Use the plus sign "+" instead of dash "-" in URLs

Question

Is it possible to use the plus sign instead of the dash as the word delimiter in the url? And if so, how exactly would that be done?

e.g.: www.example.com/some-title/ becomes www.example.com/some+title/

Of course, ideally it would have to work with posts, pages and custom posts.

Answer 1

Mark Jaquith uses "+" as the search query string delimiter in his Nice Search Plugin. Here's what he does:

function cws_nice_search_redirect() {
    if ( is_search() && strpos( $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], '/wp-admin/' ) === false && strpos( $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], '/search/' ) === false ) {
        wp_redirect( home_url( '/search/' . str_replace( array( ' ', '%20' ),  array( '+', '+' ), get_query_var( 's' ) ) ) );
        exit();
    }
}

Perhaps it may be of some use for reference?

Answer 2

DONT USE .HTACCESS for that!

Its madness, WP will generate links with - and your site will be in evergreen looping by .htaccess... Instead, you need to modify url generation code:

Insert this in functions.php:

add_action( 'wp_ajax_sample-permalink', 'MyajaxSamplePermalink',1);
function MyajaxSamplePermalink($data) {
    // check that we're dealing with a product, and editing the slug
    $post_id = isset($_POST['post_id']) ? intval($_POST['post_id']) : 0;
    $new_title = isset($_POST['new_title'])? $_POST['new_title'] : null;
    $post_name = isset($_POST['new_slug'])? $_POST['new_slug'] : $new_title;
    //on first fire, there is not set the "new_slug"
    $_POST['new_slug'] = ISSET($_POST['new_slug']) ? $_POST['new_slug'] : slug_modify($post_name); 
}
//disable slug beforehand Post Update  action (also, in navigation menus and etc...)
add_filter('name_save_pre', 'MyfilterNameSavePre');
function MyfilterNameSavePre($post_name) { 
    if (!empty($_POST['post_ID']) || !empty($_POST['post_name']) || !empty($_POST['post_title']) ){
        // check that we're dealing with a product, and editing the slug
        $post_id = !empty($_POST['post_ID']) ? intval($_POST['post_ID']) : 0;
        $new_slug = !empty($_POST['post_name']) ? $_POST['post_name'] :  $_POST['post_title'];
        //if got from new post
        if ($post_id && !empty($_POST['_wp_http_referer']) ) {  if (stripos($_POST['_wp_http_referer'],'wp-admin/post-new.php')!==false) { $post_name = slug_modify($new_slug); $_POST['post_name']=$post_name;} } 
    }
    return $post_name;
}
//disable slug on any update
add_filter('wp_insert_post_data', 'myappend_slug', 3); function myappend_slug($dataaaaaa) { 
    if (!empty($_POST['_wp_http_referer'])) {
        if (stripos($_POST['_wp_http_referer'],'wp-admin/post-new.php')!==false) {
            $dataaaaaa['post_name']=slug_modify(     (!empty($_POST['post_name']) ? $_POST['post_name'] :$dataaaaaa['post_title'])      );
        } 
    }
    return $dataaaaaa; 
}
function slug_modify($slg) {return str_replace('-','+',$slg);}