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

May 14, 2007 - 2:21am

Tags :

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.

<span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br /></span><span style="color: #007700">function </span><span style="color: #0000BB">_phptemplate_variables</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$hook</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$vars </span><span style="color: #007700">= array()) {<br />  switch (</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$hook</span><span style="color: #007700">) {<br />    case </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'node'</span><span style="color: #007700">:<br />      </span><span style="color: #FF8000">// Here is the way to switch to a different node-<something> template based on node properties.<br />      </span><span style="color: #007700">if (</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$vars</span><span style="color: #007700">[</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'page'</span><span style="color: #007700">]) {<br />        </span><span style="color: #FF8000">// This is LIFO (Last In First Out) so put them in reverse order, i.e<br />        // most important last.<br />        </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$vars</span><span style="color: #007700">[</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'template_files'</span><span style="color: #007700">] = array(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'node-default-page'</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'node-'</span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$vars</span><span style="color: #007700">[</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'node'</span><span style="color: #007700">]-></span><span style="color: #0000BB">type </span><span style="color: #007700">.</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'-page'</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #DD0000">'node-'</span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$vars</span><span style="color: #007700">[</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'node'</span><span style="color: #007700">]-></span><span style="color: #0000BB">nid </span><span style="color: #007700">.</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'-page'</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br />      }<br />      else {<br />        </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$vars</span><span style="color: #007700">[</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'template_files'</span><span style="color: #007700">] = array(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'node-'</span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$vars</span><span style="color: #007700">[</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'node'</span><span style="color: #007700">]-></span><span style="color: #0000BB">nid</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br />      }<br />      break;<br />  }<br /><br />  return </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$vars</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br />}<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span></span>

Comments

merlinofchaos (not verified)

May 14, 2007 - 9:45am

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 (not verified)

May 14, 2007 - 11:41pm

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

zirafa (not verified)

May 15, 2007 - 4:22am

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 (not verified)

June 8, 2007 - 5:11pm

Nice explanation.

Very similar things can be done with blocks, regions ...

See http://drupal.org/node/104319

Anonymous (not verified)

September 9, 2008 - 9:33pm

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 18, 2009 - 11:21pm

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 (not verified)

March 29, 2010 - 5:19am

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 (not verified)

May 19, 2010 - 9:34pm

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

Rufus Hudson (not verified)

August 16, 2010 - 3:12am

[url=http://60idnpen0y2btu7a.com/]61hp0gw38wnyme6z[/url]

[link=http://xssmvw5dcq22e677.com/]b2i9m79p2sw4d5j1[/link]

ebetqn9ahzqoyai2

http://ct36xj29692yrhp4.com/