WordPress add_rewrite_rule works locally, but not on the server

Question

I can get add_rewrite_rule to work locally with MAMP, but not on my DreamHost production server.

I am trying to clear the URLs for individual pets http://www.pawsnewengland.com/our-dogs-list/ . Ugly URLs follow this structure: our-dogs-list /? View = pet-details & id = 12345, and the user-defined function uses the $_GET variables to process the information.

In my functions.php file, I included this:

 function rewrite_pet_url() { add_rewrite_rule( "our-dogs-list/pet-details/([0-9]+)/?$", "index.php/our-dogs-list/?view=pet-details&id=$1", "top" ); } add_action( 'init', 'rewrite_pet_url'); 

I also tried this with the same results:

 function rewrite_pet_url() { add_rewrite_rule( "our-dogs-list/pet-details/([0-9]+)/?$", "index.php/our-dogs-list/?view=pet-details&id=$matches[1]", "top" ); } add_action( 'init', 'rewrite_pet_url'); 

And, trying to just verify that the rewrites will work at all, try this:

 function rewrite_pet_url() { add_rewrite_rule( "fake", "index.php/about", "top" ); } add_action( 'init', 'rewrite_pet_url'); 

I am trying to rewrite the rules before testing and confirmed that the rewrite rules have been added to the .htaccess file. For some reason, however, I see either a 404 page or a white screen, and "There is no specified input file."

I can make this work locally, so I have no idea what is breaking on the real server. Any ideas?

Update 1

I rewrote the “work” in the sense that it no longer causes any errors. Unfortunately, now it causes unwanted redirects to the root URL.

 function rewrite_pet_url() { add_rewrite_tag('%view%','([^&]+)'); add_rewrite_tag('%id%','([^&]+)'); add_rewrite_rule( 'our-dogs-list/pet-details/([0-9]+)?$', 'index.php/?page_id=1663&view=pet-details&id=$1', 'top' ); } add_action( 'init', 'rewrite_pet_url' ); 

With this, I can access the view and id variables using get_query_var() . However, instead of executing example.com/our-dogs-list/pet-details/12345 WordPress redirects the page to example.com/our-dogs-list/ .

Any idea what could be causing this? This effectively makes the rewrite rule useless.

Answer 1

This should have been added as a comment for a long time.

I would add this to functions.php. I changed your permalink a bit, the demo plugin explains what each function does:

 add_filter('generate_rewrite_rules', 'pet_rewrite_url'); add_filter('query_vars', 'pet_query_vars')); add_filter('admin_init', 'pet_flush_rewrite_rules'); add_action("parse_request", "pet_parse_request"); function pet_rewrite_url( $wp_rewrite ) { $new_rules = array( 'our-dogs-list/pet-details/([0-9]+)/?$' => sprintf("index.php?pet-details=%s",$wp_rewrite->preg_index(1)) ); $wp_rewrite->rules = $new_rules + $wp_rewrite->rules; return $wp_rewrite->rules; } function pet_query_vars( $query_vars ) { $query_vars[] = 'pet-details'; return $query_vars; } function pet_flush_rewrite_rules() { $rules = $GLOBALS['wp_rewrite']->wp_rewrite_rules(); if ( ! isset( $rules['our-dogs-list/pet-details/([0-9]+)/?$'] ) ) { // must be the same rule as in pet_rewrite_url($wp_rewrite) global $wp_rewrite; $wp_rewrite->flush_rules(); } } function pet_parse_request($wp_query) { if (isset($wp_query->query_vars['pet-details'])) { // same as the first custom variable in pet_query_vars( $query_vars ) // add your code here, code below is for this demo printf("<pre>%s</pre>",print_r($wp_query->query_vars,true)); exit(0); } } 

Answer 2

Your replacements do not look right, try:

 function rewrite_pet_url() { add_rewrite_rule( "our-dogs-list/pet-details/([0-9]+)/?$", "index.php?view=pet-details&id=$1", "top" ); } add_action( 'init', 'rewrite_pet_url'); 

Note the use of index.php , not index.php/our-dogs-list/ as the destination.

Or maybe like this:

 function rewrite_pet_url() { add_rewrite_rule( "our-dogs-list/pet-details/([0-9]+)/?$", "our-dogs-list/index.php?view=pet-details&id=$1", "top" ); } add_action( 'init', 'rewrite_pet_url'); 

Answer 3

I wrote a guide to add custom permalinks, here is an example plugin (also available on my website ):

