How to disable the single view for a custom post type?

9 comments

1. To be able to disable the single view for a CPT you can either redirect users to a specific URL, or disable it while registering CPT itself.

   METHOD 1:

   Redirect CPT single to a custom URL, archive page is publicly available.

   You can use template_redirect hook to redirect a user, you can use any URL you want in place of home_url() and the desired error code as 2nd argument.

   <?php
   add_action( 'template_redirect', 'wpse_128636_redirect_post' );
   
   function wpse_128636_redirect_post() {
     if ( is_singular( 'sample_post_type' ) ) :
       wp_redirect( home_url(), 301 );
       exit;
     endif;
   }
   ?>
   

   METHOD 2:

   Completely disable Single and Archive page from front-end; Works for Custom Post Types only.

   An alternative approach is to set publicly_queryable to false while registering the custom post.

   'publicly_queryable'  => false
   

   This hides single as well as archive page for the CPT, this can be used for custom posts only.

   Even though the archive and single is hidden, you can still add a page template or a custom block to list posts if needed.

2. Just setting the argument

   'publicly_queryable'  => false
   

   when you call register_post_type()

3. Tested all the ones mentioned above and the actual solution is simpler than any redirects suggested.

   In order to have archive be accessible and list the items, and single post not be accessible and auto redirect to 404 set

   'query_var' => false
   

   when registering your CPT. If you set publicly_queryable to false your archives will be redirected to home, any other combo wont work. Set the query_var to false and that is it.

   Here is full CPT https://gist.github.com/danyj/bfd038d3c8d578548c4d700bd0a7942a

   see line 50 https://gist.github.com/danyj/bfd038d3c8d578548c4d700bd0a7942a#file-thz_cpt_items_single_view_redirect-php-L50

   as stated here

   https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/register_post_type

   Note: If query_var is empty, null, or a boolean FALSE, WordPress will
   still attempt to interpret it (4.2.2) and previews/views of your
   custom post will return 404s.

4. A simpler way to do that can be passing the following args when registering the Custom Post Type

   register_post_type('sample_post_type',array(
   'labels' => array(
       'name' => _x('Sample Posts', 'post type general name'),
       'singular_name' => _x('Sample Post', 'post type singular name')
   ),
   'public' => true,
   'exclude_from_search' => true,
   'show_in_admin_bar'   => false,
   'show_in_nav_menus'   => false,
   'publicly_queryable'  => false,
   'query_var'           => false
   ));
   

5. One. From your functions file.

   add_action( 'template_redirect', 'redirect_cpt_singular_posts' );
       function redirect_cpt_singular_posts() {
         if ( is_singular('your-cpt-slug') ) {
           wp_redirect( home_url(), 302 );
           exit;
         }
       }
   

   Two. From your single.cpt.php file:

   <?php wp_redirect( home_url() ); exit; ?>
   

6. Working from of Sven’s really good answer, I rewrote his function to make it easier to add multiple post types using in_array() in the if statement and then redirecting to the archive page instead of the home page.

   (by the way, I think the setting query_var and/or publically_queryable to false will disable not only the single views, but also the native archive view, overriding 'has_archive' => true. In that case you can still set up a custom WP_query and create your own archive page, in a template, but the main query won’t do that any more, will it?)

   function fq_disable_single_cpt_views() {
     $queried_post_type = get_query_var('post_type');
     $cpts_without_single_views = array( 'my-post-type', 'my-other-post-type' );
     if ( is_single() && in_array( $queried_post_type, $cpts_without_single_views )  ) {
       wp_redirect( home_url( '/' . $queried_post_type . '/' ), 301 );
       exit;
     }
   }
   
   add_action( 'template_redirect', 'fq_disable_single_cpt_views' );
   

7. In case you want to completely disable custom post type single view on frontend but be able to display archive page things are getting a little complicated.

   Setting publicly_queryable to false or rewrite to false will prevent for displaying both single and archive view. There is no flag in register_post_type function arguments to prevent creating only single view rewrite rules.

   https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress/blob/5.2.3/wp-includes/class-wp-post-type.php#L540

   However you can remove rewrite tag after registering your post type and this will leave archive view rewrite rules untouched but remove only single view rewrite rules.

   /**
    * Register event post type
    */
   function wpse_128636_register_event_post_type() {
   
       $labels = array(
           'name' => __( 'Events' ),
           'singular_name' => __( 'Event' ),
           'add_new' => __( 'Add new' ),
           'add_new_item' => __( 'Add new' ),
           'edit_item' => __( 'Edit' ),
           'new_item' => __( 'New' ),
           'view_item' => __( 'View' ),
           'search_items' => __( 'Search' ),
           'not_found' => __( 'Not found' ),
           'not_found_in_trash' => __( 'Not found Events in trash' ),
           'parent_item_colon' => __( 'Parent' ),
           'menu_name' => __( 'Events' ),
   
       );
   
       $args = array(
           'labels' => $labels,
           'hierarchical' => false,
           'supports' => array( 'title', 'page-attributes' ),
           'public' => true,
           'show_ui' => true,
           'show_in_menu' => true,
           'show_in_nav_menus' => true,
           'publicly_queryable' => true,
           'exclude_from_search' => true,
           'has_archive' => true,
           'rewrite' => array('slug' => 'event'),
           'capability_type' => 'post',
       );
   
       register_post_type( 'event', $args );
       remove_rewrite_tag( '%event%' ); // This line will remove event rewrite rules for single view
   }
   
   add_action( 'init', 'wpse_128636_register_event_post_type' );
   

   Another bonus is that from now on you can create simple WordPress pages using event post type permalink structure (event/simple-page) which can be helpful in complex websites.

   Remember to flush rewrite rules after code modification.

8. In WordPress 5.9.0 a new filter was added which allows not only disabling the single but removing any links to it from the admin screens.

   add_filter( 'is_post_type_viewable', function( $is_viewable, $post_type ) {
       if ( 'sample_post_type' === $post_type->name ) {
           return false;
       }
       return $is_viewable;
   }, 10, 2 );
   

   The single won’t load but if you enter the URL manually, the home page will load instead of a 404. To show a 404 instead of the home page, you may remove the rewrite rule after the post type is registered.

   remove_rewrite_tag( '%sample_post_type%' );
   

   After making these changes you will need to flush the rewrite rules.

   Using these 2 methods will accomplish the goal without extra template, redirects and broken links in the admin.

9. My current solution (mostly “the redirect solution”) with a slight implementation difference.

   This will keep archive pages enabled (has_archive = TRUE)

   But will allow you to enable or disable single pages when using register_post_type() with x_has_single = TRUE (the param is passed along with the post type object properties).

   add_action( 'init', function() {
       $args = [
           ... // other vars
           'public'             => FALSE,
           'publicly_queryable' => TRUE,
           'show_ui'            => TRUE,
           'has_archive'        => 'customers',
           'rewrite'            => [ 'slug' => 'customers', 'with_front' => FALSE ],
           'x_has_single'       => FALSE,
       ];
       register_post_type( 'customers', $args );
   } );
   
   add_action( 'template_redirect', function() {
       $post_type = get_post_type() ?: FALSE;
       $post_type_obj = get_post_type_object( $post_type );
       $has_single = $post_type_obj->x_has_single ?? TRUE;
       if ( FALSE === $has_single && $post_type && is_singular( $post_type ) ) {
           wp_redirect( get_post_type_archive_link( $post_type ) ?: '/', 301 );
           exit;
       }
   } );
   

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