I don't need a frontend on the WP site. All visitors will be redirected to an external url where my frontend app lives.

I now have the following code in the root of my theme functions.php:

if ( ! is_admin() ) {
  wp_redirect( '', 200 );
  exit;
}

Unfortunately this runs before the plugins needed to set up the rest api have run.

Where should I place this code to get it right?

Warning!

Found a solution myself:

add_action( 'wp_loaded', function () {
  // check if there is a 'wp-json' URI part
  if (! strpos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 'wp-json')) {
    // No rest api request. Now check if we are on frontend
    if ( ! is_admin() ) {
      // We are on frontend: redirect now
      wp_redirect( '', 200 );
      exit();
    }
  }
});

The above code works fine (tested) if put in a plugin file.

The above code does not work (tested) when put in the root of theme functions.php file.

I don't need a frontend on the WP site. All visitors will be redirected to an external url where my frontend app lives.

I now have the following code in the root of my theme functions.php:

if ( ! is_admin() ) {
  wp_redirect( 'http://www.example', 200 );
  exit;
}

Unfortunately this runs before the plugins needed to set up the rest api have run.

Where should I place this code to get it right?

Warning!

Found a solution myself:

add_action( 'wp_loaded', function () {
  // check if there is a 'wp-json' URI part
  if (! strpos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 'wp-json')) {
    // No rest api request. Now check if we are on frontend
    if ( ! is_admin() ) {
      // We are on frontend: redirect now
      wp_redirect( 'http://www.example', 200 );
      exit();
    }
  }
});

The above code works fine (tested) if put in a plugin file.

The above code does not work (tested) when put in the root of theme functions.php file.

• redirect
• rest-api

• The code in your functions.php should not be running first. Plugins always run before themes (unless you or a plugin has hacked WP core).... Is the plugin doing something that takes a few seconds? What exactly does it need to do when it 'runs'? Is it waiting for a response from another domain? – Dan. Commented Nov 29, 2016 at 7:43
• Which hook are you currently using? – Dan. Commented Nov 29, 2016 at 7:58
• Maybe this question and it's answers can help? – birgire Commented Nov 29, 2016 at 9:13
• @birgure: Doesn't help but thanks. – violacase Commented Nov 29, 2016 at 10:07

1 Answer 1

The correct solution is to add the redirect to index.php in your theme - this will ensure only frontend, non-api based requests are handled.

Sniffing wp-json in the request is dodgy at best, and will all out break if another plugin overrides the endpoint (which you can do, it's pluggable).

<?php

wp_redirect( 'http://example/', 301 );
exit;

...in wp-content/themes/your-theme/index.php. And make sure your theme has no other template files, other than a blank functions.php, and the theme's style.css