#64250 - Refactor redirect_guess_404_permalink to use WP_Query instead of raw SQL #10531

anandrajaram21 · 2025-11-19T16:39:09Z

The redirect_guess_404_permalink() function in src/wp-includes/canonical.php has been refactored to replace direct SQL queries with WordPress's native WP_Query abstraction layer.

Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/64250

This Pull Request is for code review only. Please keep all other discussion in the Trac ticket. Do not merge this Pull Request. See GitHub Pull Requests for Code Review in the Core Handbook for more details.

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github-actions · 2025-11-19T16:39:20Z

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github-actions · 2025-11-19T16:39:34Z

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github-actions · 2025-11-19T16:54:47Z

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src/wp-includes/canonical.php

anandrajaram21 · 2025-11-20T09:28:06Z

@westonruter I've resolved the comments. Seeking clarification on one comment and requesting for a re-review

westonruter

This looks really good to me. I'll leave for @spacedmonkey to give final approval.

spacedmonkey

I think we need to tweak WP_Query a little and this should be good to go.

src/wp-includes/canonical.php

spacedmonkey · 2025-12-03T09:50:36Z

@westonruter @anandrajaram21 I have put together a little PR to use WP_Query without a filter. 4c87073. Completely untested, but this is how I think this should work.

westonruter · 2025-12-03T18:33:09Z

@spacedmonkey Clever. So you're leveraging the search capabilities of WP_Query to implement fuzzy redirect guessing, specifically via restricting the search_columns to just include the post_name.

Full diff from base: 33c8d7e...4c87073

westonruter · 2025-12-03T22:09:36Z

In looking at #10590, which has the aforementioned commit, unit tests are failing.

anandrajaram21 · 2025-12-04T17:52:31Z

@spacedmonkey This approach makes sense. I'll try this out, however as @westonruter mentioned, the tests do not pass, so I'll try making the tests pass while keeping the core idea in mind. Thanks for the input!

spacedmonkey · 2025-12-05T23:20:23Z

@anandrajaram21 Here is the full changeset Full diff from base:
33c8d7e...ff81f88

I had to make some more tweaks to WP_Query, but it seems to be working. It needs unit tests and testing.

anandrajaram21 · 2026-01-14T17:04:24Z

@westonruter @spacedmonkey I've made the required changes as suggested, and also tweaked the test cases to make sure they pass. Do let me know if I can go ahead and write unit tests for the modified WP_Query, or if there are any other changes to be made before I do so

Copilot

Pull request overview

This PR refactors the redirect_guess_404_permalink() function in canonical.php to replace direct SQL queries with WordPress's native WP_Query abstraction layer. The changes enhance the search capabilities in WP_Query to support the post_name column and introduce a new starts_with parameter for prefix-based searches.

Changes:

Added post_name as a supported search column in WP_Query::parse_search()
Introduced new starts_with query parameter for prefix-based searches in WP_Query
Refactored redirect_guess_404_permalink() to use WP_Query instead of raw SQL queries

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

File	Description
src/wp-includes/canonical.php	Replaced raw SQL queries with `WP_Query`, removed global `$wpdb` dependency, and implemented date queries using `date_query` parameter
src/wp-includes/class-wp-query.php	Added `post_name` to default search columns, introduced `starts_with` parameter for prefix matching, and updated documentation
tests/phpunit/tests/query/searchColumns.php	Updated test to use `post_slug` instead of `post_name` for testing non-supported columns

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tests/phpunit/tests/query/searchColumns.php

src/wp-includes/class-wp-query.php

Copilot · 2026-01-14T21:29:11Z

src/wp-includes/canonical.php

+			$query_args['s']              = get_query_var( 'name' );
+			$query_args['search_columns'] = array( 'post_name' );
+			$query_args['starts_with']    = true;


The new starts_with parameter usage in redirect_guess_404_permalink() lacks test coverage. Consider adding tests to verify that the 404 redirect guessing works correctly with this new parameter, particularly for the non-strict guess scenario.

@westonruter @spacedmonkey if this approach seems alright, can I go ahead and write tests, or do I have to make any more changes in the approach before I go ahead

I'll defer to @spacedmonkey since this was his suggestion. But it's looking good for far to me.

westonruter · 2026-01-17T06:54:11Z

src/wp-includes/canonical.php

 			return false;
 		}

+		$post_id = $query->posts[0];


This can now use:

Suggested change

$post_id = $query->posts[0];

$post_id = array_first( $query->posts );

This is polyfilled in core as of WP 6.9. The function was introduced in PHP 8.5. This is better since a posts_results filter could try doing array_filter() and the result could be array keys that don't have index 0.

westonruter · 2026-01-17T06:55:23Z

src/wp-includes/canonical.php

 		}

+		$post_id = $query->posts[0];
+


As with the above, to be extra safe:

Suggested change

if ( ! is_int( $post_id ) ) {

return false;

}

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated 7 comments.

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Copilot · 2026-01-17T06:56:01Z

src/wp-includes/class-wp-query.php

 		$query_vars['search_orderby_title'] = array();

-		$default_search_columns = array( 'post_title', 'post_excerpt', 'post_content' );
+		$default_search_columns = array( 'post_title', 'post_excerpt', 'post_content', 'post_name' );


Adding post_name to the default search columns changes the behavior of all existing searches that don't explicitly specify search_columns. This means that searches will now match against post slugs by default, which could return unexpected results for users. For example, a search for "hello" would now match a post with slug "hello-world" even if the post title, excerpt, or content don't contain "hello". This is a significant behavioral change that could affect backwards compatibility. Consider documenting this breaking change or making this opt-in rather than default behavior.