 <?php /* Plugin Name: My Permalink Demo Plugin URI: http://soderlind.no/archives/2012/11/01/wordpress-plugins-and-permalinks-how-to-use-pretty-links-in-your-plugin/ Description: Demo plugin to show how to implement your custom permalink for your plugin. To test, add the [mypermalink] or [mypermalink val="ipsum"] shortcode to a page or post. Version: 1.0.1 Author: Per Soderlind Author URI: http://soderlind.no/ */ if (!class_exists('my_permalink')) { class my_permalink { function __construct(){ // demo shortcode add_shortcode('mypermalink', array(&$this,'my_permalink_demo_shortcode')); // permalink hooks: add_filter('generate_rewrite_rules', array(&$this,'my_permalink_rewrite_rule')); add_filter('query_vars', array(&$this,'my_permalink_query_vars')); add_filter('admin_init', array(&$this, 'my_permalink_flush_rewrite_rules')); add_action("parse_request", array(&$this,"my_permalink_parse_request")); } /************************************************************************** * Demo shortcode * A simple shortcode used to demonstrate the plugin. * * @see http://codex.wordpress.org/Shortcode_API * @param array $atts shortcode parameters * @return string URL to demonstrate custom permalink **************************************************************************/ function my_permalink_demo_shortcode($atts) { extract(shortcode_atts(array( // default values 'val' => 'lorem' ), $atts)); return sprintf('<a href="%s">My permalink</a>',$this->my_permalink_url($val)); } /************************************************************************** * Create your URL * If the blog has a permalink structure, a permalink is returned. Otherwise * a standard URL with param=val. * * @param sting $val Parameter to custom url * @return string URL **************************************************************************/ function my_permalink_url($val) { if ( get_option('permalink_structure')) { // check if the blog has a permalink structure return sprintf("%s/my-permalink/%s",home_url(),$val); } else { return sprintf("%s/index.php?my_permalink_variable_01=%s",home_url(),$val); } } /************************************************************************** * Add your rewrite rule. * The rewrite rules array is an associative array with permalink URLs as regular * expressions (regex) keys, and the corresponding non-permalink-style URLs as values * For the rule to take effect, For the rule to take effect, flush the rewrite cache, * either by re-saving permalinks in Settings->Permalinks, or running the * my_permalink_flush_rewrite_rules() method below. * * @see http://codex.wordpress.org/Custom_Queries#Permalinks_for_Custom_Archives * @param object $wp_rewrite * @return array New permalink structure **************************************************************************/ function my_permalink_rewrite_rule( $wp_rewrite ) { $new_rules = array( 'my-permalink/(.*)$' => sprintf("index.php?my_permalink_variable_01=%s",$wp_rewrite->preg_index(1)) /* // a more complex permalink: 'my-permalink/([^/]+)/([^.]+).html$' => sprintf("index.php?my_permalink_variable_01=%s&my_permalink_variable_02=%s",$wp_rewrite->preg_index(1),$wp_rewrite->preg_index(2)) */ ); $wp_rewrite->rules = $new_rules + $wp_rewrite->rules; return $wp_rewrite->rules; } /************************************************************************** * Add your custom query variables. * To make sure that our parameter value(s) gets saved,when WordPress parse the URL, * we have to add our variable(s) to the list of query variables WordPress * understands (query_vars filter) * * @see http://codex.wordpress.org/Custom_Queries * @param array $query_vars * @return array $query_vars with custom query variables **************************************************************************/ function my_permalink_query_vars( $query_vars ) { $query_vars[] = 'my_permalink_variable_01'; /* // need more variables?: $query_vars[] = 'my_permalink_variable_02'; $query_vars[] = 'my_permalink_variable_03'; */ return $query_vars; } /************************************************************************** * Parses a URL into a query specification * This is where you should add your code. * * @see http://codex.wordpress.org/Query_Overview * @param array $atts shortcode parameters * @return string URL to demonstrate custom permalink **************************************************************************/ function my_permalink_parse_request($wp_query) { if (isset($wp_query->query_vars['my_permalink_variable_01'])) { // same as the first custom variable in my_permalink_query_vars( $query_vars ) // add your code here, code below is for this demo printf("<pre>%s</pre>",print_r($wp_query->query_vars,true)); exit(0); } } /************************************************************************** * Flushes the permalink structure. * flush_rules is an extremely costly function in terms of performance, and * should only be run when changing the rule. * * @see http://codex.wordpress.org/Rewrite_API/flush_rules **************************************************************************/ function my_permalink_flush_rewrite_rules() { $rules = $GLOBALS['wp_rewrite']->wp_rewrite_rules(); if ( ! isset( $rules['my-permalink/(.*)$'] ) ) { // must be the same rule as in my_permalink_rewrite_rule($wp_rewrite) global $wp_rewrite; $wp_rewrite->flush_rules(); } } } //End Class } //End if class exists statement if (class_exists('my_permalink')) { $my_permalink_var = new my_permalink(); } ?> 

Answer 4

in your .htaccess

RewriteRule ^our-dogs-list/pet-details/([0-9]+)?$ /index.php?page_id=1663&view=pet-details&id=$1 [L] add this for RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L] so you .hatcches would like to:

 <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On RewriteBase /wordpress/ RewriteRule ^our-dogs-list/pet-details/([0-9]+)?$ /wordpress/index.php?page_id=2&view=pet-details&id=$1 [L] RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule . /wordpress/index.php [L] </IfModule> 

Update

from: http://codex.wordpress.org/Rewrite_API/add_rewrite_rule

IMPORTANT: By default, WordPress does not recognize user-defined query sequences for the variables used for rewriting. You must register your request variables with WordPress. Just use add_rewrite_tag () to do this, or the above will not work! Additional information on capturing the value of the querystring variable after overwriting can be found here.

So far, I understand that you should use: add_rewrite_tag () for view and id in the first example.