Remove CPT name from permalink but add %category% instead

Question

We are currently developing a new wp theme and all the current posts are moved to a new CPT called products. For SEO the links to the products need to be remained.

The current structure of the post type is:

www.url.com/category-a/category-b/productname

After moving the items from the default post type to the new CPT the URL looks like:

www.url.com/products/productname

But we want to remain the default post structure for these posts. The archive pages show the products, so that’s working fine.

My permalink setting is:

/%category%/%pagename%

So basicly we want to change: www.url.com/products/productname

To: www.url.com/category-a/subcategory-a/productname

This is our CPT we created:

function cptui_register_my_cpts_producten() {

    /**
     * Post Type: Producten.
     */

    $labels = array(
        "name" => __( "Producten", "sage" ),
        "singular_name" => __( "Product", "sage" ),
        "archives" => __( "Producten Archief", "sage" ),
    );

    $args = array(
        "label" => __( "Producten", "sage" ),
        "labels" => $labels,
        "description" => "",
        "public" => true,
        "publicly_queryable" => true,
        "show_ui" => true,
        "show_in_rest" => false,
        "rest_base" => "",
        "has_archive" => false,
        "show_in_menu" => true,
        "show_in_nav_menus" => true,
        "exclude_from_search" => false,
        "capability_type" => "post",
        "map_meta_cap" => true,
        "hierarchical" => true,
        "rewrite" => array( "slug" => "producten", "with_front" => false ),
        "query_var" => true,
        "supports" => array( "title", "editor", "thumbnail" ),
        "taxonomies" => array( "category" ),
    );

    register_post_type( "producten", $args );
}

add_action( 'init', 'cptui_register_my_cpts_producten' );

Answer 1

You have to set "hierarchical" => true in order to get %category% and %subcategory% to display:

"rewrite" => array(
    "slug" => "producten",
    "with_front" => false,
    "hierarchical" => true
),

Don't forget to flush permalink settings by opening settings → permalinks and save.

More info: WordPress Codex: Function Reference/register post type