Wordpress - Custom login form

The login form is a simple html form sending username and password to wp-login.php. This is the simplest way to create a custom login form:

<?php
$redirect_to = '';
?>
<form name="loginform" id="loginform" action="<?php echo site_url( '/wp-login.php' ); ?>" method="post">
<p>Username: <input id="user_login" type="text" size="20" value="" name="log"></p>
<p>Password: <input id="user_pass" type="password" size="20" value="" name="pwd"></p>
<p><input id="rememberme" type="checkbox" value="forever" name="rememberme"></p>

<p><input id="wp-submit" type="submit" value="Login" name="wp-submit"></p>

<input type="hidden" value="<?php echo esc_attr( $redirect_to ); ?>" name="redirect_to">
<input type="hidden" value="1" name="testcookie">
</form>

Line by line:

  • $redirect_to: If you want the user redirect to a special page, insert the url here. The url will be inserted in the hidden field at the end of the formular
  • <form ... action="...">: The data has to be send to wp-login.php. This file is in the root of your WordPress installation. Create the right url with site_url() (please refer to the codex for more information about site_url()). The method has to be set to post
  • A input field for the username with id user_login
  • A input field for the password with id user_pass
  • A input field for the 'RememberMe' checkbox (optional)
  • A submit button
  • The hidden field if the user should be redirected after login (optional)
  • A hidden field for a testcookie (optional, but usefull)

Create a formular and style it with css. That's all.


  1. Create a template file within your child theme directory, let's say login.php. Put the login form inside this file:

    <form action="" method="post">
      <div>
        User name: <input name="log" type="text" />
      </div>
      <div>
        Password: <input name="pwd" type="password" />
      </div>
      <div>
        <input type="submit" value="Login" />
        <input type="hidden" name="action" value="my_login_action" />
      </div>
    </form>
    

    Change whatever you wish, but you should leave the name attributes intact

  2. Create a functions.php file within your child theme directory, or if you have one, edit it. You will fulfill the login requests in it:

    add_action('init', function(){
    
      // not the login request?
      if(!isset($_POST['action']) || $_POST['action'] !== 'my_login_action')
        return;
    
      // see the codex for wp_signon()
      $result = wp_signon();
    
      if(is_wp_error($result))
        wp_die('Login failed. Wrong password or user name?');
    
      // redirect back to the requested page if login was successful    
      header('Location: ' . $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
      exit;
    });
    
  3. Create a copy of your header.php template, put it in your child theme folder and edit it. Add this code where you want the login form to appear:

    <?php
    
     if(!is_user_logged_in()){
       get_template_part('login');
     }
    
    ?>
    

Also, you can customize the original login form in your WP Theme.

There are a few things that you can do. 1) You can change the Wp logo :

<?php
//Custom logo
function my_custom_login_logo() {
    echo '<style type="text/css">
        h1 a { background-image:url('.get_bloginfo('template_url').'/images/logo.png) !important; }
    </style>';
}

add_action('login_head', 'my_custom_login_logo');

// Custom login

function my_login_logo_url() {
    return get_bloginfo( 'url' );
}
add_filter( 'login_headerurl', 'my_login_logo_url' );
function my_login_logo_url_title() {
    return '[url]';
}
add_filter( 'login_headertitle', 'my_login_logo_url_title' );

?>

2) You can remove the shake of WP login:

<?php

function my_login_head() {
    remove_action('login_head', 'wp_shake_js', 12);
}
add_action('login_head', 'my_login_head');

?>

3) Remove the login errors :

<?php

add_filter('login_errors',create_function('$a', "return null;"));

?>

Important: Do not use all of these parts of code to functions.php. First create three of them with the names that describe the function like (ex my_custom_login_logo.php, my_login_head.php and remove_login_errors.php) and then call the 3 functions to functions.php e.x. require_once('includes/secure/my_custom_login_logo.php'); require_once('includes/secure/my_login_head.php'); require_once('includes/secure/remove_login_errors.php');

includes and secure, are folders. I hope to help you. Welcome.