Custom post types, taxonomies, and permalinks

Question

This is driving me nuts and I'm sure it's simple but nothing I search for comes up with a simple structure (everything is very complex).

I have a custom post type product_listing and a custom taxonomy of product_cat (which is hierarchical and should be have like categories).

I simply want my URLs to look like this:

mysite.com/products/category1/product-name1 
mysite.com/products/category2/product-name2

But for the life of me, no matter what I do, I'm getting the dreaded 404 issue. Pages work okay and Posts work okay but my custom posts don't work correctly. They're showing up as:

mysite.com/products/product-name1
mysite.com/products/product-name2

Which actually works! It's just that I want to see my custom taxonomy in there plus I want to be able to access the taxonomy.php template I have setup by going to:

mysite.com/products/category1/
mysite.com/products/category2/

None of my slugs are the same, nor do I want them to be. Here is the post type and taxonomy part of my functions.php file:

///// CUSTOM POST TYPES /////

// register the new post type
register_post_type( 'product_listing', array( 
    'labels'                 => array(
        'name'               => __( 'Products' ),
        'singular_name'      => __( 'Product' ),
        'add_new'            => __( 'Add New' ),
        'add_new_item'       => __( 'Create New Product' ),
        'edit'               => __( 'Edit' ),
        'edit_item'          => __( 'Edit Product' ),
        'new_item'           => __( 'New Product' ),
        'view'               => __( 'View Products' ),
        'view_item'          => __( 'View Product' ),
        'search_items'       => __( 'Search Products' ),
        'not_found'          => __( 'No products found' ),
        'not_found_in_trash' => __( 'No products found in trash' ),
        'parent'             => __( 'Parent Product' ),
    ),
    'description'           => __( 'This is where you can create new products on your site.' ),
    'public'                => true,
    'show_ui'               => true,
    'capability_type'       => 'post',
    'publicly_queryable'    => true,
    'exclude_from_search'   => false,
    'menu_position'         => 2,
    'menu_icon'             => get_stylesheet_directory_uri() . '/images/tag_orange.png',
    'hierarchical'          => true,
    '_builtin'              => false, // It's a custom post type, not built in!
    'rewrite'               => array( 'slug' => 'products', 'with_front' => true ),
    'query_var'             => true,
    'supports'              => array( 'title', 'editor', 'author', 'thumbnail', 'excerpt', 'trackbacks', 'custom-fields', 'comments', 'revisions' ),
) );


//hook into the init action and call create_book_taxonomies when it fires
add_action( 'init', 'create_product_taxonomies', 0 );
//add_action('admin_init', 'flush_rewrite_rules');

//create two taxonomies, genres and writers for the post type "book"
function create_product_taxonomies() {
    // Add new taxonomy, make it hierarchical (like categories)
    $labels = array(
        'name'              => _x( 'Categories', 'taxonomy general name' ),
        'singular_name'     => _x( 'Category', 'taxonomy singular name' ),
        'search_items'      =>  __( 'Search Categories' ),
        'all_items'         => __( 'All Categories' ),
        'parent_item'       => __( 'Parent Categories' ),
        'parent_item_colon' => __( 'Parent Categories:' ),
        'edit_item'         => __( 'Edit Category' ), 
        'update_item'       => __( 'Update Category' ),
        'add_new_item'      => __( 'Add New Category' ),
        'new_item_name'     => __( 'New Category Name' ),
        'menu_name'         => __( 'Category' ),
    );  

    register_taxonomy( 'product_cat', array( 'product_listing' ), array(
        'hierarchical'  => true,
        'labels'        => $labels,
        'show_ui'       => true,
        'query_var'     => true,
        //'rewrite'     => true,
        'rewrite'       => array( 'slug' => '%category%', 'with_front' => true ),
    ) );

    // Add new taxonomy, NOT hierarchical (like tags)
    $labels = array(
        'name'                       => _x( 'Scents', 'taxonomy general name' ),
        'singular_name'              => _x( 'Scent', 'taxonomy singular name' ),
        'search_items'               =>  __( 'Search Scents' ),
        'popular_items'              => __( 'Popular Scents' ),
        'all_items'                  => __( 'All Scents' ),
        'parent_item'                => null,
        'parent_item_colon'          => null,
        'edit_item'                  => __( 'Edit Scent' ), 
        'update_item'                => __( 'Update Scent' ),
        'add_new_item'               => __( 'Add New Scent' ),
        'new_item_name'              => __( 'New Scent Name' ),
        'separate_items_with_commas' => __( 'Separate scents with commas' ),
        'add_or_remove_items'        => __( 'Add or remove scents' ),
        'choose_from_most_used'      => __( 'Choose from the most used scents' ),
        'menu_name'                  => __( 'Scents' ),
    ); 

    register_taxonomy( 'scent', 'product_listing', array(
        'hierarchical'  => false,
        'labels'        => $labels,
        'show_ui'       => true,
        'query_var'     => true,
        //'rewrite'     => array( 'slug' => 'scents' ),
    ) );
}

I also have another custom taxonomy of scents that I'd ideally like to have some kind of friendly url but I'm more open on this. I'd like to maybe access a list of all scents by going to mysite.com/products/scents but they don't have to be category specific.

Can anybody help me?

Answer 1

Change slug in your post type arguments to products/%product_cat%, and slug in your taxonomy arguments to just products, then flush your rewrite rules. WordPress should now handle /products/my-product-cat/post-name/!

