Show child page when clicking parent link if parent have children

I looked for this all over. i was even using a redirect php script for a while but it is intended for using your main page links for linking to external links.

Here is the way to redirect to a sub page.
using the code in the link above, im just elaborating on the steps.

1) Create a new template file and paste the following code into it.

<?php
/*
Template Name: Redirect To First Child
*/
if (have_posts()) {
  while (have_posts()) {
    the_post();
    $pagekids = get_pages("child_of=".$post->ID."&sort_column=menu_order");
    $firstchild = $pagekids[0];
    wp_redirect(get_permalink($firstchild->ID));
  }
}
?>

2) save and upload your new template into your theme directory.

3) Edit your Parent page and apply the “Page Template”.

Note: adding the page template is located down towards the bottom of the page. i also found it helpful to put a note in the body of the page form so that whoever edits it later wont be confused when they dont see any content.

hope this saves somebody some time!

Works a treat, thanks for this!

Hi, that code works really well, but is it possible to redirect to first child but if there are no children then stay on the current page?

Currently I get an infinite loop if the page has no children.

Thanks in advance,

Peter