Root slug of taxonomy returning 404

Question

I have the following code to register a custom post type and taxonomy for it:

register_post_type( 'gs_business_listings',
    array(
      'labels' => array(
        'name' => __( 'Local Businesses' ),
        'singular_name' => __( 'Local Businesses' )
      ),
      'public' => true,
            'supports' => array('title', 'editor', 'thumbnail', 'revisions'),
            'register_meta_box_cb' => array($this,'add_meta_boxes'),
            'rewrite' => array('slug'=> '%larger-region%/%regions%')
        )
  );

    register_taxonomy(
        'gs_business_region_harvey',
        'gs_business_listings',
        array(
            'labels' => array(
                'name' => 'Harvey County',
                'singular_name' => 'Region',
            ),
            'rewrite' => array( 'slug' => 'harvey-county', 'hierarchical' => true ),
            'hierarchical' => true,
            'has_archive' => true,
        )
    );

I would expect that accessing www.example.com/harvey-county would show an archive of all posts that use the custom taxonomy. But I get a 404 not found. What do I have wrong? Thanks.

Note:currently if I access www.example.com/harvey-county/newton it shows the archive page for the newton term correctly.

Answer 1

As Milo said, there is no general taxonomy archive. But it made sense to have one in my situation. Here is what I did to imitate a general archive:

I created a blank page in Wordpress Admin name Harvey County with a harvey-county slug. Then I added a page-harvey-county.php template file to my theme. I copied the code from my archive.php. I tweaked the loop portion to look like this:

    <?php 
    $taxonomy_terms = get_terms( 'gs_business_region_harvey', array(
        'hide_empty' => 0,
        'fields' => 'ids'
    ) );
    $args = array(
       'post_type' => 'gs_business_listings',
       'tax_query' => array(
                        array(
                          'taxonomy' => 'gs_business_region_harvey',
                          'terms' => $taxonomy_terms
                          ),
                      ),
        );

        $query = new WP_Query( $args );

        if ( $query->have_posts() ) : ?>

                //header code 

                <?php
                // Start the Loop.
                $addressWrapper = array();
                $addresses = array();
                while ( $query->have_posts() ) : $query->the_post();

                 //Call get_template_part and such.
                 endwhile;

        endif; ?>

This works, but bothers me a little as it's not very DRY, copying archive.php.