Remove category & tag base from WordPress url - wi

Question

I would like to remove the category & tag base from wordpress URL. I have come across other posts and solutions which used plugins. I would like to stay away from plugins and have a solution from within functions.php. This would prevent any future plugin updates or wordpress default files from being changed.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

I have tried these solutions so far:

• This Htaccess solution did not work: http://mikepayne.co/2011/remove-category-base-from-url/
• These methods also failed: http://www.askapache.com/wordpress/remove-category-wordpress-urls.html

Answer 1

The dot trick will likely ruin your rss feeds and/or pagination. These work, though:

add_filter('category_rewrite_rules', 'no_category_base_rewrite_rules');
function no_category_base_rewrite_rules($category_rewrite) {
    $category_rewrite=array();
    $categories=get_categories(array('hide_empty'=>false));
    foreach($categories as $category) {
        $category_nicename = $category->slug;
        if ( $category->parent == $category->cat_ID )
            $category->parent = 0;
        elseif ($category->parent != 0 )
            $category_nicename = get_category_parents( $category->parent, false, '/', true ) . $category_nicename;
        $category_rewrite['('.$category_nicename.')/(?:feed/)?(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$'] = 'index.php?category_name=$matches[1]&feed=$matches[2]';
        $category_rewrite['('.$category_nicename.')/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$'] = 'index.php?category_name=$matches[1]&paged=$matches[2]';
        $category_rewrite['('.$category_nicename.')/?$'] = 'index.php?category_name=$matches[1]';
    }
    global $wp_rewrite;
    $old_base = $wp_rewrite->get_category_permastruct();
    $old_base = str_replace( '%category%', '(.+)', $old_base );
    $old_base = trim($old_base, '/');
    $category_rewrite[$old_base.'$'] = 'index.php?category_redirect=$matches[1]';
    return $category_rewrite;
}

// remove tag base
add_filter('tag_rewrite_rules', 'no_tag_base_rewrite_rules');
function no_tag_base_rewrite_rules($tag_rewrite) {
    $tag_rewrite=array();
    $tags=get_tags(array('hide_empty'=>false));
    foreach($tags as $tag) {
        $tag_nicename = $tag->slug;
        if ( $tag->parent == $tag->tag_ID )
            $tag->parent = 0;
        elseif ($tag->parent != 0 )
            $tag_nicename = get_tag_parents( $tag->parent, false, '/', true ) . $tag_nicename;
        $tag_rewrite['('.$tag_nicename.')/(?:feed/)?(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$'] = 'index.php?tag=$matches[1]&feed=$matches[2]';
        $tag_rewrite['('.$tag_nicename.')/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$'] = 'index.php?tag=$matches[1]&paged=$matches[2]';
        $tag_rewrite['('.$tag_nicename.')/?$'] = 'index.php?tag=$matches[1]';
    }
    global $wp_rewrite;
    $old_base = $wp_rewrite->get_tag_permastruct();
    $old_base = str_replace( '%tag%', '(.+)', $old_base );
    $old_base = trim($old_base, '/');
    $tag_rewrite[$old_base.'$'] = 'index.php?tag_redirect=$matches[1]';
    return $tag_rewrite;
}

// remove author base
add_filter('author_rewrite_rules', 'no_author_base_rewrite_rules');
function no_author_base_rewrite_rules($author_rewrite) { 
    global $wpdb;    
    $author_rewrite = array();    
    $authors = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT user_nicename AS nicename from $wpdb->users");    
    foreach($authors as $author) {
        $author_rewrite["({$author->nicename})/(?:feed/)?(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$"] = 'index.php?author_name=$matches[1]&feed=$matches[2]';
        $author_rewrite["({$author->nicename})/page/?([0-9]+)/?$"] = 'index.php?author_name=$matches[1]&paged=$matches[2]';
        $author_rewrite["({$author->nicename})/?$"] = 'index.php?author_name=$matches[1]';
    }      
    return $author_rewrite;}
add_filter('author_link', 'no_author_base', 1000, 2);
function no_author_base($link, $author_id) {
    $link_base = trailingslashit(get_option('home'));
    $link = preg_replace("|^{$link_base}author/|", '', $link);
    return $link_base . $link;
}