Change template on the fly based on post parent selection

2 comments

1. This is how you do it…

   function update_post_template($post_id, $post){
   
       //set $post_parent_id however you wish  
   
       if ($post->post_parent == $post_parent_id) {
   
           //unhook save_post action to avoid infinite loop
           remove_action('save_post', 'update_post_template'); 
   
           //change template
           update_post_meta( $post_id, '_wp_page_template', 'custom_template.php' );
   
           //re-hook save_post action
           add_action('save_post', 'update_post_template');
   
       }
   }
   
   add_action('save_post', 'update_post_template', 10, 2);
   

   Notes:

   To explain what is happening, first we hook onto the save_post action which is fired when inserting/updating a post. We then check for the existence of a certain post_parent id which is up to you to decide and determine which (you may want to extend this conditional statement to cover multiple cases). If we find a match, we unhook the save_post action to avoid creating an infinite loop when we call our update_post_meta function. Once the page template has been updated, we re-hook the save_post action and continue on our merry way.

2. Using MySQL you can do;

   $result= $wpdb->get_row("select post_parent from wp_posts where ID=".$post->ID);
   
   if(intval($result)>0)
   {
        //your logic
   }
   else
   {
        //Do something else
   }
   

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