Redirect Original Topic URL to New URL when Topic Moved (Buddypress Group Forum)

[garrett-eclipse]

Hello,

Discussed this with @thebandonallen over slack so will share that conversation.

Basically I have a topic that resided within a Buddypress Group Forum which I moved to a bbPress stand-alone forum. The url for the original topic doesn't redirect to the new location and just shows the no topics message 'OH BOTHER! NO TOPICS WERE FOUND HERE!'.

Would love the system to either auto-forward to the topics new location, or provide a contextual notice indicating this topic has been moved and provide a link to the new location within the message.

Full Slack Thread with @thebrandonallen;

garrett-eclipse [12:25 PM]
Hey Guys, wondering if there’s anyway to redirect an original topic url to a moved topic url. So I move a topic from one forum to another, but when people go to the original url right now it says oh bother no topics found, would like to either auto redirect or provide a link to the new location. Is this even possible?

thebrandonallen [12:32 PM]
Is this in a BuddyPress group forum?

[12:32]
If you’re using default /topic/topic-title/ pretty urls, everything should be fine.

garrett-eclipse [12:32 PM]
I moved it from a BP Group Forum into a BBP standalone forum

thebrandonallen [12:33 PM]
Hmm…

[12:33]
So you moved just the topic, right?

garrett-eclipse [12:34 PM]
And yes should be that way.
Original URL - ​https://ljlee.ca/groups/attendee/a_series_vancouver_2015/forum/topic/course-organization-comments/
*Not accessible unless logged in
New URL - ​https://ljlee.ca/forums/topic/course-organization-comments/
*Is private topic

[12:34]
Yup just the one topic, topic-slug stays the same, etc.

[12:35]
I found a trac ticket about merging topics and the _wp_old_slug meta and wp_old_slug_redirect
​https://bbpress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/2329
But I don’t see that meta in my instance

thebrandonallen [12:36 PM]
I believe that meta would only be there if you merged the topic, not if you moved it to another forum

garrett-eclipse [12:37 PM]
thx, and I guess even if it existed the original url wouldn’t have any reference to know what topic used to live there

thebrandonallen [12:41 PM]
I think the problem is the group still exists, it’s just that the topic was moved.

[12:42]
bbPress filters redirect_canonical to handle the group links, but doesn’t account for the topic to have been moved somewhere else.

[12:43]
Which is why redirect_canonical isn’t redirecting to the new location.

[12:43]
Sounds like a bug to me. Can you open a ticket on Trac so we can investigate further?

garrett-eclipse [12:44 PM]
Thanks Brandon, definitely can. Would I open under bbPress or BuddyPress?

thebrandonallen [12:47 PM]
I think it’s on bbPress’ end, so do it there. Thanks!

Appreciated,
Cheers

[netweb]

Testing the above after moving the topic

• post_parent is now the new forum ID :white_check_mark:
• _bbp_forum_id is now the new forum ID :white_check_mark:

After moving the topic from the group forum to a standard bbPress forum everything is working as expected for me

Group Forum topic: ​https://cloudup.com/cQpycFTQRRf
After moving topic, bbPress forum topic: ​https://cloudup.com/cLtdGB6YJaP

I suspect this might be due to the use and/or conflict of the topic meta around either BuddyPress or bbPress private status.

What "status" is the source BuddyPress group forum public, hidden, or private?
What "status" is the target bbPress forum public, hidden, or private?

[tharsheblows]

I think what you're saying is ​https://ljlee.ca/groups/attendee/a_series_vancouver_2015/forum/topic/course-organization-comments/ should redirect to ​https://ljlee.ca/forums/topic/course-organization-comments/ after you've moved it rather than giving a "bother no topics here" notice. Is that right?

The question I have is that should it do that? If I move a topic from a BP group forum to a regular forum, should people who hit the old url be automatically redirected to the new one? I can't think of a reason why not but want to check first. :)

[garrett-eclipse]

Hi @netweb and @tharsheblows so sorry I didn't notice there was a response here.

@tharsheblows is correct, what I'm experiencing is the old topic url doesn't redirect to the new topic url, rather it gives the 'bother no topics here' notice.

I'm not sure if it should do that but would be handy as I often move support-like topics out of my private groups into the general bbpress support forum I have set-up as it's more appropriate there, but people keep reporting broken links as they received the 'New Topic' email but going to the link (which is the old url) they get the o bother message, I would prefer they get redirected to the new location for the topic.

Thank you, sorry for the delayed response.

[netweb]

Moving to future release to clear up awaiting review, we can milestone this once we've some tests and a patch