Question

Hi i am trying to access my plugin via a custome URL but i am unable to get the plugin to redirect, it just comes up 404 page not found, whereas what i want is page.php to be called instead. My plugin code is below (activate and deactivate functions of the plugin):

register_activation_hook(__FILE__,'activate');
register_deactivation_hook(__FILE__,'deactivate');

function setRewriteRules()
{
    add_rewrite_rule( 'plugin-url/$', '/wp-content/plugins/my-plugin/page.php', 'top' );
}

function activate() 
{       
    setRewriteRules();

    global $wp_rewrite;
    $wp_rewrite->flush_rules(true);  

}

function deactivate()
{
    global $wp_rewrite;
    $wp_rewrite->flush_rules(true);  
}

Any ideas what i am doing wrong?

Thanks in advance,

Chris

Answer 1

Rewrite rules that don’t redirect to the WordPress index.php file are written to the .htaccess file. I don’t think they are ever stored in the database. So, looking at your code, if your .htaccess file is not writable when the plugin is activated, then your rewrite rule is never added.

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As Amereservant wrote you need to add your rewrite rule in an init (or perhaps generate_rewrite_rules) action, as otherwise it’ll get removed anytime the rules are flushed (because as described they are not stored in the database).