Using PHP to Dynamically Switch Drupal Themes and Templates

07.18.2005

One powerful trick to improving the way a drupal site flows is switching page templates when certain PHP arguments return true. This is a quick tutorial on how to do that.

Step One: make three copies of page.tpl.php and the name them "frontpage.tpl.php", "admin.tpl.php", and "inside.tpl.php".

Step Two: Open page.tpl.php with an editor. Erase everything.. and I do mean everything, we're building this from the ground up. (get the coffee ready)

Step Three: copy the following code into page.tpl.php:

<?phpif (arg(0) == 'admin') {    include "admin.tpl.php";} if ($is_front) {    include "frontpage.tpl.php";    return;}else {    include "inside.tpl.php";?>

Step Four:Test to make sure that indeed your different templates are

1. admin pages, 2. the front page, 3. and all other pages.

Step Five: Use these methods, love these methods, and cherish these methods.

Notes: If your curious as to what arg(0) does, add this code somewhere in your body.

<?php$satan  =  arg(0);$gwbush =  arg(1);$karlrove =  arg(2);print $satan;print "<br />";print $gwbush;print "<br />";print $karlrove;print "<br />";?>

Click around, and you'll figure it out.

Nick Lewis's blog

Comments

Fri, 2009-07-03 04:37 — wow gold (not verified)

buy wow gold cheap wow power

buy wow gold
cheap wow power leveling
my wow gold
cheapest wow power leveling
BUY wow gold
cheap wow power leveling
CHEAP rs gold
good wow power leveling
MY lotro gold
CHEAPEST aion gold
buy wow gold
cheap wow gold
CHEAPEST wow gold

Wed, 2008-01-23 07:54 — a passing drifter (not verified)

<?php$satan =

<?php
$satan  =  arg(0);
$gwbush =  arg(1);
$karlrove =  arg(2);
print $satan;
print "<br />";
print $gwbush;
print "<br />";
print $karlrove;
print "<br />";
?>

where to add this code
I have added in admin.tpl.php
but I have not seen any changes.

Thu, 2005-08-18 17:30 — Joe (not verified)

great tip, and slight correction

I am brand new to drupal, and this tip has been quite handy! I added a couple of things, a "return" after admin.tpl.php and the closing brace for the else:

<?phpif (arg(0) == 'admin') {    include "admin.tpl.php";    return;} if ($is_front) {    include "frontpage.tpl.php";    return;}else {    include "inside.tpl.php";}?>

Thu, 2005-08-25 08:15 — Michael (not verified)

at first .. very nice tutorial second, for more complex themedesigns its a bit inflexible (or was it unflexible ?) just imagine a case, where you want different node.tpl.php or block.tpl.php or even flexinode-xxx.tpl.php you would need a huge "case of" structure inside your node.tpl.php (and it has to work with the structure in the page.tpl.php) i like it centralized so ... i would use the template.php for switching the templates check http://www.drupalcenter.de/node/100 for a code example (to use it for the page.tpl.php, you just need to use the $hook = page construction) within the template.php you can easily grab the right .css for your site an working example is my own homepage http://www.langmi.de, for the front i switch to my own templates (the rest is styled in bluemarine, didn had much time to work on it yet) http://www.langmi.de/themebrowser is an example for switching themes with a module if your interested in code examples, just contact me Michael