WordPress.org

1. arnalyse
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   Hi you guys,

   I put the following code in the 404.php of my theme:

   <?php
   wp_redirect( "http://www.myredirecturl.com", 404 );
   exit;

   WordPress returns a white screen in this case.
   If I use another status code like 301 or 302, the problem doesn't exist.

   I'm aware that I can define ErrorDocuments in my .htaccess, but would like to let my WordPress multisite installation handle this itself.
   (Btw: I also tried this with a WP single blog installation – same problem here)

2. aaslun
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   I have the exact same problem.
   This works however since my theme has a 404.php page:
   wp_redirect(home_url('404.php'), 302); exit;

   But i want to set http-status to 404, like so:
   wp_redirect(home_url('404.php'), 404); exit;

   What am i missing here?

3. aaslun
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   I just solved it by using $wp_query:

   if(isset($imported_post)){
           wp_redirect($post_link, 301); exit;
       }
       else{ // No match, generate 404
           global $wp_query;
           $wp_query->is_404 = true;

   Hope this helps!

4. Chip Bennett
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   I'm not terribly familiar with the wp_redirect() function, but at first glance, it appears that by passing it the 404 error code, you're sending it into a recursive loop: if 404, redirect to some URL, with status "404" - which the server will recognize as a 404, and cause it to invoke the WordPress 404 template - which redirects to some URL, with the status "404"...

   Question: if it works when you pass a 301 or 302 status, why not use one of those? Why are you trying to pass it a 404 error?

5. aaslun
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   Thanks for your reply Chip!
   Good to get your input about the recursive loop!
   I'm currently working with migrating a large website to WordPress. This means importing lots of posts which will all get new URIs. This site has been around for awhile and there are probably a lot of old bookmarks out there. I need to pass any request containing a broken links to a 404 (since the post doesn't exist in these cases), also Google will index broken links incorrectly if these will be 301 or 302.
   But $wp_query->is_404 = true; does the job just fine for me.

6. Chip Bennett
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   the wp_redirect() function is expecting a redirect status (i.e. "301" or "302").

   The "404" status has already been passed, otherwise you'd never have your 404.php page served, and wp_redirect() would never get called.

7. aaslun
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   True.

8. arnalyse
   Member
   Posted 1 year ago #

   Thanks to all of you for the answers,
   now I'm a little bit wiser :)

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