Now finally, we need to help WordPress a little with generating permalinks (out of the box, it won't recognise the permastruct tag %product_cat%):

/**
 * Inject term slug into custom post type permastruct.
 * 
 * @link   http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/a/5313/1685
 * 
 * @param  string  $link
 * @param  WP_Post $post 
 * @return array
 */
function wpse_5308_post_type_link( $link, $post ) {
    if ( $post->post_type === 'product_listing' ) {
        if ( $terms = get_the_terms( $post->ID, 'product_cat' ) )
            $link = str_replace( '%product_cat%', current( $terms )->slug, $link );
    }

    return $link;
}

add_filter( 'post_type_link', 'wpse_5308_post_type_link', 10, 2 );

One thing to note, this will just grab the first product category for the post ordered by name. If you're assigning multiple categories to a single product, I can easily change how it determines which one to use in the permalink.

Lemme know how you get on with this, and we can tackle the other issues!

Answer 2

Thanks @TheDeadMechanic, your answer helped me out, but only partially. I wanted to do the same thing @RodeoRamsey asked for, but with nested categories (ie: mysite.com/products/category1/child-category-1/grandchild-category-1/product-name) and your solution didn't work for that.

I finally came up with an extended solution to my question that works, so if anyone else needs nested categories/subcategories you can see a detailed solution on my own question. Hope it helps others, and thanks for the initial steps.

Answer 3

I'm not sure wp supports that structure out of the box - but you can very easily create your own rewrite rules to do so.

Check out a previous answer here Author url rewrite.

You can change the line

$newrules['author/([^/]+)/songs/?$'] = 'index.php?post_type=songs&author=$matches[1]';

to something like

$newrules['products/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$'] = 'index.php?post_type=product_listing&product_cat=$matches[1]&name=$matches[2]';

the product_cat part here may be superfluous - I am not sure if it is needed.

You can add any rules you like and they will have priority over the inbuilt ones.

Answer 4

Yeah it was driving me crazy before setting the permalink for custom post type. I found a plugin to handle the custom post type. It's very easy to use. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/custom-post-permalinks/ WP should add this as a core feature! Leo

Answer 5

Actually, it's pretty easy. You just need one line. Here's my code

function create_product_taxonomies()
{
// Add new taxonomy, make it hierarchical (like categories)
    $labels = array(
        'name' => _x('Categories', 'taxonomy general name'),
        'singular_name' => _x('Category', 'taxonomy singular name'),
        'search_items' => __('Search Categories'),
        'all_items' => __('All Categories'),
        'parent_item' => __('Parent Categories'),
        'parent_item_colon' => __('Parent Categories:'),
        'edit_item' => __('Edit Category'),
        'update_item' => __('Update Category'),
        'add_new_item' => __('Add New Category'),
        'new_item_name' => __('New Category Name'),
        'menu_name' => __('Category'),
    );

    register_taxonomy('product_cat', array('product_listing'), array(
        'hierarchical' => true,
        'labels' => $labels,
        'show_ui' => true,
        'query_var' => true,
        'rewrite' => array('hierarchical' => true),
    ));

And applied to the generated taxonomy for my Reviews CPT from GenerateWP.com. I'm using this on my own WordPress site, https://www.wpstarters.com

function reviews_category_taxonomy() {

    $labels = array(
        'name'                       => _x( 'Reviews Categories', 'Taxonomy General Name', 'reviews_category' ),
        'singular_name'              => _x( 'Reviews Category', 'Taxonomy Singular Name', 'reviews_category' ),
        'menu_name'                  => __( 'Reviews Category', 'reviews_category' ),
        'all_items'                  => __( 'All Review Categories', 'reviews_category' ),
        'parent_item'                => __( 'Parent Review Category', 'reviews_category' ),
        'parent_item_colon'          => __( 'Parent Review Category:', 'reviews_category' ),
        'new_item_name'              => __( 'New Review Category Name', 'reviews_category' ),
        'add_new_item'               => __( 'Add New Review Category', 'reviews_category' ),
        'edit_item'                  => __( 'Edit Review Category', 'reviews_category' ),
        'update_item'                => __( 'Update Review Category', 'reviews_category' ),
        'view_item'                  => __( 'View Review Category', 'reviews_category' ),
        'separate_items_with_commas' => __( 'Separate items with commas', 'reviews_category' ),
        'add_or_remove_items'        => __( 'Add or remove items', 'reviews_category' ),
        'choose_from_most_used'      => __( 'Choose from the most used', 'reviews_category' ),
        'popular_items'              => __( 'Popular Review Categories', 'reviews_category' ),
        'search_items'               => __( 'Search Items', 'reviews_category' ),
        'not_found'                  => __( 'Not Found', 'reviews_category' ),
        'no_terms'                   => __( 'No Review Categories', 'reviews_category' ),
        'items_list'                 => __( 'Review Categories list', 'reviews_category' ),
        'items_list_navigation'      => __( 'Review Categories list navigation', 'reviews_category' ),
    );
    $args = array(
        'labels'                     => $labels,
        'hierarchical'               => true,
        'public'                     => true,
        'show_ui'                    => true,
        'show_admin_column'          => true,
        'show_in_nav_menus'          => true,
        'show_tagcloud'              => false,
        'show_in_rest'               => true,
        'rewrite' => array( 'hierarchical' => true ),
    );
    register_taxonomy( 'reviews_category', array( 'wps_reviews' ), $args );

}
add_action( 'init', 'reviews_category_taxonomy', 0 );

All you need it so put the 'rewrite' => array('hierarchical' => true),