Check for category and author page existence

[chuyskywalker]

If you create a category, and then try to access it before there are any posts in it, Wordpress will return you the 404.php page instead of the category.php.

I would have assumed that you'd get a category.php with no posts on it -- the category *does* exist, it's just empty.

[chuyskywalker]

fixes said category/404 bug

[chuyskywalker]

whoops, added a bit exta to that last one...

[chuyskywalker]

... and then, like lightening, it strikes and I find the culprit.

[davidhouse]

Tags go in the Keywords field, not the CC field. :)

[chuyskywalker]

hehe, what a noob :) Thanks! (That's what I get for submitting patches at 2am...)

[matt]

(In [3215]) Don't show 404s for empty cats, fixes #1969

[joelgilmore]

I think a better modification, which I can't see that this does, is to check whether the category (or author page) exists, and if so, go to it even if it has no posts.

The appropriate code would be

	if (is_author() || is_category()){
		if ((!$wp_query->get_queried_object()) && !is_404() && !is_search() && ( $this->did_permalink || (!empty($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']) && (false === strpos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], '?'))) ) ) {
				$wp_query->set_404();
				status_header( 404 );
		}	elseif( is_404() != true ) {
			status_header( 200 );
		}
	} else { // If not in an author or category page
		if ( (0 == count($wp_query->posts)) && !is_404() && !is_search() && ( $this->did_permalink || (!empty($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']) && (false === strpos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], '?'))) ) ) {
				$wp_query->set_404();
				status_header( 404 );
		}	elseif( is_404() != true ) {
				status_header( 200 );
		}
	}// End author/cat select

This works very well on my <a href="​http://www.dividingline.org/>site</a>, and also applies to author pages, since I display information about Subscribers as well as Contributors et al.

[_ck_]

What is really strange is that for a user/author with no posts:

/index.php?author_name=example
works and will show author.php template even with zero posts

/author/example
will FAIL (even in 2.1a2) and show 404 template
until they have at least one post and then it will work

I believe it has to do with the way WP_QUERY in query.php parses the URL and first believes it's on a page with posts for the rewrite URL so it fails for the author. Very strange.

The 404 patch code by joelgilmore works but I dislike the idea of patching the result. I wish they could fix it on the parsing. 2.1a2 still does not have any attempt to fix what-so-ever.

[westi]

This needs-patch for the remaining issue - "empty author's"

Marking at such.

[JDTrower]

A patch that fixes tickets #3345 and #1969 has been posted on #3345. It needs testing, however it fixes the problems mentioned in this ticket.

[Nazgul]

Reclosing as fixed, as the remaining issue is being adressed in #3345.