I am fairly new to WP and very new to Roots (http://roots.io/) and I am having trouble creating a custom home page. Here's how far (I think) I understand it:
To create a custom home page I put a file named "front-page.php" in the WP root directory. This file is based off of "page.php".
"front-page.php" loads "content-page.php" from the templates directory.
And that's where it gets a bit fuzzy to me. The function "the_content()" lives in "content-page.php" and I'm assuming it loads the content of the page but it's loading some default stuff (I think it's added by the Roots theme) that I don't want there. I don't think the proper way to customize the home page content is to modify "content-page.php" and remove or change the function "the_content()". I'm assuming there is a better, modular way to do this, possibly creating a custom class that will be loaded when "the_content()" is called but I don't know where and how to do that.
As you're a bit vague with the details I'm going to have to read between the lines a bit. If you need further clarification just ask:
the_content() just outputs the content stored for a particular post, which you would edit in the WP admin. In terms of editing the markup that surrounds the content you have a couple of options. You could edit content-page.php as you require, or create a new partial (such as content-home.php and load that instead.
You can also use filters for modifying content; these are often used to change content that appears in multiple places such as 'read more' links. Check out this introduction to filters for more info.
In closing, you don't want/need to edit the_content()
Related
It has been a few years since I properly worked with WordPress. Now I have a proposal to build a WordPress site where every page has a custom design and only some areas of each page is editable.
The reason for this is to build a bespoke layout on each page which cannot be messed up by someone non-technical editing it in the CMS, except for small areas which they can customise.
e.g. A page contains one div which has some text in it, which can be edited in the WP admin backend, but the rest of the page cannot be edited.
Can this be done? How?
Edit: There needs to be multiple editable areas not just one. I know how to make custom pages/templates.
One method may be to create new page templates. Just create a new file in your main theme folder (or the templates folder if there is one). As long at the top of that file contains the line:
/*
Template Name: <your template name>
*/
You can design the page however you want. The data pulled from the admin section will go wherever you invoke
the_content();
The rest of the page can be hardcoded.
Then on the post edit page, on the right side (usually), you can choose the template with your template name for that page. It may be a good idea to copy the current post.php or single.php into your custom file and work from there.
For restricting access you can look at setting up user levels and keep your content contributors as "Authors" instead of "admins" so they can't change themes or edit settings.
(See https://codex.wordpress.org/User_Levels)
For creating specific unique pages with an area that gets changed you should look into custom Page Templates. You can create a page template by dropping a php file with the right naming structure into your theme hierarchy and it will get picked up by the back-end as template option when you create a page.
(See https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/template-files-section/page-template-files/page-templates/)
I solved this problem using a plugin called Advanced Custom Fields which does exactly what I required.
I am a developer who has never used wordPress before and just had a couple of questions about creating a custom theme
To create a specific look to a website do I create a static design then inter grate it with wordpress and add the dynamic content where it needs to be added?
If you create a custom theme how do you make it dynamic rather then being static? When I switch themes I loose the all the appearance menu options such as (menu, widget, header and background) How do i create them?
For stuff like image carousels if I want the images to be dynamic do I create a widget for it in the functions.php file?
For all the text on the page do I just spit that out thru the visual editor? seems to break links when editing
What are starter themes?
Sorry I am quite new to Wordpress but have knowledge in html, css, js and php but I just struggle to understand how to integrate a custom design and make it all dynamic
As a first step to create a basic new template I would recommend you starting with one of the default WP themes (e.g. Twenty Fifteen), leave all the core files (they contain dynamic parts e.g. functions loading header/footer/content) and just customize the css files and images. Further customization would require changing code in php files (e.g. header.php for the header, index.php for the homepage, single.php for the article page, etc.)
It is true that some options related to header, background, etc. can be theme dependant, so when you change it the configuration gets lost, but the others like menus and widgets remain like they are when switching themes.
Yes, for stuff like carousels you usually have to use custom widgets and plugins, you can find some really good ones on the web (e.g. this one), so you just upload the images and apply configuration in the backend.
Yes you use the WordPress editor (as you see it has Visual and HTML view) for all the user content within the pages and posts. Broken links might be cause of using relative paths, just make sure they are complete.
As mentioned in the first point you can always start with the default WordPress themes like Twenty Thirteen, Twenty Fourteeen, Twenty Fifteen etc.
