Custom Post Templates

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The Issue: I am looking for custom single post templates, to add or remove individual elements as a function of a normal single post.

There are a lot of ways to create custom post templates for single posts within WordPress. Especially post formats are a great chance to use default templates for default cases; however I need real custom templates for every post.

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The Idea: My first approach was to add an if/else statement according to the post ID: 

// check if custom post
if ( is_single('999') )
    // check if there is a custom post template file
    if ( file_exists(TEMPLATEPATH . '/single-999.php' )
        // use custom post template
        return TEMPLATEPATH . '/single-999.php'; 
// use normal post template for everything else
include(TEMPLATEPATH . '/single.php');

Well, this isn’t wrong, but it would totally mess up my template code if there will be more and more special cases.
So maybe I can use a filter to always use a custom template if there is one that corresponds with the post ID: 

add_filter( 'single_template', function( $template ) {
    // check if there is a custom post template file
    if ( file_exists(TEMPLATEPATH . '/single-' . $GLOBALS['post']->ID . '.php') )
        // use custom post template
        return TEMPLATEPATH . '/single-' . $GLOBALS['post']->ID . '.php';
    // use normal post template for everything else
    return $template;
});

But now I will end up with a lot of custom template files, that are all the same except some minor changes.

More Thoughts: I think I would rather like to add dynamic sections within the single.php template, to hook in with custom includes/filters?

The Question: Is there a different (more exclusive) approach to get those kind of custom post templates?

Update: In a lot of these special cases I need to add some additional StyleSheets or JavaScripts, but also custom container with HTML and also PHP content (this is why I tried to do it with custom templates instead of custom fields). Most of the time the additional elements are above, below or beside the_content().

Post Views: 1

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3 comments

  1. I think this approach will work.

    1.create template for single post like singlepost.php( default single post template),singlepost-99.php,singlepost-101.php.

    2.now put just this code in single.php

    <?php
global $post;
get_template_part('singlepost',$post->ID);
?>

    what this code does check for single post template for current post by post id if not found call singlepost.php.

    Important Link:

    get_template_part()

  2. This is finally possible with WordPress 4.4 (as announced on Make WordPress Core).

    The WordPress template hierarchy now allows single custom post templates with a naming pattern like this: 

    single-{post_type}-{post_name}.php

    Quoting from John Blackbourn the templates follows these rules:

    This template follows the rules of is_single() and is used for
    a single post or custom post type. […] It comes in the hierarchy
    before single.php and single-{post_type}.php.

  3. In order to make it a template, you have to add a comment:

    <?php
  /*
  Template Name: Page, two columns
  */
  get_header();
?>

    Whatever name you assign in the comment –

    can be selected as template within WP-admin sidebar.

    Like this you won’t end up with hundreds of different template-bits.

    I mean, even if the above solution works – one has to consider maintenance.

Comments are closed.