WordPress – 301 location to sub page
WordPress is great for blogging but still has a way to go to be a CMS. One thing I find odd is that you can create Categories for Posts but not for Pages. Usually a client will want pages categorized for navigation. So this becomes a problem. Sure you can nest Pages (parents and children) but that means you must have content in every menu item.
After a quick google search I came across some code that allows WP’s Pages to have empty menu items for categorization. Or at least that’s the visual effect. The fix is to create a Template in your theme with some PHP code. It redirects the browser to the first Child Page:
<?php
/*
Template Name: Redirect To First Child
*/
if (have_posts()) {
while (have_posts()) {
the_post();
$pagekids = get_pages("child_of=".$post->ID."&sort_column=menu_order");
$firstchild = $pagekids[0];
wp_redirect(get_permalink($firstchild->ID));
}
}
?>
This works but I’m not too fond of it. It uses a refresh. I tweaked it a bit. Changed the wp_redirect to a Location header and added a 301 status code:
<?php
/*
Template Name: 301 Redirect To First Child
*/
if (have_posts()) {
while (have_posts()) {
the_post();
$pagekids = get_pages("child_of=".$post->ID."&sort_column=menu_order");
$firstchild = $pagekids[0];
header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
header("Location: ".get_permalink($firstchild->ID));
exit();
}
}
?>
This is much faster on the front end. It also tells search engines not to index those blank categorization pages.
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