Rewriting WordPress URLs

Question

I've got a plugin which takes input through a GET request via a shortcode. The shortcode is placed on a page with the address /search, and the query used to execute this particular piece of the search is /search/?venueName=. This works fine. However, I need to rewrite it such that when a user goes to /venue/ it loads the aforementioned search.

This gist contains my original code (which failed), and Pippin's suggestion as to where I should be (also failed). I've tried everything I can think of, and it always results in either a 404 error, or redirection to the homepage (which makes NO sense). I've also tried every rule I've come up with manually through the Rewrite plugin, and the result is the same.

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Unfortunately, I'm on a deadline on this project so I'm stressing out a little about it. This piece is the last big thing needed before the initial soft launch which is supposed to happen in just under 36 hours.

Answer 1

The first important difference between your rewrite rule, and the ones that Pippin has provided is that all of his rewrite rules point to index.php. This is an absolute must, you won't get it to work any other way, all requests must point to index.php with your query vars appended.

The second important thing to note is that a rewrite must query some type of WordPress object. Every request runs a main query, a page, a single post, a category, etc..

The simplest way to solve this is to let your admin user select a page as the search page, and then point your rewrite to that page with your extra query vars appended:

function tn_rewrite_urls() {
    add_rewrite_rule(
        'venue/([^/]+)/?',
        'index.php?pagename=SELECTED_PAGE&venueName=$matches[1]',
        'top'
    );
}
add_action( 'init', 'tn_rewrite_urls' );

function tn_query_vars( $query_vars ) {
    $query_vars[] = 'venueName';
    return $query_vars;
}
add_filter( 'query_vars', 'tn_query_vars' );

In this example, you would swap SELECTED_PAGE with whatever the chosen page slug is. Also, don't forget to add your query var to the query vars array, and be sure to flush rewrites after new rules are added.