The Divi Bottom Bar, located just below the WordPress footer, is a perfect place for Copyright © 2024 information. But a forgotten old year will give your website an outdated, dusty aura. So why not create an automatic feature that keeps the year fresh for you – year after year? Just follow the step-by-step guide below and stop worrying about outdated WordPress footers.

Watch the video or just follow the instructions below if you prefer to read. All the code snippets you’ll need is available for copy & paste in the article. You’ll need the Divi Theme from Elegant Themes but no extra plugins.

👉  Related content: Display current date or year in the WordPress default footer

Updated 2021: Display Current Year Wihtout Custom Code with Divi Dynamic Content (recommended)

This video is a part of our complete Divi & WordPress course. This way, you can create the footer and the bottom bar using the Divi Theme Builder instead. This is easier and much more flexible. And you don’t need to create a child theme or edit any code at all. This is the recommended way of adding the current year in Divi.

The old way: Add current date with custom code

Use this solution only if you have a child theme and if you use the Divi Theme Customizer footer and not the Divi Theme Builder footer.

Step 1. Update functions.php

If you don’t have a child theme, now is the time to get one . Otherwise, your changes will be overwritten next time your theme is updated.

Start in your WordPress dashboard and go to Appearance > Editor. Then select functions.php in your child theme and paste the following code in the end. Save.

// Display current year 
function year_shortcode() {
$year = date_i18n('Y');
return $year; } add_shortcode
(
'year', 'year_shortcode');

👉 Pro tip: The shortcode [year] that we just created can also be used in the body text on all WordPress pages and posts. But if you use Divi, there is a better way: Dynamic content. Read more in the end of this post.

Step 2. Copy footer.php to your child theme folder

Now we’ve created the shortcode [year] that will display 2024 if you put it in the body copy of a WordPress page or post. But in order for it to display in the Divi Bottom Bar (and that’s our aim, right?), we need to do a tweak in footer.php (where the bottom bar code is located).

1. Use a ftp client (eg FileZilla) or your web hosting file manager to copy the file footer.php from /wp-content/theme/Divi/ to /wp-content/themes/your-child-theme/ (“your-child-theme” should of course be replaced by the name of your child theme).
2. Open your brand new child theme footer.php in a editor and search for this code snippet:

<div class="container clearfix"> 
<?php
if ( false !== et_get_option( 'show_footer_social_icons', true ) ) {
get_template_part( 'includes/social_icons', 'footer' );
}

echo et_get_footer_credits();
</div> <!-- .container -->

3. Replace the code above with the code below;

<div class="container clearfix"> 
<?php
if ( false !== et_get_option( 'show_footer_social_icons', true ) ) {
get_template_part( 'includes/social_icons', 'footer' );
}
?>
<p id="footer-info">Copyright &copy; <?php echo do_shortcode('[year]');?> DiviMundo. All rights reserved.</p>
</div> <!-- .container -->

Change “DiviMundo. All rights reserved.” to the company name and content you want to display. This is now where you edit all the the bottom bar text (but the social media icons are not affected).  Save and have a look. It should look something like this:

Explanation to the code snippet:

• Copyright is plain text, displayed as: Copyright
• ©  is code language for the special copyright character: ©
• [year] is the shortcode that displays the current year automatically.

If you want to modify the background color, font color or font size in the bottom bar it business as usual: Open your WordPress dashboard and go to Divi > Theme Customizer > Footer > Bottom Bar. That was all for today. Enjoy!