_meta( $user_id, 'user_id_2', $body->id );
	}

}
  • This code can be easily inserted into your theme functions.php file, but there are some moments you need to keep in mind, all of them are described here.
  • You also need to provide the administrator username of an external website (where you’re going to duplicate users) and an application password, how to get it is described here.
  • It is also possible to add some user metadata with meta argument but I decided to skip this part in terms of simplicity but maybe I can describe this moment in comments. Or should I develop a plugin for syncing users between WordPress sites? What do you think guys? Let me know in comments.
  • Please look also what is happening on lines 26-29, we retrieve ID of newly created user on “Site 2” and store it as user meta on “Site 1”. It is needed for updating users.

Sync User Profile Update

This step is similar, we just going to use a different hook profile_update and a slightly different REST API endpoint (we will provide a user ID as a part of it). And course we need to know a user ID on “Site 2”, luckily we have already stored it in user meta when created a user.

add_action( 'profile_update', 'rudr_user_update', 10, 3 );

function rudr_user_update( $user_id, $old_user_data, $user_data ) {

	$login = '';
	$pwd = '';
	$user_id_2 = get_user_meta( $user_id, 'user_id_2', true );
	
	if( ! $user_id_2 ) {
		return;
	}

	$request = wp_remote_post(
		'https://WEBSITE-DOMAIN/wp-json/wp/v2/users/' . $user_id_2,
		array(
			'headers' => array(
				'Authorization' => 'Basic ' . base64_encode( "$login:$pwd" )
			),
			'body' => array(
				'name'        => $user_data[ 'display_name' ],
				'first_name'  => $user_data[ 'user_login' ],
				'last_name'   => $user_data[ 'last_name' ],
				'email'       => $user_data[ 'user_email' ],
				'url'         => $user_data[ 'user_url' ],
				'roles'       => $user_data[ 'role' ],
				'password'    => $user_data[ 'user_pass' ],
				'description' => $user_data[ 'description' ],
			)
		)
	);

}

Removing Users on Both Sites at the Same Time

add_action( 'delete_user', 'rudr_user_delete' );

function rudr_user_delete( $user_id ) {

	$login = '';
	$pwd = '';
	$user_id_2 = get_user_meta( $user_id, 'user_id_2', true );
	
	if( ! $user_id_2 ) {
	 	return;
	}

	$request = wp_remote_request(
		add_query_arg( 
			array( 
				'force' => true, 
				'reassign' => 1 
			), 
			'https://WEBSITE-DOMAIN/wp-json/wp/v2/users/' . $user_id_2 
		),
		array(
			'method' => 'DELETE',
			'headers' => array(
				'Authorization' => 'Basic ' . base64_encode( "$login:$pwd" )
			)
		)
	);

}

In this example please take a look at the required query arguments force and reassign, if you do not provide them, REST API request is not going to work.

Guys, what do you think? Would you like a plugin for that? Please, let me know in comments.

# WordPress, REST API

Misha Rudrastyh

Misha Rudrastyh

Hey guys and welcome to my website. For more than 10 years I've been doing my best to share with you some superb WordPress guides and tips for free.

Need some developer help? Contact me

Follow me on Twitter