creating custom archive template within plugin for custom post type using archive_template filter

Question

I'm trying to create category and tags archive template from my plugin that has custom post type 'product'.

I used the below code to display search results in template file located at plugin_dir_url(__FILE__).'/inc/templates/product-search.php'.

function template_chooser( $template ){

global $post;  

$plugin_root_dir = WP_PLUGIN_DIR.'/product-plugin/';

if( is_search() && get_post_type($post) == 'product' ){

    return $plugin_root_dir.'/inc/templates/domain-search.php';

} else {
    return $template;
}
}

add_filter( 'template_include', 'template_chooser' );

Which loads the search template file perfectly.

But when I try to load the archive-product.php (see below code) file using archive filter archive_template as mentioned in wordpress codex. It simply loads installed theme's archive template with 'No Posts Found'.

below is the code to load archive_template for categories with post type product:

function get_custom_post_type_template( $archive_template ) {
 global $post;
 $plugin_root_dir = WP_PLUGIN_DIR.'/product-plugin/';

 if ( is_post_type_archive ( 'product' ) ) {
      $archive_template = $plugin_root_dir.'/inc/templates/archive-product.php'
 }
 return $archive_template;
}

add_filter( 'archive_template', 'get_custom_post_type_template' ) ;

I tried various answers online but result is same. could you please show me a way to create a custom archive template for a custom post type created inside a plugin?

Answer 1

I was able to get it working as desired using the condition is_archive() && get_post_type($post) == 'product'. I also created a custom taxonomy for products as product-category

below is the code:

function get_custom_post_type_template($archive_template){
    global $post;
    $plugin_root_dir = WP_PLUGIN_DIR . '/product-plugin/';

    if (is_post_type_archive('product')){
        $archive_template = $plugin_root_dir . '/inc/templates/archive-product.php';
    }
    return $archive_template;
}
add_filter('archive_template', 'get_custom_post_type_template');