I am building a plugin for the first time and I have setup my rewrite rules to call a PHP file I have located in my plugin folder and this is working but all I have it output just now is "test"
I wanted to ask, is there is a way of pulling in the existing theme and using this as the basis for the page, then I can have my plugin just output the page content area so to speak.
My plugin is quite big in terms of the amount of data it handles so I would like to be able to use a menu link to the aforementioned file and this file can then output all the sub pages of content but still using the default theme (theme I have made) and fill the content area only is this possible and if so is there anything to explain this already available because I couldn't see it.
Any help with this would be much appreciated.
Edit: I have tried including a file from my current theme but this will give me a 500 error so I assume its not as simple as this.
Have you thought about using custom post types for your plugin content rather than relying on custom tables and separate code?
Other than that, you could use a shortcode (just one) and have users insert that into a regular WP page, the shortcode then displays all of your various plugin stuff.
It's hard to be more specific without understanding why you've done it this way.
I'm trying to figure out how a certain WordPress sets things up. I'd like to have a special page where I could make WP calls and interact with the theme, without affecting anything else.
I just making test.php and putting it into my theme's folder, but that doesn't work.
#Eliran provides one possible option, but you could also add a page in the back-end of WP, just make sure it has the slug 'test', and change your 'test.php' filename to 'page-test.php'. If you're worried about the public seeing this, set the page visibility in the admin to 'private'.
Edit:
to move your understanding along a little further also, you should review the way that WordPress determines what file to grab to render a particular URL. This can be pretty confusing to start with, so be patient if you're not familiar with it, but it's at the heart of designing WP themes. I'll link to the examples, and if you scroll down a little there's a diagram that, along with the text, will help you see how WP is 'thinking'.
http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Hierarchy#Examples
You can see here: Page Templates
all you need to do is create a page named page-{custom-name}.php and add it to the theme folder.
and inside this php file add:
/*
Template Name: My Custom Page
*/
and than to use this page you need to go to the wp-admin, add/edit a page and chose it:
inside the php file everything you do is classic wordpress.
all this is giving you is a custom page tamplate.
Put it in your root folder. When you go to look at it, you'd look at www.mywebsite.com/test.php
It may be other ways to do this, but I rather use the rewrite API and custom query vars, to create custom routes.
A previous answer on the subject can be found here
The basic idea is to add a new url rule, catch the query var with the parse_request filter and maybe do a die or redirect to prevent the default wordpress template from loading.
I prefer this over theme templates, because with templates you need to create a page for each new url, and if that page gets acidentally deleted, that functionality would stop working.
What Pages are Not:
Pages are not Posts, nor are they excerpted from larger works of fiction. They do not cycle through your blog's main page. WordPress Plugins are available to change the defaults if necessary.
Pages cannot be associated with Categories and cannot be assigned Tags. The organizational structure for Pages comes only from their hierarchical interrelationships, and not from Tags or Categories.
Pages are not files. They are stored in your database just like Posts are.
Although you can put Template Tags and PHP code into a Page Template file, you cannot put these into the Page or Post content without a WordPress Plugin like Exec-PHP which Read overwrites the code filtering process.
Pages are not included in your site's feed.
Pages and Posts may attract attention in different ways from humans or search engines.
Pages (or a specific post) can be set as a static front page if desired with a separate Page set for the latest blog posts, typically named "blog."
More About Pages.
In WordPress to add a new page you have to log in to the admin/backend and from the pages menu you can add a new page. In this case, you can select templaes for your page and also you can create a custom page template for that page.
You may read Createing a new page in WordPress. and custom Page template in WordPress.
I am working with Drupal 7.17.
I have a custom content type I created called Sidebar Ad (machine name sidebar_ad) that I want to add Javascript and PHP to. From what I understand, in the templates directory of the theme I am working with, I need to create a file called 'page--sidebar_ad.tpl.php' and I can put PHP and Javascript code in there, and it will only run in blocks and pages that contain the custom content type Sidebar Ad.
I am trying this out with one of the stock themes, Bartik, and it is not working for me. I tried it by copying the page.tpl.php file, renaming it page--sidebar_ad.tpl.php, and adding a bit of text in a few places - at the top of the php file, and in the content div. But I don't see anything change on the pages on my site that contain that custom content type.
Is there something I am missing?
Most likely the thing you're missing is flushing Drupal's cache...any time you add a hook or template file, you need to flush the cache so the various registries can pick it up.
In the case of an overridden page template file you also need a copy of the standard page.tpl.php file in your theme. Same goes for the node template and most likely others, you need the original in there for the overrides to work.