Discussing WPSE #5413

Jan Fabry

14:08

New rewrite rules don't get added to .htaccess by default, WordPress uses its own array that it checks

Steven

Smart :)

Jan Fabry

Its much larger than just what's in .htaccess

And you can analyze it with my plugin

The new rule should be there, at the top

Steven

Di I have to download your plugin?

*Do

Jan Fabry

You can't really download it yet, just create a new file in wp-content/plugins/ and copy the code from my answer in it

4

A: A tool to analyze rewrite rules?

Well what a coincidence that you ask this, Jan! Just today I had time on a long train journey and decided to write a Rewrite Analyzer plugin, one that parses your rewrite rules and highlights the query variables. It can be extended to simplify the regex so mere mortals can understand them too, bu...

(I might add it to the plugin repo later today)

Steven

Right... huge list... let's see....

designers/attachment/([^/]+)/?$

attachment: ([^/]+)

designers/attachment/([^/]+)/trackback/?$

attachment: ([^/]+)
tb: 1

designers/attachment/([^/]+)/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$

attachment: ([^/]+)
feed: (feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)

designers/attachment/([^/]+)/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$

attachment: ([^/]+)
feed: (feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)

designers/attachment/([^/]+)/comment-page-([0-9]{1,})/?$

attachment: ([^/]+)
cpage: ([0-9]{1,})

(designers)/trackback/?$

pagename: (designers)
tb: 1

Jan Fabry

14:16

It looks like those are the standard rules for the designers page, not yet the rule we added

Steven

So we need to figure out why the rewrite rules are not applied.

Jan Fabry

There is nothing at the top of that list, designers/([^/]+)/??

Indeed, then it is not added. Is the add_rewrite_rule() function called? Can you put a var_dump(__FUNCTION__) above it?

It should display at every page load

Steven

This is at the top:

robots.txt$

robots: 1

.*wp-atom.php$

feed: atom

.*wp-rdf.php$

feed: rdf

.*wp-rss.php$

feed: rss

.*wp-rss2.php$

feed: rss2

.*wp-feed.php$

feed: feed

.*wp-commentsrss2.php$

feed: rss2
withcomments: 1

christmas-calendar/attachment/([^/]+)/?$

attachment: ([^/]+)

christmas-calendar/attachment/([^/]+)/trackback/?$

attachment: ([^/]+)
tb: 1

Jan Fabry

And certainly if you open the permalinks page

Steven

var_dump(FUNCTION) -> string(12) "wpa5413_init"

Jan Fabry

14:20

OK, great, so it gets called

Now, go to the permalinks page, and click "Save" to be sure

If it does not show up in the list now, we can start adding filters to figure out where it goes wrong

Steven

Nothing new at the top of the list

Jan Fabry

OK, then hook into the rewrite_rules_array filter, and var_dump() the contents of it (be sure to return the value too, otherwise we empty it)

add_filter( 'rewrite_rules_array', 'dump_it' ); function dump_it($value){var_dump($value);return $value;}

Something like that

Steven

Usingthat, I get a huge list of rewrite rules. Basically thesame as in the list in your plugin.

Jan Fabry

OK, this means our add_rewrite_rule() is not effective. Very bizarre. But we can use this filter instead. That's was your update 3 code does.

Take the rules array you get, add your designer rule on top, and return the new array

Steven

Right. I've updated the code in example 3. Now I get something new at the top of my list.

`(designers)/(d*)$
pagename: designers
designer: (designers)
`

But I still get a 404

Jan Fabry

14:34

What is the (d*)? Is it a d with a slash before it? (\d) Because this matches only numbers, not the text slug we want to use

Steven

$newrules['(designers)/(\d*)$'] = 'index.php?pagename=designers&designer=$matches[1]';

Jan Fabry

You should use the ([^/]+) version, this matches anything up to the next /.

Steven

I have no idea what th \d is.... :)

ok

Jan Fabry

So it will become: $newrules['designers/([^/]+)/?'] = ...

and you can use designer or designer_slug or whatever in the right hand part, just make sure you use the same thing in the query_vars filter

Steven

Blody h**! That worked! :)

I'm using this now: $newrules['^designers/([^/]*)$'] = 'index.php?pagename=designers&designer=$matches[1]';

So.... any chanse of passing along the $bid? :)

Jan Fabry

14:38

Voila - normally the add_rewrite_rule() thing should give you the same result, but for some reason it did not work for you

@Steven You can include it, but then of course you will see it in your URL

Steven

bah - I'll just rewrite the code to fetch correct designer based on unique slug that I've aded to DB :)

Jan Fabry

Most of the time they put it before the slug, so if you mistype the slug, or leave it off (shortlink for Twitter?), it will still work

it's not difficult, you just need to modify the rule regex

Steven

Thans so much for you help Jan. This will also help tremendously in another site I have - storelocator.no

I need identical rewrites tehre. This is sooo god :)

Jan Fabry

designers/(\d+)/?([^/]+)?/?

And then you change the $matches indexed of course, bid is now $matches[1], designer is $matches[2]

Good, next time we visit Scandinavia, I'll make sure to visit these sites with my wife!

Steven

:) Where are you from?

Jan Fabry

14:42

(Or not, if I want to have some money on our return journey...)

Belgium. Also good with fashion.

I knew some Finnish designers, but Norway is new for me

Steven

I thought it would be around that area - Jan is pretty "nordic"

what do you do for a living? Full tiem developer?

Jan Fabry

As a freelancer, yes. It used to be just a little bit WordPress, but the Stack Exchange got me hooked

Just like your original question was the first time I played with the rewrite engine

Steven

I'm no "hard core" programmer, it's beyond myskills to "play around" with things like that :)

I'm a front end developer and a usability geek.

with a pashion for fashion and photography.

Jan Fabry

OK, I updated my answer with a reference to this room, so others can follow the discussion too. Of course, you're free to accept it! (I assume your original answer is solved now too?)

Steven

yes, they both are :)

Thanks again for your help.

Steven

17:23

@Jan Fabry: Am I supposed to be able to use $_GET['designer'] to retrieve designer slug?

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Discussing WPSE #5413