Table of Contents
404 errors are common when setting up custom URL structures in WordPress. Here are the steps to diagnose and resolve them in GravityOps Forum.
1. Refresh Rewrite Rules #
WordPress stores a cache of all URL structures. If you’ve just installed the plugin or changed the Forum Base Slug, you may need to clear this cache.
- The Simple Way: Go to Settings > Permalinks in the main WordPress sidebar and click Save Changes at the bottom of the page. You don’t need to change any settings; simply clicking save will “flush” the rewrite rules.
- The Plugin Way: Go to the Configuration tab in the GravityOps Forum dashboard and click Save Configuration.
2. Verify Your Permalink Structure #
For “Pretty URLs” (e.g., /forum/general/123) to work, your WordPress permalink structure must not be set to Plain.
- Go to Settings > Permalinks.
- Ensure that Post Name or a custom structure is selected.
- If you must use Plain permalinks, you will need to disable Enable Custom Rewrite Rules in the Forum Configuration and use shortcodes on WordPress pages.
3. Check for Slug Conflicts #
If another page, post, or category on your site uses the same slug as your Forum Base Slug, WordPress will get confused.
- Check: Go to Pages > All Pages and search for “forum” (or whatever you’ve set as your slug).
- Check: Look at your trash in Pages and Posts. A trashed page with the same slug can still cause conflicts.
- Solution: Either rename the conflicting page or change your Forum Base Slug in the forum settings.
4. Shortcode Mode Configuration #
If you have disabled Enable Custom Rewrite Rules, the forum is only accessible via the pages you’ve created.
- Check: Ensure you have placed the
[gofrm_index]shortcode on at least one published page. - Check: Verify that the plugin has correctly auto-discovered your forum pages in the Advanced Page Mapping section of the Configuration tab.
