Custom WP_Query always respond with 200 status even when no entry

Question

Custom WP_Query always respond with 200 status even when no entry

Faisal Khurshid

2017年7月2日 00:20

I'm using a custom WP_Query. The code is something like below:

$portfolio_args = array(
    'post_type'           = 'portfolio',
    'posts_per_page'      = 5,
    'paged'               = get_query_var( 'page' )
);

$portfolio_query = new WP_Query($portfolio_args);

Now, my portfolio post type has 15 entries (thus it is good for 3 pages). I can navigate to all these pages, but the issue is even the pages which does not have any portfolio entry (e.g. /page/4/, /page/5, ...) loads just fine (i.e. throws 200 in response header), whereas, I'm expecting it to throw a 404 error if the page has not any entry.

Is it the expected behaviour for custom query pagination? If so do I need to force a 404 response header somehow?

Topic paged wp-query pagination 404-error custom-post-types Wordpress

Category Web

Milo · Accepted Answer · 2017年7月2日 00:20

Response is based on the results of the main query. The decision is made before the template is loaded, which is how WP is able to serve a 404 template in the case of a 404.

As you've learned, the page post type lets you paginate endlessly in both the format pagename/page/n/, as well as the singular pattern pagename/n/. To generate a 404 for a different query, you'd need to hook something like template_redirect to check if your custom query contains posts so you can force a 404 before output starts.

The preferred solution is to set the has_archive argument for your custom post type, which enables an archive page. The main query will then be your collection of portfolio posts, and pagination will work as expected.

Custom WP_Query always respond with 200 status even when no entry

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