HOWTO: Use Different Node Templates by Node Variables (nid, type, view)

Farsheed Hamidi... | May 14, 2007 - 11:21am (11 comments)

Tags: drupal, howto

With node template files you are often limited to something like node.tpl.php and node-blog.tpl.php. Often times it'd be nice to make a different template for just one specific node or a different template for teaser/list view and full node view.

Using the PHP code below, Drupal will look for these template files, split by page or no page view. This gives more fine grained control over your node tpl.php files.

Page view:

1) node-[nid]-page.tpl.php
Node by itself on a page, specific NID
2) node-[type]-page.tpl.php
Node by itself on a page, specific type
3) node-default-page.tpl.php
Node by itself on a page, default

Listing/Teaser view:

4) node-[nid].tpl.php
   Node in list/teaser, specific NID
5) node-[type].tpl.php
   Node in list/teaser, specific type
6) node.tpl.php
   Node in list/teaser, default.

*UPDATE* Earl Miles has shown this can be done much simpler than what I had previously. Revised code below.

Place this code in your template.php file in your theme's directory.

<?php
function _phptemplate_variables($hook, $vars = array()) {
  switch ($hook) {
    case 'node':
      // Here is the way to switch to a different node-<something> template based on node properties.
      if ($vars['page']) {
        // This is LIFO (Last In First Out) so put them in reverse order, i.e
        // most important last.
        $vars['template_files'] = array('node-default-page', 'node-'. $vars['node']->type .'-page', 'node-'. $vars['node']->nid .'-page');
      }
      else {
        $vars['template_files'] = array('node-'. $vars['node']->nid);
      }
      break;
  }

  return $vars;
}
?>

Comments

merlinofchaos

May 14, 2007 - 6:45pm

While I haven't tested this directly, something along these lines should do the trick just as well and be even easier.

<?php
function _phptemplate_variables($hook, $vars = array()) {
  switch ($hook) {
    case 'node':
      // Here is the way to switch to a different node-<something> template based on node properties.
      if ($vars['page']) {
        // This is LIFO (Last In First Out) so put them in reverse order, i.e
        // most important last.
        vars['template_files'] = array('node-page', 'node-'. $vars['node']->type .'-page', 'node-'. $vars['node']->nid .'-page');
      }
      else {
        vars['template_files'] = array('node-'. $vars['node']->nid);
      }
      break;
  }
 
  return $vars;
}
?>

zirafa

May 15, 2007 - 8:41am

Thanks Earl! I didn't know $vars['template_files'] was available for the node case. I've updated the main post.

Farsheed Hamidi-Toosi

May 15, 2007 - 1:22pm

I also changed the fallback for the page view to node-default-page.tpl.php since node-page.tpl.php overlaps with the "page" node style.

themegarden.org

June 9, 2007 - 2:11am

Nice explanation.

Very similar things can be done with blocks, regions ...
See http://drupal.org/node/104319

Anonymous

September 10, 2008 - 6:33am

hi ,

I used the above function phptemplate_preprocess_page for my drupal6 site and found that the .template page runs and when i print

print ' ghfghgf';
print htmlspecialchars(print_r(get_defined_vars(), TRUE), ENT_QUOTES);
print ''; in .tpl.php page

,the variables i added did not appear in my html page ,
is it because the function is not overwriting the default variables or am i using the wrong variables

please guide me

Thank you.

Anonymous

April 19, 2009 - 8:21am

Here's the Drupal 6 version, with a preprocess function:

/**
 * Override or insert variables into the node templates.
 *
 * @param $vars
 *   An array of variables to pass to the theme template.
 * @param $hook
 *   The name of the template being rendered ("node" in this case.)
 */
function pokeronline_preprocess_node(&$vars, $hook) {
  switch ($hook) {
    case 'node':
      // Here is the way to switch to a different node- template based on node properties.
      if ($vars['page']) {
        // This is LIFO (Last In First Out) so put them in reverse order, i.e
        // most important last.
        $vars['template_files'] = array('node-default-page', 'node-'. $vars['node']->type .'-page', 'node-'. $vars['node']->nid .'-page');
      }
      else {
        $vars['template_files'] = array('node-'. $vars['node']->nid);
      }
    break;
  }
}

Tiago Alves

March 29, 2010 - 2:19pm

The code posted for Drupal 6 destroyed my Views (view module) templates since it creates the vars['template_files'] from scratch. I changed the code to just append these new template files. This is a little untested, so use it at your own risk.

switch ($hook) {
case 'node':
// Here is the way to switch to a different node- template based on node properties.
if ($vars['page']) {
// This is LIFO (Last In First Out) so put them in reverse order, i.e
// most important last.
$vars['template_files'] = array_merge($vars['template_files'], array('node-default-page', 'node-'. $vars['node']->type .'-page', 'node-'. $vars['node']->nid .'-page'));
}
else {
$vars['template_files'] = array_merge($vars['template_files'], array('node-'. $vars['node']->nid));
}
break;
}

Sohail Arif

May 20, 2010 - 6:34am

You have not mentioned that these template files are for drupal 5 not for drupal 6.

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August 14, 2010 - 9:44am

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