How do I display two separate taxonomy archives for two post types that share a single taxonomy?

Question

I have a custom content type, "products", which shares the category taxonomy with posts. We're using posts to discuss and review products. The idea is to have two separate URLs:

• /discussion/category/term/ : Displays a listing of posts belonging to a specific term with a "related products" area pulling from the same term
• /products/category/term/ : Displays a listing of products belonging to that term with a "related discussions" area pulling from the same term

I can use the default category/archive templates with a permalink front for posts, and the first is solved by default. But since each taxonomy only has one template set, how can I achieve the second?

The above URLs are examples, and all archive types would ideally work with the normal permalink structures after the initial front/slug.

Looking at similar questions, I've seen suggestions to use two different taxonomies with the same terms, but as of WordPress 3.7 terms of two different taxonomies can no longer share a slug, so relating the two is problematic for a non-technical site manager.

I also know how to use get_query_var('post_type') to differentiate the two post types, but that doesn't solve the issue of separate URLs.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

According to the WordPress Codex

archive-{post_type}.php

So, in your case (depending on your naming):

archive-products.php

If you have a custom taxonomy archive also, then the challenge is structuring your archive to represent the proper taxonomy template.

If you need to have a custom taxonomy archive, I would recommend that you use the post-type archive structure above, and then within the archive file, determine the taxonomy that is being used, and load a template part.

Sample psuedo-code (on archive-products.php):

$tax = get_query_var( 'taxonomy' );
$term = get_query_var( 'term' );
if ($tax == 'your_taxonomy') {
    get_template_part('my_slug', 'my_name');
} else {
    // get the default template part...
}