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Is there a way to add a pattern of redirects to wordpress from a plugin? I'm using a host that sets up wordpress for me and doesn't give me access to the file system, so I can't edit the .htaccess file.

I've found lots of plugins that allow you to list URLs that you want to redirect, but I haven't found any that let you insert patterns based on regular expressions.

Specifically, I have an "events calendar" plugin installed that had a page of events for each day (whether or not that day actually had any events). A later release of that plugin, took those pages away. Now they are all 404, when I would like to redirect them to the main events page. They are all of the format:

  • /events/2017-08-29/
  • /events/2017-08-23/
  • /events/2017-08-19/
  • ... (thousands more)

How do I put in a single redirect rule for all of them?

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  • Does "pretty permalinks" feature of WP can be enabled / work in your environment at all?
    – Rarst
    Oct 17, 2013 at 12:54
  • if you cann't change the htaccess how are you will be posible to implement code that "create redirection" ? you able to change (edit) code of you theme? add any custom plugin? any mu plugin? opt-in? any code injection posible? or even is it posible any plugin install?
    – Oleg Butuzov
    Oct 17, 2013 at 12:54
  • I can use "pretty permalinks" -- I currently have the permalinks format set to "Post name". I can also install plugins through the wordpress interface. But I don't have any other access to the file system (like shell login, or ftp).
    – Stephen Ostermiller
    Oct 17, 2013 at 13:09

1 Answer 1

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Oleg's comment made me think that I might be able to find a plugin that would allow me to edit the .htaccess file.

I installed the WP htaccess editor plugin. and was able to edit the .htaccess file despite not having shell or ftp access to the file system. I insterted the following line at the beginning of the htaccess file:

RedirectMatch 301 ^/events/[0-9]{4}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}/$ http://example.com/events/upcoming/

Now my pages are redirecting properly instead of showing 404 status.

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  • There is an easier way to do the rewrites. You can just use add_rewrite_rule function to alter the rewrites. Please read the entire codex page to learn a proper usage, especially the "IMPORTANT" sections.
    – Dero
    Oct 17, 2013 at 13:44
  • Wouldn't that API be geared towards plugin developers? I have never written my own WordPress plugin before.
    – Stephen Ostermiller
    Oct 17, 2013 at 13:48
  • Sorry, I didn't realize you don't have access to the filesystem. You could perhaps use the WordPress theme editor to alter your functions.php and make just a small change using the function I mentioned, but if you found a plug-in that works for you, you'll probably want to stick with it.
    – Dero
    Oct 17, 2013 at 13:54

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