WordPress Hierarchy and Files

Articles

• Fred Meyer. The Template Hierarchy in WordPress. wpshout, 2018.
• Tom Ewer. Understanding the WordPress File and Directory Structure. elegant themes, 2016.
• David Hayes. Spelunking into the Template Hierarchy. wpshout, 2016.
• Josh Pollock. Hacking the WordPress Template Hierarchy. wpshout, 2015.
• Tahir Taous. The WordPress Template Hierarchy. sitepoint, 2015.
• Nick Schaferhoff. The WordPress Template Hierarchy Explained. torque, 2014.

Post Template Files

• home.php
• single.php – For viewing a single post. Most times creating single-post.php is not necessary.
  • single-{post-type}.php – Used to set a custom type’s template.
    • e.g., if there is a custom type of book: single-book.php
• archive.php – Usually there is not a need to create separate author.php and date.php templates.
  • author.php
  • date.php
  • archive-{post-type}.php – Used to set a custom type’s archive template.
• category.php
• tag.php
• taxonomy.php
• search.php
• index.php – Catch-all if a more specific template is not available

Page Template Files

• Apply only to pages, not to posts or custom post types, etc.
• Any page template you give a name can be utilized by a WordPress user via Pages–> Add New –> Attributes –> Template.
• You can use a prefix on templates, e.g. page_two-columns.php, but don’t use page-two-columns.php, this holds special meaning in WP.
• Make a copy of existing page.php file with a different name, this can be the base for a new template.
• To give a template a name, at top:
  <?php /* Template Name: Example Template */ ?>
• page-{slug}.php – example: page-about.php.
• page-{id}.php
• page.php
• $custom.php
• front-page.php

Attachment Template Files

• MIME_type.php
• attachment.php – View single file attachment.
• single-attachment.php
• image.php – More specific version of attachment, used when viewing single image.

Custom Post Type Template Files

• single-{post-type}.php
• archive-{post-type}.php

Partial and Miscellaneous Template Files

• 404.php
• author.php – Page for an individual author.
• comments.php
• date.php – Show posts by date/time.
• header.php
• footer.php
• search.php – Search results.
• sidebar.php
• content-{$slug}.php
• style.css – Main stylesheet.
• rtl.css – Right-to-left languages stylesheet.
• front-page.php – Used for blog post index or static page.
• home.php – Used for the front page if a static page is not set.
  • Is always used as the blog posts index page, even if static page set.

Taxonomy Templates

• taxonomy-{taxonomy}-{term}.php
• taxonomy-{taxonomy}.php
• taxonomy.php – For terms in custom taxonomies.
  • Custom: taxonomy-{taxonomy}-{term],php
  • Post Formats: taxonomy-post_format-post-format-link.php
• tag-{slug}.php
• tag-{id}.php
• tag.php – When visitors want to see posts organized by tags.
• category-{slug}.php
• category-{ID}.php