404 redirect with multiple segments not working

Question

I have a page on my site: mysite.com/index.php/staff/staff-bio/john-smith

I'm using this 404 redirect:

{if no_results OR segment_2 != "staff-bio" OR segment_4 != ""}{redirect="404"}{/if}

On a related note, I'm using the require_entry="yes" option in my staff-bio template.

This redirect statement catches the problem it staff-bio is not segment 2, and if extra segments are added to the end, but if I were to change "john-smith" to just "john" in the url, or enter some other invalid path, it doesn't redirect. It just goes to a blank template page.

What am I doing wrong here?

Answer 1

This looks like a bug on the no_results conditional, to me.

May I suggest you something? Let's change your approach to this. Look at the docs. You should take advantage of the parsing order and do not let your code run if you can avoid. So, use simple conditionals around the channel:entries variable pair.

This way, in the two first situations, the parsing process will pass right from the stage 13, simple conditionals, to the 20, redirect variable:

{if segment_4}{redirect="404"}{/if}
{if segment_2 != "staff-bio"}{redirect="404"}{/if}
{if segment_2 == "staff-bio"}
    {if segment_4 == ""}
        {exp:channel:entries [...] require_entry="yes"}
            {if no_results}{redirect="404"}{/if}
        {/exp:cahnnel:entries}
    {/if}
{/if}

Answer 2

Robson's suggestion is on the money. Another approach would be to use the awesome IfElse add-on so parsing is less of an issue.

Using your example, it would look something like this:

{exp:ifelse parse="inward"}    
    {if segment_4 != "" || segment_2 != "staff-bio"}
        {redirect="404"}
    {if:elseif segment_2 == "staff_bio"}
        {if segment_4 == ""}
            {exp:channel:entries [...] require_entry="yes"}
                {no_results}{redirect="404"}{/no_results}
            {/exp:cahnnel:entries}
        {/if}
    {/if}
{/exp:ifelse}

I'm not 100% sure you even need that condition in the if:elseif part, but it's a place to start. :)