Rewriting / Redirecting request outside wordpress

Question

I need Wordpress to redirect requests matching a specific url structure to another script than index.php.

I'm using nginx so i cannot simply add a rewrite rule in the .htaccess file nor do I have access to the server configuration file. So I guess my only option is to do it from within WordPress.

I tried the following, then saved the Settings>Permalinks to flush the rewrite rules, but it does not work.

function rewrite_action() {
    add_rewrite_tag('%template%', '([^/]*)');
    add_rewrite_tag('%title%', '([^/]*)');
    add_rewrite_rule( '^partners/([^/]*)/?', 'partners-output.php?template=$matches[1]', 'top');
    add_rewrite_rule( '^partners/([^/]*)/([^/]*)$?', 'partners-output.php?template=$matches[1]&title=$matches[2]', 'top');
}


add_action( 'init', __NAMESPACE__ . '\rewrite_action', 1, 0 );

Right now, it only returns WordPress's 404 page.

Answer 1

Normally, to add rewrite rules in Wordpress there is the generate_rewrite_rules filter. From there you can call the function add_external_rule ($wp_rewrite->add_external_rule($rule)) where you could add your rule which not maps to index.php. Unfortunately Wordpress will try to write this rule into the .htaccess file. But maybe this could be helpful.