How to redirect category to first available subcategory (child)

Ideas of code and a plugin:

https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/257560?replies=6
(note: you’d need to use something like get_categories to get the ‘first’ child)

Thanks.
Now I have the following code:

$thiscategory = get_query_var('cat');

$catkids = get_categories("child_of=".$thiscategory."&sort_column=menu_order");

if ($catkids) {
$firstchild = $catkids[0];
wp_redirect(get_permalink($firstchild->ID));
}

The problem is $firstchild->ID I think, get_permalink should be replaced with something like get_category_link.

Problem solved, $firstchild->ID should be replace with $firstchild->term_id and of course get_category_link.

This worked for me… includes @akis’ suggested corrections plus the proper parameters for get_categories (original snippet above uses parameters for “get_pages” per @michaelh’s original link).

<?php // redirect parent category to first child
$thiscategory = get_query_var('cat');

$cat_query = array (
	'child_of' => $thiscategory,
	'orderby' => 'id',
	'order' => 'desc'
);

$catkids = get_categories($cat_query);

if ($catkids) {
$firstchild = $catkids[0];
wp_redirect(get_category_link($firstchild->term_id));
}

?>

For my purposes, I included this snippet in my custom category.php template.

ack… actually, scratch that ^^ — causes an yet unresolved error: https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/407556