What to do with url-rewriting tag

Question

For the initiative adopt a tag I decided to adopt <url-rewriting> and related tags.

I've started yesterday tasting the territory and, really, it's a mess.

I'm asking here to decide a rule I've to follow to make order in it.

Existing tags

Actually existing related tags are:

• <url-rewriting> (with synonym <rewrite>)
• <rewrite-rules>
• <mod-rewrite>
• <add-rewrite-rule>
• <rewrite-tag>

The first 2 tags, seems the most important to me, in particular I think that all the questions regarding WordPress way to handle url rewriting should be tagged <rewrite-rules> (or maybe <rewrite-rules> and <url-rewriting>) and instead use <url-rewriting> only for questions about non WordPress rewrite rules, just like the ones in .htaccess.

Regarding <mod-rewrite> to me it seems an irrilevant tag, because it's too generic and less informative.

Last two tags, on the countrary, seems too narrow to me, I don't think it's useful tagging asnwers using specific function names, even because, just as example, a lot of questions using add_rewrite_rule are answered using add_rewrite_endpoint and so on...

Siblings tags

I noticed that when a question has <url-rewriting> and related tags, very often there are also tags like <urls> and/or <permalinks>. What to do with this tags? I'd like to follow same rule for all questions, so if we decide to leave where they are, I should also add where they don't are, on the countrary, I should remove them everywhere. Sincerly I am for second alternative.

Another common sibling tag is <htaccess>. I think this tag is ok when Q is about edit .htaccess file directly, should be removed anywhere else. In first case I think is better add the 2 tags <url-rewriting> and <htaccess> and remove <mod-rewrite>

---

Specific Cases

There a lot of questions regarding the url rewrite api of WordPress, but not involving rewrite rules directly a probably not comprehensive list is:

• questions about rewrite params of register_post_type and register_taxonomy
• questions about removing/adding/editing permalink base for various archives

How properly tag these sort of questions? I thing <url-rewriting> should be the right choice. Are these questions use cases for <urls> and/or <permalinks> tags?

Last my trouble regard questions asking something I call reverse rewrite, i.e. taking a pretty url and convert it in a url with query string, not necessarily the url the WordPress related one, e. g. take an url example.com/a-random-string/ and rewrite it in example.com/?foo=bar&bar=baz.

The questions are various tagged, sometimes they have all possible tags: <url-rewriting>, <htaccess>, <mod-rewrite>, <urls>, and so on..

I've answered a couple of these questions suggesting a redirect instead of a rewrite rule, but in substance, which is the proper way to tags these questions?

---

Edit

After responses by @ChipBennett and @Rarst, in substance, what I suggest is:

• delete tags <add-rewrite-rule>, <rewrite-tag> and <mod-rewrite>
• add a new tag <rewrite-api> as suggested by @ChipBennett, then make <rewrite-rules> synonym to it
• use <rewrite-api> for all questions regarding any function or hook of rewrite api and also for question regarding the 'rewrite' param of cpt/taxonomy registration
• use <url-rewriting> for questions regarding rewrite rules not generated by WP. In these questions also use <.htaccess> tag if relevant
• Remove tags <urls> and <permalinks> from from questions where only rewrite rules are involved
• use <rewrite-api> also when questions are about to extract query vars from pretty permalinks (and remove <urls> and <permalinks> if present)
• use <urls> when question are about convert a pretty url in a url with query vars not regarding WP e.g. mysite.com/a-page/ to mysite.com/myapp/my-file.php?myappvar=foo

---

Answer 1

Methinks you ought to keep or create add-rewrite-rule, rewrite-rule, add-rewrite-tag, rewrite-tag, etc. and make them synonyms for rewrite-api. They're all named after WP functions or WP rewrite API concepts, and users who are looking for someone who knows them probably enter them as tags as a result.

Other suggestion: in the event the permalink tag has a different accepted meaning, create a permalink-api tag if there is none, and make it a synonym to the latter group.

Lastly, I'd suggest bundling htaccess with mod-rewrite, and other apache-related tags if any. Many of them are probably off-topic, too, but the tag is still worth keeping them around.

Not sure about the other tags. Good luck. :-)

---

Side note: when I start typing "wordpress add_rewr" in Google, the latter suggests "wordpress add_rewrite_rule not working" as second option. This has a familiar ring to it, no?

Answer 2

I would recommend using Rewrite API as the master tag name, and then mark all the rest as synonyms.

I think this tag is appropriate for either direction: taking URL query args and converting them to pretty permalinks, and taking pretty permalinks and extracting URL query args.

Answer 3

It is hard to untangle this because rewriting URLs in WP involves:

• PHP code dealing with adding rewrite rules
• PHP code dealing with applying rewrite rules
• regexp of actual rules themselves
• mod rewrite rules generated by WP
• mod rewrite rules not generated by WP
• any crazy combination of any of the above

Since there are pretty much two possible actions to deal with tag (delete and make synonym) it would be productive if you formulated suggestions accordingly ("let's delete tag because..." or "let's make tag synonym to another tag because..."). Would make it easier to consider and agree/disagree with specific parts.