how to fix url issue of wordpress nested subcategory archive pages

Question

I have built a custom Wordpress theme using UnderStrap. My web site uses archive pages to display the content of all categories/subcategories. The structure is like

Parent Category > subcategory

My URL structure for archive pages is www.example.com/category/parent-category/subcategory. This is working fine but now the problem is that it is still loading the subcategory content if I use following URLs

www.example.com/category/subcategory www.example.com/category/any-string/subcategory

Is there a way I can stop it and start displaying 404 errors?

I have tried a "redirect_canonical" filter but it's not helping at all.

gjzim gjzim · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-31T21:03:02

You have to do a couple of things to achieve what you want.

Add custom rewrite rules: First you have to add the custom rewrite rules to detect a subcategory. WordPress by default won't do that.

  function theme_custom_rewrites() {
    add_rewrite_tag("%parent_category_name%", "([a-z0-9\-_]+)");
    add_rewrite_rule('^category/([a-z0-9\-_]+)/([a-z0-9\-_]+)/?', 'index.php?parent_category_name=$matches[1]&category_name=$matches[2]', 'top');

    add_rewrite_rule('^category/([a-z0-9\-_]+)/?', 'index.php?category_name=$matches[1]', 'top');
  }

  add_action('init', 'theme_custom_rewrites');

Add the 404 status and template load code:

function load_404_page_for_subcategory_pages() {
  global $wp_query;

  $category_slug = get_query_var('category_name');
  $parent_category_slug = get_query_var('parent_category_name');

  $parent_category = get_category_by_slug($parent_category_slug);
  $category = get_category_by_slug($category_slug);

  if( !$parent_category && $category->parent != 0) {
    $wp_query->set_404();
    status_header( 404 );
    get_template_part( 404 );
    exit();    
  }
}

add_action('wp', 'load_404_page_for_subcategory_pages');

Add both of the hooks to the functions.php file and go to the settings page on the backend and save permalinks. It should work.

how to fix url issue of wordpress nested subcategory archive pages

1 Answers