Don't redirect to 404 page on empty post archives

[gazpachu]

"../archive/2010/09/29" redirects to a 404 Error because there are no posts that day.

If there are no posts, it shouldn't redirect to a 404 page. It should let the user perform the loop and show a message like this:

"Sorry, there are no posts for that date"

[nacin]

/archive/2010/09/29/ isn't a rewrite rule we support in core, so core won't actually consider it a post type archive...

[gazpachu]

Replying to nacin:

/archive/2010/09/29/ isn't a rewrite rule we support in core, so core won't actually consider it a post type archive...

Thanks for replaying :)

Well, let's forget about "archive/". The point is archives pages without posts shouldn't be redirected to a 404 page. I think we should offer a consistent archive navigation experience and explain to the user that this particular date doesn't have posts rather than send him to a 404 page.

What do you think, nacin?

[gazpachu]

After some time, I've found a way to fix this:

function dg_override_404() {
	global $wp_query, $post;

	if ( $wp_query->post_count == 0 )
	{ 
		$day = get_query_var( 'day' );
		$monthnum = get_query_var( 'monthnum' );
		$year = get_query_var( 'year' );
		
		if ( $day || $monthnum || $year )
		{
			status_header( 200 );
			
			$id=-28; // need an id
			$post = new stdClass();
			$post->ID= $id;
			$post->post_content='';
			$post->post_excerpt= '';
			$post->post_status='publish';
			$post->post_title= '';
			$post->post_type='post';
			$post->post_date = $year.'-'.$monthnum.'-'.$day.'00:00:00';
				
			$wp_query->queried_object=$post;
			$wp_query->post=$post;
			$wp_query->found_posts = 1;
			$wp_query->post_count = 1;
			$wp_query->is_404 = false;
			$wp_query->posts = array($post);
			$wp_query->is_archive = 1;
		}
	}
}

add_filter('template_redirect', 'dg_override_404');

[gazpachu]

A more complete approach:

function dg_override_404() {
	global $wp_query, $post;

	if ( $wp_query->post_count == 0 )
	{ 
		$day = get_query_var( 'day' );
		$monthnum = get_query_var( 'monthnum' );
		$year = get_query_var( 'year' );
		
		if( $year )
		{
			$wp_query->is_year = 1;
			$wp_query->is_month = 0;
			$wp_query->is_day = 0;
		}
			
		if( $monthnum )
		{
			$wp_query->is_month = 1;
			$wp_query->is_day = 0;
			$wp_query->is_year = 0;
		}
		
		if ( $day )
		{
			
			$wp_query->is_day = 1;
			$wp_query->is_year = 0;
			$wp_query->is_month = 0;
		}
		
		if( $monthnum && !$day )
			$day = 1;
			
		if( $year && !$monthnum )
		{
			$monthnum = 1;
			$day = 1;
		}
		
		if ( $day || $monthnum || $year )
		{
			status_header( 200 );
			
			$id=-28; // need an id
			$post = new stdClass();
			$post->ID= $id;
			$post->post_content='';
			$post->post_excerpt= '';
			$post->post_status='publish';
			$post->post_title= '';
			$post->post_type='post';
			$post->post_date = $year.'-'.$monthnum.'-'.$day.' 00:00:00';
				
			$wp_query->queried_object=$post;
			$wp_query->post=$post;
			$wp_query->found_posts = 1;
			$wp_query->post_count = 1;
			$wp_query->is_404 = false;
			$wp_query->posts = array($post);
			$wp_query->is_archive = 1;
			$wp_query->is_date = 1;
		}
	}
}

add_filter('template_redirect', 'dg_override_404');

[c3mdigital]

The check for posts should be done when the archive link is generated. WordPress will not generate date archives if no posts exist for that date.