Using More than One Template

[DawnB]

How do I go about having the ability to use more than one template?

When I go to a page and look at page options, the only template option I have to assign is the default template and I need to be able to use more than one template - how can I do this please?

Thanks,
Dawn

[Zegnåt]

Each PHP file in the theme’s directory gets added to that list, template.php being the default. This and more about the structure of themes can be found in the documentation: theme creation.

[DawnB]

Each PHP file in the theme’s directory gets added to that list, template.php being the default. This and more about the structure of themes can be found in the documentation: theme creation.

I'm sorry, but it's not clear to me how I use more than one theme - which is what I need to be able to do.

Thanks,
Dawn

[Zegnåt]

You can’t use more than one theme, only more than one template, which is almost the same. The difference is the structure.

A theme is created by having multiple directories in the themes directory.
A template is created by having multiple PHP files in one theme directory.

If you have two themes and want to merge them into one you should rename template.php to something else and then you can put them both in the same folder. Let’s say you rename template.php into home.php because you want to use this second theme for the homepage. If it’s in the same directory as the first theme you now have template.php and home.php in there. Once you have this you can select either default or “home.php” from the template setting when you create a page.

I hope this makes it clear.

[DawnB]

So if I want to apply more than one template, do I just name them something different and put them in the theme directory that I am using? I am assuming if that is the case, that anything called template.php is considered "default"?

Thanks,
Dawn

[Zegnåt]

You got it! ;-)

[DawnB]

Thank you.

Can I pick your brain on the drop-down menu again?

Here is the "template" that I am working with, when I put the menu call within the divs calling the css and put the css and js in the theme sub-directory, it appears to be showing up vertical instead of horizontal:

http://www.memoriesdesign.com/getsimple/

This is how I did the code with some assistance from one of the forum people:

<div id="p7PMM_1" class="p7PMMh06 p7PMMnoscript">

<ul class="p7PMM">
<?php menu_master(); ?>
</ul>
</div>

Any thoughts?

Thanks so much!

Dawn

[Zegnåt]

Assuming we’re talking about the same thing as yesterday, that HTML is not going to cut it.

This is the HTML you want to get (taken from the original page you linked):

Code:

<div id="navcontainer">
    <div id="p7PMM_1" class="p7PMMh06 p7PMMnoscript">
        <ul class="p7PMM">
            <li><a href="index.php">Home</a></li>
            <li><a href="pastor-and-tammy.php">Pastor and Tammy</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Ministries</a>
                <div>
                    <ul>
                        <li><a href="womens-ministry.php">Women's Ministry</a></li>
                        <li><a href="mens-ministry.php">Men's Ministry</a></li>
                        <li><a href="childrens-ministry.php">Children's Ministry</a></li>
                        <li><a href="youth-ministry.php">Youth Ministry</a></li>
                    </ul>
                </div>
            </li>
            <li><a href="music.php">Music</a></li>
            <li><a href="connect-groups.php">Connect Groups</a></li>
            <li><a href="#">Board and Staff</a>
                <div>
                    <ul>
                        <li><a href="staff.php">Staff</a></li>
                        <li><a href="board-of-directors.php">Board of Directors</a></li>
                    </ul>
                </div>
            </li>
            <li><a href="prayer-requests.php">Prayer Requests</a></li>
            <li><a href="contact-us.php">Contact Us</a></li>
        </ul>
        <div class="p7pmmclearfloat">&nbsp;</div>
        <!--[if lte IE 6]>
        <style>.p7PMMh06 ul ul li {float:left; clear: both; width: 100%;}.p7PMMh06 {text-align: left;}.p7PMMh06, .p7PMMh06 ul ul a {zoom: 1;}</style>
        <![endif]-->
        <!--[if IE 5]>
        <style>.p7PMMh06, .p7PMMh06 ul ul a {height: 1%; overflow: visible !important;} .p7PMMh06 {width: 100%;}</style>
        <![endif]-->
        <!--[if IE 7]>
        <style>.p7PMMh06, .p7PMMh06 a{zoom:1;}.p7PMMh06 ul ul li{float:left;clear:both;width:100%;}</style>
        <![endif]-->
        <script type="text/javascript">
            <!--
            P7_PMMop('p7PMM_1',1,2,-5,-5,0,0,0,1,0,3,1,1,0,0,0);
            //-->
        </script>
    </div>
</div>

This is the HTML you are generating:

Code:

<div id="navcontainer">
    <div id="p7PMM_1" class="p7PMMh06 p7PMMnoscript">
        <ul class="p7PMM">
            <ul class="menu">
                <li class="active"><a href="http://www.memoriesdesign.com/getsimple/">Home</a></li>
                <li><a href="http://www.memoriesdesign.com/getsimple/index.php?id=new-page">New Page</a>
                    <ul class="submenu">
                        <li><a href="http://www.memoriesdesign.com/getsimple/index.php?id=another-new-page">Another New Page</a></li>
                    </ul>
                </li>
            </ul>
        </ul>
    </div>
</div>

In this there are a few big differences that I think will need fixing:

• The generated HTML has an extra UL around the menu because the plugin adds one, this one will need to be removed from the plugin;
  
• The generated HTML does not have the extra DIV around the submenu lists;
  
• The original HTML has extra CSS stylesheets at the bottom to fix problems experienced in Internet Explorer, if you want your menu to work at all in IE you will need to copy these over;
  
• The original HTML has to expicitly call the Javascript to be applied to the menu, this will need to be copied to the GetSimple template as well.
  

That last point is the trickiest, I can’t tell you what the different data does that is passed into it so I do not know whether this has to be made dynamic in any way as well.

That’s all you’ll find in my brain for now. If you want I can change my plugin slightly to fix the first two points. The third point is easily fixed but the last one stays an unknown till you experiment with it.