Title: Custom Post Types and Permalink Variables
Last modified: August 20, 2016

---

# Custom Post Types and Permalink Variables

 *  [ryanITLab](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ryanitlab/)
 * (@ryanitlab)
 * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-post-types-and-permalink-variables/)
 * I am having some trouble passing variables through permalinks to a custom post
   page.
 * Here is the goal – I am making a Contest plugin for a client who wants to use
   this on multiple sites – so it must be easy to install and work on multiple sites(
   hoping to not change .htaccess).
    The Contest plugin works like this – the user
   enters an email and gets 1 entry into the contest, and then gets a special link
   to post on facebook and other networks. When a friend enters his email, the original
   person gets credit and an additional entry into the contest.
 * I was able to make this all work perfectly with normal URLs and Get Data
 *     ```
       <a href="<?php echo get_permalink(); ?>?affiliateID=<?= $affiliateID ?>"><?php echo get_permalink(); ?>?affiliateID=<?= $affiliateID ?></a>
       ```
   
 * The URL has ?affiliateID= in the structure. And that is fine for normal links.
   But Facebook tends to strip links and takes out everything after the **?**
 * I decided that passing the affiliateID via permalink would be the best. But I
   am having trouble.
 * The best scenario would be making this work:
    [http://website.com/contest/ipad-giveaway/12djj387dj3489dj/facebook/](http://website.com/contest/ipad-giveaway/12djj387dj3489dj/facebook/)
 * And I would get the affiliate ID and the affiliate source
 * _[Code moderated as per the [Forum Rules](http://codex.wordpress.org/Forum_Welcome#Posting_Code).
   Please use the [pastebin](http://wordpress.pastebin.com/)]_
 * There are some // out codes that were not working.
 * When I tried to do the rewrite rule using **index.php?p=$matches[1]**, it works
   to get to the page, but the additional parameters don’t pass.
 * `add_rewrite_rule('CD/[/]?([^/]*)[/]?([^/]*)[/]?([^/]*)$', 'index.php?pagename
   =about&cdid=$matches[1]&cai=$matches[2]&cas=$matches[3]','top');`
 * This works, and the variables will pass variables to the about page – but it 
   doesn’t really do me much good there other than showing that variables pass.
 * I have an idea that if I can get [http://website.com/contest/ipad-giveaway/](http://website.com/contest/ipad-giveaway/)
   to be described as index.php?post_type=contest&postname=ipad-giveaway and get
   that to display a page, I might be in business – but it doesn’t work that way.
   
   I’m not sure how to call a custom post type using index.php?………. I’ve looked 
   online for hours, but I can’t find what I’m looking for.
 * I would appreciate someone helping me through this – I am pretty sure iut can
   be done – but I keep on failing. >_<

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

 *  Thread Starter [ryanITLab](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ryanitlab/)
 * (@ryanitlab)
 * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-post-types-and-permalink-variables/#post-2513152)
 * OK – this plugin is really helpful for understanding the permalink structure!
   
   [http://www.askapache.com/wordpress/rewriterule-viewer-plugin.html#aadl](http://www.askapache.com/wordpress/rewriterule-viewer-plugin.html#aadl)
 *  Thread Starter [ryanITLab](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ryanitlab/)
 * (@ryanitlab)
 * [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-post-types-and-permalink-variables/#post-2513154)
 * This works. I’ll just leave this here. This has now been resolved.
 *     ```
       function add_my_var($public_query_vars) {
           $public_query_vars[] = 'cdid'; // contest ID
           $public_query_vars[] = 'cai'; // Affiliate
           $public_query_vars[] = 'cas'; // Affiliate Source
           return $public_query_vars;
       }
       add_filter('query_vars', 'add_my_var');
   
       function do_rewrite() {
       	 add_rewrite_rule('CD/[/]?([^/]*)[/]?([^/]*)[/]?([^/]*)$', 'index.php?contestdomination=$matches[1]&cai=$matches[2]&cas=$matches[3]','top');
       }
       add_action('init', 'do_rewrite');
       ```
   

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

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## Tags

 * [custom](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/custom/)
 * [permalink](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/permalink/)
 * [post](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/post/)
 * [variables](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/variables/)

 * 2 replies
 * 1 participant
 * Last reply from: [ryanITLab](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ryanitlab/)
 * Last activity: [14 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-post-types-and-permalink-variables/#post-2513154)
 * Status: not resolved

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