Copilot · 2026-01-17T06:56:01Z

src/wp-includes/class-wp-query.php

 	 * @since 5.3.0 Introduced the `$meta_type_key` parameter.
 	 * @since 6.1.0 Introduced the `$update_menu_item_cache` parameter.
 	 * @since 6.2.0 Introduced the `$search_columns` parameter.
+	 * @since 7.0.0 Introduced the `$starts_with` parameter.


The test file for public query variables (tests/phpunit/tests/query/vars.php) needs to be updated to include starts_with in the expected list of public query vars, similar to how exact is listed. Without this update, the test will fail once starts_with is added to the public query vars.

To do once implementation is finalized.

Copilot · 2026-01-17T06:56:01Z

src/wp-includes/class-wp-query.php

+	 *                                                   Cannot be used together with `$starts_with`.
+	 *     @type bool            $starts_with            Whether to search starts with keyword. Default false.
+	 *                                                   Cannot be used together with `$exact`.


The new starts_with query parameter lacks test coverage. Tests should be added to verify: 1) that starts_with correctly searches for terms at the beginning of columns, 2) that it cannot be used together with exact (triggering the mutual exclusivity check), and 3) that it works correctly with different search columns including post_name.

To do once implementation is finalized.

Copilot · 2026-01-17T06:56:01Z

src/wp-includes/canonical.php

+			$query_args['s']              = get_query_var( 'name' );
+			$query_args['search_columns'] = array( 'post_name' );
+			$query_args['starts_with']    = true;


The refactored code uses WP_Query's search functionality with search_columns set to post_name only, but this relies on the new behavior where post_name is included in the default search columns. If the previous comment about adding post_name to default search columns is addressed by making it opt-in, this code will need to be updated to explicitly ensure post_name searching is supported regardless of the default behavior.

Copilot · 2026-01-17T06:56:01Z

src/wp-includes/canonical.php

+			$query_args['s']              = get_query_var( 'name' );
+			$query_args['search_columns'] = array( 'post_name' );
+			$query_args['starts_with']    = true;


The refactored non-strict guess implementation introduces a behavioral change regarding password-protected posts. When using WP_Query with search functionality, the parse_search method automatically excludes password-protected posts for non-logged-in users (see line 1546). The original SQL implementation did not have this restriction and would redirect to password-protected posts. This could break existing functionality where 404 redirects would work for password-protected posts.

Copilot · 2026-01-17T06:56:02Z

src/wp-includes/canonical.php

+			$query_args['post_type'] = $publicly_viewable_post_types;
 		}

+		// Handle date queries.


The comment says "Handle date queries" but this should be more descriptive about what's happening. Consider updating to "Build date_query array from individual year, month, and day query vars for WP_Query compatibility" to better explain the transformation being performed.

Suggested change

// Handle date queries.

// Build date_query array from individual year, month, and day query vars for WP_Query compatibility.

westonruter · 2026-01-17T06:57:14Z

src/wp-includes/canonical.php

+			'update_post_meta_cache' => false,
+			'update_post_term_cache' => false,
+			'fields'                 => 'ids',
+			'orderby'                => 'none',


@spacedmonkey Should this also include suppress_filters`? It wasn't filterable before, so this would prevent accidental filtering.

Suggested change

'orderby' => 'none',

'orderby' => 'none',

'suppress_filters' => true,

Copilot

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refactor: replace direct SQL with WP_Query in redirect_guess_404_perm…

ae6a847

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anandrajaram21 changed the title ~~refactor: replace direct SQL with WP_Query in redirect_guess_404_perm…~~ #64250 - Refactor redirect_guess_404_permalink to use WP_Query instead of raw SQL Nov 19, 2025

westonruter reviewed Nov 19, 2025

View reviewed changes

perf: optimize wp query and remove superfluous comments

ce90699

chore: change filter function to a static function

9b52804

westonruter approved these changes Nov 26, 2025

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westonruter requested a review from spacedmonkey November 26, 2025 04:01

spacedmonkey requested changes Dec 3, 2025

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anandrajaram21 added 2 commits January 14, 2026 12:51

Merge branch 'trunk' into 64250-redirect-guess-404-permalink

4532fae

feat: update approach to use wp-query instead of manual searching

3da7e89

anandrajaram21 requested review from spacedmonkey and westonruter January 14, 2026 17:04

westonruter requested a review from Copilot January 14, 2026 21:25

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of westonruter January 14, 2026 21:26 View session

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feat: resolve copilot PR review comments

c420204

westonruter requested a review from Copilot January 17, 2026 06:50

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Copilot AI reviewed Jan 17, 2026

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	$post_id = $query->posts[0];
	$post_id = array_first( $query->posts );

	// Handle date queries.
	// Build date_query array from individual year, month, and day query vars for WP_Query compatibility.

	'orderby' => 'none',
	'orderby' => 'none',
	'suppress_filters' => true,

#64250 - Refactor redirect_guess_404_permalink to use WP_Query instead of raw SQL #10531

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#64250 - Refactor redirect_guess_404_permalink to use WP_Query instead of raw SQL #10531

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