How to handle custom taxonomy archive when no posts will have that taxonomy

Question

I have a hobby site where I record the changing tenants of a big shopping centre. For each tenant I create a post and use a ACF repeater to store the unit they are in and open/close dates. The unit uses a custom taxonomy called unit_num. Posts will not have this taxonomy assigned to them (like how post categories and tags are).

Screenshot of ACF repeater in the editor:

I would like to view the unit_num taxonomy archive (defaults to site.com/unit_num/123) and have it query the ACF repeater for tenants that have that taxonomy. Right now it (correctly) says no posts found.

Should I disable the taxonomy archive (public => false) and create a custom permalink (with add_rewrite_tag/add_rewrite_rule)?

Answer 1

I decided to do what I suggested at the end of the post:

• public => false in the taxonomy settings
• Add add_rewrite_tag/add_rewrite_rule to 'unit_num' and add a pre_get_posts action to tweak the query when get_query_parm('unit_num') is set.

This is all working well now. (Often when you write a problem out on a forum it triggers a new outlook on the issue)