After weeks of fiddling around and trying all sorts of tricks, I finally figured it out. There we're two things I was doing wrong, I wanted wordpress to be able to access get last two value's in between slashes as GET parameters when an url like this /examentraining/vak/VAKNAME/LEVELNAME/ is submitted to Wordpress.
p=1316&vakname=VAKNAME&level=LEVELNAME => /examentraining/vak/VAKNAME/LEVELNAME/ is incorrect because it worked the other way around. But when I reversed the rewrite rule it still didn't work.
I still have to figure out the exact reason but I never managed to get it working via the .htaccess file. Then I came across the following class by Kyle E Gentile.
<?php
/*
//Author Kyle E Gentile
//To use this class you must first include the file.
//After including the file, you need to create an options array. For example:
$options = array(
'query_vars' => array('var1', 'var2'),
'rules' => array('(.+?)/(.+?)/(.+?)/?$' => 'index.php?pagename=$matches[1]&var1=$matches[2]&var2=$matches[3]')
);
//After creating our $option array,
//we will need to create a new instance of the class as below:
$rewrite = new Add_rewrite_rules($options);
//You must pass the options array, this way. (If you don't there could be problems)
//Then you can call the filters and action functions as below:
add_action('wp_head', array(&$rewrite, 'flush_rules'));
add_action( 'generate_rewrite_rules', array(&$rewrite, 'add_rewrite_rules') );
add_filter( 'query_vars', array(&$rewrite, 'add_query_vars') );
//That is it.
*/
//prevent duplicate loading of the class if you are using this in multiply plugins
if(!class_exists('add_rewrite_rules')){
class Add_rewrite_rules{
var $query_vars;
var $rules;
function __construct($options){
$this->init($options);
}
function init($options){
foreach($options as $key => $value){
$this->$key = $value;
}
}
function rules_exist(){
global $wp_rewrite;
$has_rules = TRUE;
foreach($this->rules as $key => $value){
if(!in_array($value, $wp_rewrite->rules)){
$has_rules = FALSE;
}
}
return $has_rules;
}
//to be used add_action with the hook 'wp_head'
//flushing rewrite rules is labor intense so we better test to see if our rules exist first
//if the rules don't exist flush its like after a night of drinking
function flush_rules(){
global $wp_rewrite;
if(!$this->rules_exist()){
//echo "flushed"; // If want to see this in action uncomment this line and remove this text and you will see it flushed before your eyes
$wp_rewrite->flush_rules();
}
}
//filter function to be used with add_filter() with the hook "query_vars"
function add_query_vars($query_vars){
foreach($this->query_vars as $var){
$query_vars[] = $var;
}
return $query_vars;
}
//to be used with a the add_action() with the hook "generate_rewrite_rules"
function add_rewrite_rules(){
global $wp_rewrite;
$wp_rewrite->rules = $this->rules + $wp_rewrite->rules;
}
}
}
?>
I added the following function to the init of my plugin.
public function rewriteRules()
{
//Add the query variables to the list so wordpress doesn't discard them or worse use them to try and find by itself what page to serve.
$options = array(
'query_vars' => array('trainingid', 'vakname'),
'rules' =>
array( 'uncategorized/vak/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$' => 'index.php?p=1316&vakname=$matches[1]&level=$matches[2]'
)
);
//I use a autoloader but if you don't you have to include the class.
//include_once('path/to/AddRewriteRules.php');
$rewrite = new AddRewriteRules($options);
add_action('wp_head', array(&$rewrite, 'flush_rules'));
add_action('generate_rewrite_rules', array(&$rewrite, 'add_rewrite_rules'));
add_filter('query_vars', array(&$rewrite, 'add_query_vars'));
}
This solved the problem but there was a step before this, as you might have noticed I wanted to match examentraining/vak/VAKNAME/LEVELNAME/ but I ended up matching uncategorized/vak/VAKNAME/LEVELNAME/. This is because for some reason either Wordpress SEO or Wordpress itself messes with my request. To find the correct request URL use the amazing debug bar plugin. It tells you exactly what request is coming in and what rules have been matched.
I hope this helps anybody!
