How to get featured Image URL in WordPress?

Featured images are an essential element of your WordPress blog. They assist you in providing a unique look and appearance to your blog post and also aids in you in attracting users or visitors to your site. One of the best visual introduction to your website or blog – the featured images. It has been considered to be the best you can go with if your theme is compatible with it.

There are several cases where you would need access to a featured image URL while working with your WordPress blog or website. How to get the featured image URL in those circumstances? Here are the steps involved in addressing this concern.

How to get featured Image URL in WordPress?

Why would you need access to Featured Image URL in WordPress? Well, if you are a developer in WordPress, you need to have access to the featured image URL for several reasons. Please note that you should be aware of how WordPress works if you want to follow those features and functions.

Wondering why we are including these high-end features and functions in this series of articles on blogging for beginners? Well, we have a few beginners who tend to get graduated into the developers quite soon enough. They tend to step into core WordPress development & learn the tricks of the trade. During their actions like hacking into the WordPress codes and designing plugins, they are most likely to come across several issues and challenges.

One such challenge would be to get the featured image URL in WordPress. Still confused why it is needed? You would need the featured image URL – this is referred to as post thumbnail URL – for using it in their own markup program. You will also need access to the featured thumbnail URL when you need to use it in headers and for the post background image purposes.

You only need to add the following code inside your loop code that you are creating –

Change the thumbnail size value in the above snippet with the size you want to achieve. You can choose any size between thumbnail, medium, large, and full.

Other options which can be utilized –

Well, yes – there are a few other options you can use and get the featured image URL or post thumbnail URL easily. Here are the steps you need to follow –

• Locate and open the PHP file.
• Choose to edit it
• Add the following snippet to the file.

• Edit the php, template.php files and add the same snippet in those files as well.

The $post->ID in the above snippet can be obtained with the help of the URL of the post that you are attempting to the featured image URL for.

How to Get Single Post Thumbnail?

As you are already aware, the post thumbnail or featured image functionality is a part of the WordPress theme. It is not an essential part of core WordPress functionality. You can make use of enabling the support for the featured image for individual posts and images.

Add the snippet to your single.phpfile.

The Concluding Thoughts

That was a detailed post on how you could get the featured image URL on WordPress. However, it should be noted that the post can be too technical for those who are just beginning in the blogging arena in general and WordPress in particular – it may not be quite easy to grasp. The techniques need you to have a deeper knowledge of WordPress and coding for a better understanding.

Have you tried any other option to get the featured image or the post thumbnail URL in WordPress? If you have used any other option than the ones already featured in this post,  please do share them with us. This will help the WordPress enthusiasts in exploring the concept further.