How to bring Link Manager back in WordPress

If you choose to create a new database and perform a fresh WordPress install process on your web server, you will notice the installation scripts creates a "wp_links" table on your database. Despite the fact that your WordPress dashboard does not provide any menu item or any direct link to access or to use this particular database table, there's a simple trick that you can still use to use this feature on your website.

Simply add the following line on your current theme's "functions.php" page and refresh from your dashboard. You should notice the "Links" menu showed up. Now you can use the necessary UI to add links or entries on your database.

add_filter('pre_option_link_manager_enabled', '__return_true');

This feature was widely knows as "Link Manager". This feature used to allow users to build a list of blog site (more like a blogroll) and show them on your site's front-end. Back in 2012, it was decided by the core WordPress team to remove this feature. Even though the "Link" menu was eventually removed from the back-end, the underlying code and feature is still there.

A plugin was introduced later on with the name "Link Manager" that still works and can offer the same feature. However, it's no longer being maintained. If you want to try out the more modern solution, you can try out the "Blogroll Block" plugin as well. No matter how you want to implement and use this feature, I will encourage you to check out their release logs before you perform any future WordPress version upgrade. Because you really need to know when exactly they will remove this feature entirely from the WordPress core.

Also, never forget to backup your database before you perform any version upgrade on your site. It's better to be safe than sorry. Once again, backup, backup and backup. I can't stress enough how important it is to have the backup copy of your database.