Can't access private custom posttype single- or archives-page

Question

I have created a custom posttype labeled 'Richards' using a site-specific plugin with the following code.

function add_richards_posttype() {
    $labels = array(
        'name'                => _x( 'Richards', 'Post Type General Name' ),
        'singular_name'       => _x( 'Richard', 'Post Type Singular Name' ),
        'menu_name'           => __( 'Richard\'s Dagboek' ),
        'parent_item_colon'   => __( 'Parent Richard' ),
        'all_items'           => __( 'Alle Richards' ),
        'view_item'           => __( 'Bekijk Richards' ),
        'add_new_item'        => __( 'Nieuwe Richard' ),
        'add_new'             => __( 'Nieuwe Richard' ),
        'edit_item'           => __( 'Bewerk Richard' ),
        'update_item'         => __( 'Update Richard' ),
        'search_items'        => __( 'Zoek Richard' ),
        'not_found'           => __( 'Niet Gevonden' ),
        'not_found_in_trash'  => __( 'Niet Gevonden in Trash' ),
    );

    $args = array(
        'label'               => __( 'richards' ),
        'description'         => __( 'Richard\'s Dagboek' ),
        'labels'              => $labels,
        'supports'            => array( 'title', 'editor', 'author', 'thumbnail', 'comments', 'revisions' ),
        // 'taxonomies'          => array( 'kickstarters' ),
        'hierarchical'        => false,
        'public'              => false,
        'show_ui'             => true,
        'show_in_menu'        => true,
        'show_in_nav_menus'   => true,
        'show_in_admin_bar'   => true,
        'menu_position'       => 5,
        'can_export'          => true,
        'has_archive'         => true,
    );

    register_post_type( 'richards', $args );

}

add_action( 'init', 'add_richards_posttype', 0 );

I have added data using richards as a posttype, which shows up with the correct posttype in the database. When I want to display either the archive page or single page for this custom post type (by visiting site.com/richards/ or site.com/richard/), WordPress serves a 404 error page.

The reason I have public set to false is to block not-logged-in users from accessing this posttype. Logged-in users should be able to access site.com/richards/ while not-logged-in users should not.

I have searched for the solution for quite a while now and I have tried adjusting permalink settings and changing these back, adding and removing an archive-richards.php file (although I want the styling to fall back on regular posts styling), adding and removing a menu button with ?post_type=richards behind it and some other methods I can't recall.

What else can I try? How would I go about finding the solution now?

Answer 1

This seems like a similar question, but I'll also put it here.

'has_archive' => 'richards'

Then flush permalinks (Settings > Permalinks).

Answer 2

Permalinks may need to be refreshed. Once you've saved your code, head to WP-Admin > Settings > Permalinks and click save without changing anything. Then try to visit an archive or single page.

Answer 3

Apparently, I misused the 'public' argument. I was trying to make the entire custom posttype private (which not only should hide all posts, but stop people from knowing about this posttype entirely).

Although I did not yet figure out how to hide a posttype completely, I decided on setting the value back to public (which made everything show up) while setting every post of that custom post type to private. I used another script which forces all publishes for this posttype to become private. I also set 'exclude_from_search' => true to make posts from this custom posttype not show up in search results.

This did create a problem in which the custom post type was used in the URL as a 'child' of the normal posts page (i.e. site.com/news/richards/) though this was fixed using a simple rewrite in the $args:

'rewrite'         => array( 'with_front' => false )

Thanks for all answers!