Force redirect single.php to index

Question

I want to make a force redirect for single.php to index so that it is never reachable by direct access (the site is built in a way that you retrieve all the content on the index page, still need to have this page available though because of an ajax function). I assume this is done in .htaccess?

Edit: I need to be able to access the single.php through an ajax request from the index page, i.e. the redirect should only occur upon direct url access.

Answer 1

put this code in functions.php file

add_action('wp', 'myfun');
 function myfun(){ 
    if(is_single()){ 
            wp_redirect( home_url() ); exit;  
        }

  }

hope this trick solve your problem. all the best ;)

Answer 2

You could also try,

add_action('wp', 'myfun');
function myfun(){ 

    if($_SERVER['HTTP_X_REQUESTED_WITH']=='XMLHttpRequest' && is_single()){

       //ajax function here

    } elseif (if($_SERVER['HTTP_X_REQUESTED_WITH']=='' && is_single())) {

            wp_redirect( home_url() ); exit;  

    }

}

Or here is a JavaScript based solution from Ben Heller on this very topic,

if (window.top.location == window.location) {
   window.location.replace("<?php echo bloginfo('siteurl');?>#work");
}

Or as suggested by techguy4web you can pass a custom parameter and check for its existence much in the same fashion.

Some supporting material:

• things-to-know-about-ajax/header-switching.html
• ajax-requested-page-return-only-content/
• prevent-direct-access-to-wordpress-single-post-pages-using-javascript-ajax-trick

WordPress plugins:

Ajax Content Renderer

Sometimes you just need to retrieve the body of a post or page without the header, footer and their includes. This plugin detects Ajax requests and returns just the formatted body of the post or page.

• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ajax-content-renderer/

Infinite Scroll

Automatically append the next page of posts (via AJAX) to your page when a user scrolls to the bottom.

• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/infinite-scroll/

Answer 3

You can use tamplate_include filter and force WordPress to retrieve index.php instead of single.php.

function mamaduka_template_include( $template ) {
    if ( is_single() )
        $template = get_index_template();

    return $template;
}
add_filter( 'template_include', 'mamaduka_template_include' );