_wp_page_template to dynamically use template

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I’m wondering if it is at all possible to set display a page template chosen by the user within the context of a query_posts using get_template_part. In other words, I have set up a page template to pull all of it’s child pages and display them, but I need each child page to display according to the page template that is chosen in the page editor. Is there any way to make that happen? Here is the code I have for the parent page template so far.

<?php 
  $this_page=get_query_var('page_id');
  query_posts( array('post_type'=>'page', 'posts_per_page' => -1, 'post_parent' => $this_page, 'orderby' => 'menu_order', 'order' => 'ASC') ); 
  if(have_posts()): while(have_posts()): the_post(); 
?>

<?php get_template_part('_wp_page_template'); ?>

<?php endwhile; endif; ?>

So, as you can see, I’ve got the query pulling all of the child pages. I’d like to know how I can make each of these child pages display according to their chosen page template.

Thanks.

2 Answers
2

First things first, never use query_posts, it overwrites the main query and can cause unwanted side-effects. Use WP_Query instead.

_wp_page_template is a post meta key, so the first thing we need to do is to load the value stored in that key for each page, using get_post_meta. That will give us the filename, which we can then try to load.

$this_page = get_queried_object_id();
$child_pages = new WP_Query(
    array(
        'post_type'=>'page',
        'posts_per_page' => -1,
        'post_parent' => $this_page,
        'orderby' => 'menu_order',
        'order' => 'ASC'
    )
);
if( $child_pages->have_posts() ){
    while( $child_pages->have_posts() ){
        $child_pages->the_post();

        // get the filename stored in _wp_page_template
        $template = get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), '_wp_page_template', true );

        // load the file if it exists
        locate_template( $template, true, false );

    }
    // restore the global $post after secondary queries
    wp_reset_postdata();
}

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