Redirect page to first post in custom post type

Question

I have a page, let's called it "Artists", that displays a list of posts in a custom post type, again "artists".

How can I redirect pepole who visit the Artists page to the first post in the "artists" post type?

Answer 1

This is assuming that your page 'Artists' has an ID of 10, so change that as necessary.

You can also amend the $args array as you wish to better suit your needs, if required. Here is the Codex for WP_Query, which shows that parameters that you can use.

Finally, this needs to go right at the top of your page (before any output), otherwise you'll get an error about header information having already been output.

if(is_page(10)) :

    $args = array(
        'posts_per_page' => 1,
        'post_type' => 'artists'
    );

    /** Get the posts that match and grab the URL of the first post */
    $posts = get_posts($args);
    $redirect_url = get_permalink($posts[0]->ID);

    /** Redirect to the specified URL */
    wp_redirect($redirect_url);
    exit;

endif;

Answer 2

If you want to redirect a specific Page to the first post I suggest looking into /u/gmazzap's fantastic answer regarding assigning Page Templates as Post Type Archives.

If you want to redirect the Post Type Archive to the first post instead, you could use the below:

/**
 * Redirect post type archive page to first post
 *
 * @return void
 */
function wpse91590() {

    if( is_post_type_archive( 'artists' ) ) {

        // Grab the first artist post ID and store it in an array
        $posts = get_posts( array(
            'post_type'         => 'artists',
            'posts_per_page'    => 1,
            'fields'            => 'ids',
            'orderby'           => array( 'menu_order' => 'ASC', 'post_date' => 'DESC' ),
        ) );

        // If our array isn't empty, redirect
        if( ! empty( $posts ) ) {
            wp_redirect( get_permalink( $posts[0] ), 301 );     // Variable $posts[0] holds the artist post ID
            exit();
        }

    }

}
add_action( 'template_redirect', 'wpse91590' );

The idea is that we don't need the entire Post Object so we just grab the ID and redirect to it. Finally, we exit out of the script to avoid any further execution.