Is there a way of loading a template file without having a post? I'm loading set of data via an API. Set up my index page but having a brain freeze with single template files as these posts are not in the WP registry/database.

// Template files
events-index.php
events-single.php

Events index:

 <?php $events = $api_data // Data retrieved from API

   if ( $upcoming_events->have_posts() ) :
     while ( $upcoming_events->have_posts() ) : $upcoming_events->the_post();

     $custom_link = sanitize_title( get_the_title() );
     $custom_link = rtrim($custom_link, '/');
     $custom_link .= '?' . get_the_ID(); ?>

     <a href="<?php echo $custom_link; ?>">
     // This link to a custom template file
 <?php } ?>

Is there a way of loading a template file without having a post? I'm loading set of data via an API. Set up my index page but having a brain freeze with single template files as these posts are not in the WP registry/database.

// Template files
events-index.php
events-single.php

Events index:

 <?php $events = $api_data // Data retrieved from API

   if ( $upcoming_events->have_posts() ) :
     while ( $upcoming_events->have_posts() ) : $upcoming_events->the_post();

     $custom_link = sanitize_title( get_the_title() );
     $custom_link = rtrim($custom_link, '/');
     $custom_link .= '?' . get_the_ID(); ?>

     <a href="<?php echo $custom_link; ?>">
     // This link to a custom template file
 <?php } ?>

• templates
• template-hierarchy

Share Improve this question asked May 16, 2019 at 14:02 Abdul Sadik YalcinAbdul Sadik Yalcin 55711 gold badge44 silver badges88 bronze badges

Add a comment  | 

2 Answers 2

Sorted by: Reset to default 2

You could setup a custom rewrite rule using add_rewrite_rule and send these requests to a custom page.

Your URL structure could be /index-page/single-event-slug The rule would point all of the single events to a separate page where you can then set your template events-single.php.

Another option is to pass the events in as a query /index-page?event=single-event-slug or /index-page?event=123. You'd need to register this parameter with add_query_arg and then change your index template to use the event template via the template_include hook.

function prefix_register_query_var( $vars ) {
    $vars[] = 'eid';

    return $vars;
}
add_filter( 'query_vars', 'prefix_register_query_var' );
function prefix_rewrite_templates() {
    if ( get_query_var( 'eid' ) ) {
        add_filter( 'template_include', function() {
            return get_template_directory() . '/events-single.php';
        });
    }
}
add_action( 'template_redirect', 'prefix_rewrite_templates' );

Add the $var to the URL in the loop:

$url = add_query_arg( array(
    'eid' => get_the_ID(),
) );