How to disable the single view for a custom post type?

Question

I created a custom post type:

register_post_type('sample_post_type',array(
    'labels' => array(
        'name' => _x('Sample Posts', 'post type general name'),
        'singular_name' => _x('Sample Post', 'post type singular name')
    ),
    'public' => true,
    'show_in_nav_menus' => false,
    'exclude_from_search' => true
));

How can i disable the single post view for this specific post type? Displaying a simple 404 is fine, or redirecting to the homepage. This is inside a plugin, so i can't create a single-sample_post_type.php file to setup an empty page.

Answer 1

METHOD 1:

Redirect to a custom URL for single view, archive page is still publicly accessible.

You can use template_redirect hook to redirect for a custom post type, you can use any other URL you want to in place of home_url() and the error code in other argument.

<?php
add_action( 'template_redirect', 'wpse_128636_redirect_post' );

function wpse_128636_redirect_post() {
  if ( is_singular( 'sample_post_type' ) ) {
    wp_redirect( home_url(), 301 );
    exit;
  }
}
?>

METHOD 2:

Completely disable Single or Archive page from front-end; Works for a Custom post only.

A alternative approach is to specify value for param publicly_queryable while registering the custom post if you are ok with displaying a 404 page. [ Thanks @gustavo ]

'publicly_queryable'  => false

It hides single as well as archive page for the CPT, basically completely hidden from front-end but can be done for custom posts only.

This second solution is best suitable for the scenario where you need a Custom post for admin/back-end usage only.

Answer 2

Just setting the argument

'publicly_queryable'  => false

when you call register_post_type()

Answer 3

A simpler way to do that can be passing the following args when registering the Custom Post Type

register_post_type('sample_post_type',array(
'labels' => array(
    'name' => _x('Sample Posts', 'post type general name'),
    'singular_name' => _x('Sample Post', 'post type singular name')
),
'public' => true,
'exclude_from_search' => true,
'show_in_admin_bar'   => false,
'show_in_nav_menus'   => false,
'publicly_queryable'  => false,
'query_var'           => false
));

Answer 4

One. From your functions file.

add_action( 'template_redirect', 'redirect_cpt_singular_posts' );
    function redirect_cpt_singular_posts() {
      if ( is_singular('your-cpt-slug') ) {
        wp_redirect( home_url(), 302 );
        exit;
      }
    }

Two. From your single.cpt.php file:

<?php wp_redirect( home_url() ); exit; ?>

Answer 5

Working from of Sven's really good answer, I rewrote his function to make it easier to add multiple post types using in_array() in the if statement and then redirecting to the archive page instead of the home page.

(by the way, I think the setting query_var and/or publically_queryable to false will disable not only the single views, but also the native archive view, overriding 'has_archive' => true. In that case you can still set up a custom WP_query and create your own archive page, in a template, but the main query won't do that any more, will it?)

function fq_disable_single_cpt_views() {
  $queried_post_type = get_query_var('post_type');
  $cpts_without_single_views = array( 'my-post-type', 'my-other-post-type' );
  if ( is_single() && in_array( $queried_post_type, $cpts_without_single_views )  ) {
    wp_redirect( home_url( '/' . $queried_post_type . '/' ), 301 );
    exit;
  }
}

add_action( 'template_redirect', 'fq_disable_single_cpt_views' );

Answer 6

Tested all the ones mentioned above and the actual solution is simpler than any redirects suggested.

In order to have archive be accessible and list the items, and single post not be accessible and auto redirect to 404 set

'query_var' => false

when registering your CPT. If you set publicly_queryable to false your archives will be redirected to home, any other combo wont work. Set the query_var to false and that is it.

Here is full CPT https://gist.github.com/danyj/bfd038d3c8d578548c4d700bd0a7942a

see line 50 https://gist.github.com/danyj/bfd038d3c8d578548c4d700bd0a7942a#file-thz_cpt_items_single_view_redirect-php-L50

as stated here

https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/register_post_type

Note: If query_var is empty, null, or a boolean FALSE, WordPress will still attempt to interpret it (4.2.2) and previews/views of your custom post will return 404s.

Answer 7

In case you want to completely disable custom post type single view on frontend but be able to display archive page things are getting a little complicated.

Setting publicly_queryable to false or rewrite to false will prevent for displaying both single and archive view. There is no flag in register_post_type function arguments to prevent creating only single view rewrite rules.

https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress/blob/5.2.3/wp-includes/class-wp-post-type.php#L540

However you can remove rewrite tag after registering your post type and this will leave archive view rewrite rules untouched but remove only single view rewrite rules.

/**
 * Register event post type
 */
function wpse_128636_register_event_post_type() {

    $labels = array(
        'name' => __( 'Events' ),
        'singular_name' => __( 'Event' ),
        'add_new' => __( 'Add new' ),
        'add_new_item' => __( 'Add new' ),
        'edit_item' => __( 'Edit' ),
        'new_item' => __( 'New' ),
        'view_item' => __( 'View' ),
        'search_items' => __( 'Search' ),
        'not_found' => __( 'Not found' ),
        'not_found_in_trash' => __( 'Not found Events in trash' ),
        'parent_item_colon' => __( 'Parent' ),
        'menu_name' => __( 'Events' ),

    );

    $args = array(
        'labels' => $labels,
        'hierarchical' => false,
        'supports' => array( 'title', 'page-attributes' ),
        'public' => true,
        'show_ui' => true,
        'show_in_menu' => true,
        'show_in_nav_menus' => true,
        'publicly_queryable' => true,
        'exclude_from_search' => true,
        'has_archive' => true,
        'rewrite' => array('slug' => 'event'),
        'capability_type' => 'post',
    );

    register_post_type( 'event', $args );
    remove_rewrite_tag( '%event%' ); // This line will remove event rewrite rules for single view
}

add_action( 'init', 'wpse_128636_register_event_post_type' );

Another bonus is that from now on you can create simple WordPress pages using event post type permalink structure (event/simple-page) which can be helpful in complex websites.

Remember to flush rewrite rules after code modification.