WordPress users who like tinkering with their sites know that some themes without a built-in function to remove /category/ will add a /category/ directory to category links every time the permalink settings are changed. If you want to remove the /category/ directory from category links, you can use a plugin. There are also many plugins available online that can remove it directly (in fact, many themes already have this feature built in). However, today’s solution is a pure-code method for removing /category/, suitable for those who prefer not to use plugins.

PHP Code

// 去除分类 category 的代码
add_action('load-themes.php', 'no_category_base_refresh_rules');
add_action('created_category', 'no_category_base_refresh_rules');
add_action('edited_category', 'no_category_base_refresh_rules');
add_action('delete_category', 'no_category_base_refresh_rules');
function no_category_base_refresh_rules() {
    global $wp_rewrite;
    $wp_rewrite->flush_rules();
}
add_action('init', 'no_category_base_permastruct');
function no_category_base_permastruct() {
    global $wp_rewrite, $wp_version;
    if (version_compare($wp_version, '3.4', '<')) {
        $wp_rewrite->extra_permastructs['category'][0] = '%category%';
    } else {
        $wp_rewrite->extra_permastructs['category']['struct'] = '%category%';
    }
}
add_filter('category_rewrite_rules', 'no_category_base_rewrite_rules');
function no_category_base_rewrite_rules($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_category_base = get_option('category_base') ? get_option('category_base') : 'category';
    $old_category_base = trim($old_category_base, '/');
    $category_rewrite[$old_category_base . '/(.*)$'] = 'index.php?category_redirect=$matches[1]';
    return $category_rewrite;
}
add_filter('query_vars', 'no_category_base_query_vars');
function no_category_base_query_vars($public_query_vars) {
    $public_query_vars[] = 'category_redirect';
    return $public_query_vars;
}
add_filter('request', 'no_category_base_request');
function no_category_base_request($query_vars) {
    if (isset($query_vars['category_redirect'])) {
        $catlink = trailingslashit(get_option('home')) . user_trailingslashit($query_vars['category_redirect'], 'category');
        status_header(301);
        header("Location: $catlink");
        exit();
    }
    return $query_vars;
}

Add the above code to the functions.php file of your current theme, directly before the final ?>.

Whether you install a plugin or use code, you may encounter a 404 page error because the pseudo-static URLs for %post_id%.html (the permalink structure configured on this site) have become invalid. In this case, simply save the permalink settings once again.