Purely hierarchical URL scheme for blog on level below root with Core or Plugin

  • My intended blog URL scheme: Strictly Hierarchical Blog at /blog/

    Goal: Everything related to the blog is at /blog/ and below, in a strictly hierarchical fashion:

    /                             # The Static Home Page integrating links to pages, blog index, particular blog category indices.
/blog/                        # The Blog Index Page
/blog/ux/                     # A Blog Category Index Page
/blog/ux/feature-proposal/    # A Blog Sub Category Index Page
/blog/hints/                  # Another Blog Category Index Page
/blog/categories/             # Optional: The Categories Page. Implementation: Custom slug where custom page/template with Categories block.

# All blogposts sorted beyond that hierarchy:
# /blog/<main-category>/<sub-category>/<blog-title>
/blog/ux/feature-proposal/hotapp-duplicate-file-dialog/
/blog/ux/feature-proposal/hotapp-support-negation-operator/
/blog/hints/hint-two/
/blog/hints/hint-one/
/blog/uncategorized/hello-world/

    In a filesystem analogy this can be imagined as:

    • Categories and sub-categories as folders and sub-folders
    • Posts sorted therein.
    • Categories is a folder which contains links to all category folders.
    • This is a redundancy/workaround because you cannot go to top, because there is the static homepage.
    • Ideally the static homepage anyways integrates links to the most important / all categories.

    Failed to achieve this as a WP core only solution and also with your plugin:

    • Is this setup possible with WordPress Core only? → ? Setup 3 failed!
    • Or with a plugin? → ? Setup 3b with your plugin No Category Base (WPML) failed too!
    • Or another tweak? → Hints appreciated! ??

    Showing all test setups and their outcome which I did to verify/falsify my suspicions/assumptions.

    Environment

    WordPress 6.4.3 — Vanilla setup on wpsandbox.org

    Settings → Permalink: Setup variations that I tried

    Setup 1: Standard Category Base + Posts under Category

    • Custom Structure: /%category%/%postname%/
    • Category base:
    • Tag base:
    • ? Resulting URLs and their status code when queried:
    HTTP URL
200  /blog/       # Default Blog Index slug in WordPress
200  /reserved/   # Test page for testing.

200  /category/ux/
200  /category/ux/feature-proposal/
200  /category/hints/

200  /ux/feature-proposal/hotapp-duplicate-file-dialog/
200  /ux/feature-proposal/hotapp-support-negation-operator/
200  /hints/hint-two/
200  /hints/hint-one/
200  /uncategorized/hello-world/

    Setup 2: Blog as Category Base + Posts under Category

    • Custom Structure: /%category%/%postname%/
    • Category base: blog
    • Tag base:
    • ? Resulting URLs and their status code when queried:
    HTTP URL

200  /blog/       # Blog index indeed.
200  /reserved/   # Test page indeed.

200  /blog/ux/
200  /blog/ux/feature-proposal/
200  /blog/hints/

200  /ux/feature-proposal/hotapp-duplicate-file-dialog/
200  /ux/feature-proposal/hotapp-support-negation-operator/
200  /hints/hint-two/
200  /hints/hint-one/
200  /uncategorized/hello-world/

    Setup 3: Strictly Hierarchical Blog at /blog with WP Core only

    • Custom Structure: /blog/%category%/%postname%/
    • Category base: blog
    • Tag base:
    • Resulting URLs and their status code when queried:
      • ? All blogpost URLs return HTTP 404 Not Found.
      • ? Custom Structure without leading slash fails too.
    HTTP URL

200  /blog/       # Blog index indeed.
200  /reserved/   # Test page indeed.

200  /blog/ux/
200  /blog/ux/feature-proposal/
200  /blog/hints/

404  /blog/ux/feature-proposal/hotapp-duplicate-file-dialog/
404  /blog/ux/feature-proposal/hotapp-support-negation-operator/
404  /blog/hints/hint-two/
404  /blog/hints/hint-one/
404  /blog/uncategorized/hello-world/

    Setup 4: Unreserved Slug as Category Base + Posts Hierarchical

    • Custom Structure: /something/%category%/%postname%/
    • Category base: blog
    • Tag base:
    • Resulting URLs and their status code when queried:
    • ? Custom structure prefixed with arbitrary available slug and all blogpost URLs work fine!
    • ?? But it just ain’t what I want. 
    HTTP URL

200  /blog/       # Blog index indeed.
200  /reserved/   # Test page indeed.

200  /blog/ux/
200  /blog/ux/feature-proposal/
200  /blog/hints/

200  /something/ux/feature-proposal/hotapp-duplicate-file-dialog/
200  /something/ux/feature-proposal/hotapp-support-negation-operator/
200  /something/hints/hint-two/
200  /something/hints/hint-one/
200  /something/uncategorized/hello-world/

    Setup 5: Reserved Pagename as Category Base + Posts Hierarchical

    • Custom Structure: /reserved/%category%/%postname%/
    • Category base: blog
    • Tag base:
    • Resulting URLs and their status code when queried:
    • ? Static prefix /reserved which is a page slug on that system, and all blog-posts still work! Interesting find at least.
    • ?? But still that’s not what I want.
    HTTP URL

200  /blog/       # Blog index indeed.
200  /reserved/   # Test page indeed. Conflict free!

200  /blog/ux/
200  /blog/ux/feature-proposal/
200  /blog/hints/

200  /reserved/ux/feature-proposal/hotapp-duplicate-file-dialog/
200  /reserved/ux/feature-proposal/hotapp-support-negation-operator/
200  /reserved/hints/hint-two/
200  /reserved/hints/hint-one/
200  /reserved/uncategorized/hello-world/

    Setup 3b: Strictly Hierarchical Blog at /blog with plugin

    • Custom Structure: /blog/%category%/%postname%/
    • Category base: blog
    • Tag base:
    • Plugin: No Category Base (WPML): Activated
    • Resulting URLs and their status code when queried:
    • ? All category index pages fail too.
    • ? All blogpost URLs return HTTP 404 Not Found.
    • Explanation: Plugin deactivates category base altogether, hence categories not present at /blog/*
    HTTP URL

200  /blog/       # Blog index indeed.
200  /reserved/   # Test page indeed.

404  /blog/ux/
404  /blog/ux/feature-proposal/
404  /blog/hints/

404  /blog/ux/feature-proposal/hotapp-duplicate-file-dialog/
404  /blog/ux/feature-proposal/hotapp-support-negation-operator/
404  /blog/hints/hint-two/
404  /blog/hints/hint-one/
404  /blog/uncategorized/hello-world/

    Setup 3c: Strictly Hierarchical Blog on root / with plugin

    • Custom Structure: /%category%/%postname%/
    • Category base: – Doesn’t matter if filled, it is ignored entirely anyhow.
    • Tag base:
    • Plugin: No Category Base (WPML): Activated
    • Settings → Reading → Your homepage displays: Your latest posts.
    • Resulting URLs and their status code when queried:
    • ? All URLs work fine
    • ?? But not the “Setup 3” that I want.
    HTTP URL

200  /            # Blog index indeed.
200  /reserved/   # Test page indeed.

200  /ux/
200  /ux/feature-proposal/
200  /hints/

200  /ux/feature-proposal/hotapp-duplicate-file-dialog/
200  /ux/feature-proposal/hotapp-support-negation-operator/
200  /hints/hint-two/
200  /hints/hint-one/
200  /uncategorized/hello-world/

    Thanks for any hints!

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