{"id":312,"date":"2018-06-17T02:26:53","date_gmt":"2018-06-16T18:26:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techcoil.com\/blog\/?p=312"},"modified":"2018-06-17T02:27:20","modified_gmt":"2018-06-16T18:27:20","slug":"how-to-create-a-custom-page-template-in-wordpress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techcoil.com\/blog\/how-to-create-a-custom-page-template-in-wordpress\/","title":{"rendered":"How to create a custom page template in WordPress"},"content":{"rendered":"

We use pages<\/a> in WordPress<\/a> to hold content of our website that are not specifically time-dependent. <\/p>\n

Examples of such content at Techcoil<\/a> include the about page<\/a>, disclaimer page<\/a> and Raspbian Stretch Lite project ideas<\/a>. <\/p>\n

When you want to show content in different page layouts, you can create different customized page templates to show content in different ways.<\/p>\n

In case you need a reference, this post describes how to create a custom page template in WordPress.<\/p>\n

Where to place a custom page template file in your WordPress installation<\/h2>\n

Since WordPress page templates belong to a WordPress theme, we will need to put them inside a theme folder. As an illustration, if your WordPress installation is in \/var\/www\/wp_site<\/code> and your theme folder is named as my_theme<\/code>, you will place a .php<\/code> file at \/var\/www\/wp_site\/wp-content\/themes\/my_theme<\/code> folder.<\/p>\n

How to name the custom WordPress page template file<\/h2>\n

You can name your WordPress page template file in any way that the host operating system allows. However, the file has to end with a .php<\/code> extension. <\/p>\n

For example, if we want to create a page template for displaying content without sidebars, we can name it page_without_sidebars.php<\/code>.<\/p>\n

How to tell WordPress that the current file is a custom WordPress page template<\/h2>\n

In order to tell WordPress that the current file is a page template, include the following comments inside the template file:<\/p>\n

\r\n<?php\r\n\/*\r\nTemplate Name: Page without sidebar\r\n*\/\r\n?>\r\n<\/pre>\n
Given that comment segment, WordPress will display the page template name as an option under the Page Attribute<\/strong> section:<\/p>\n
\"WordPress<\/p>\n
However, note that each custom WordPress page template in your theme folder should have a unique name. When you introduce a new template with a duplicate name, WordPress will ignore that new template file.<\/p>\n
How to show the page content and title from the custom WordPress page template file<\/h2>\n
Once a .php<\/code> file is marked as a template, the WordPress functions<\/a> that are available to pages can be used. As an illustration, the following is a simplified template file that shows the page title and content:<\/p>\n
\r\n<?php\r\n\/*\r\nTemplate Name: Page without sidebar\r\n*\/\r\n\r\n\/\/ Show the contents from header.php\r\nget_header();\r\n\r\n\/\/ Start the loop.\r\nwhile ( have_posts() ) : the_post();\r\n\r\n  \/\/ Show the page title\r\n  the_title( '<h1>', '<\/h1>' );\r\n\r\n  \/\/ Show the page content\r\n  the_content();\r\n\r\nendwhile;\r\n\r\n\/\/ Show the contents from footer.php\r\nget_footer();\r\n?>\r\n<\/pre>\n
Whenever a page is given this template, its content and title will be shown in between the header and footer content. <\/p>\n
In case you need to show more details of the page you can check out WordPress function reference<\/a>. In addition, you can add HTML elements to the template if you need to render different visual elements. <\/p>\n\n