This is an extension of this question/answer. A comment on that question references that template_include
is preferred to template_redirect
when loading templates from a plug-in.
However, hanging this to template_include is breaking everything on the site (any other page view) except the layouts that using the layout override http://pastebin.com/LWpSrfim but using template_include just prepends content (to any template files placed in the theme directory override) — the standard single view for example is still output below.
Edit: source code
<?php
class moulding_templates {
public static function determine_template(){
global $post,$wp_query;
// custom post types
$post_type_array = array('moulding_profiles','moulding_combination','moulding_collection','idea_gallery');
foreach ($post_type_array as $post_type_single) {
global $post;
if (is_singular($post_type_single)) {
moulding_templates::loadSingleTemplate($post);
}
}
// custom taxonomies
$taxonomy_array = array('profile_categories','combination_categories','wood_types');
foreach ($taxonomy_array as $taxonomy_single) {
if (is_tax($taxonomy_single)) {
moulding_templates::loadTaxonomyTemplate($taxonomy_single);
}
}
}
private static function loadSingleTemplate($post) {
$template_name="moulding-templates/single-".$post->post_type.'.php';
$template = locate_template(array($template_name), true);
if(empty($template)) {
include(MOULDINGS_BASE_DIR . 'includes/' . $template_name);
exit();
}
}
private static function loadTaxonomyTemplate($taxonomy) {
$template_name="moulding-templates/taxonomy-".$taxonomy.'.php';
$template = locate_template(array($template_name), true);
if(empty($template)) {
include(MOULDINGS_BASE_DIR . 'includes/' . $template_name);
exit();
}
}
}
add_action('template_include', array('moulding_templates', 'determine_template'));
1
So the template_redirect
is used for things such as canonicalisation, feeds etc. If you want to alter the template that is served template_include
is preferred.
Unlike template_redirect
, template_include
is a filter which filters the path of the template page. This means you don’t load/include the template, but just return the template path. WordPress does a straight-forward include on whatever is returned.
Apart from being the appropriate hook, it allows allows the function to be unhooked or over-ridden – which is should be if it’ll ever be distributed.
Related question: Custom Taxonomy in plugin and template
Example of this in action (GitHub Repro): https://github.com/stephenh1988/Event-Organiser/blob/master/includes/event-organiser-templates.php
Example usage:
function wpse51038_maybe_alter_template($template){
// is a specific custom taxonomy being shown?
$taxonomy_array = array('profile_categories','combination_categories','wood_types');
foreach ($taxonomy_array as $taxonomy_single) {
if ( is_tax($taxonomy_single) ) {
//For plugins. You may want to check this template exists before over-riding
$template = plugin_dir_path('path/to/my/tax-template.php', __FILE__ );
break;
}
}
return $template;
}
add_filter('template_include','wpse51038_maybe_alter_template');
You may want to look at the related question linked to above – this shows how to allow the theme to over-ride the plug-in (say if they have a particularly named template file in their theme/child-theme).