learning WordPress get_template_part Tutorial > WordPress learning

 

hello everyone welcome to another
WordPress tutorial in previous lessons
we learned how to control the output of
our blog homepage we learned how to
control the output of archive listings
and we learned how to control the output
of search results but what we didn't
learn is how to keep our code
dry dry stands for don't repeat yourself
so you'll notice that there's a lot of
similarities between the way that posts
are output on the search results
category archives in the home page
they're all outputting the title with a
link the date the author the category
and then either the content or the
excerpt so there's no need to have that
code repeated in our theme files so in
this lesson we're going to learn about a
function named get template part which
will allow our code to be very dry so
let's dive right in
so we'll hop over to our code this is
index.php of our theme folder and what
we want to do is extract the part of the
code that is being looped through so we
can see here's while this line of code
anything below this line of code but
above this end wild line is what's being
looped through so basically the article
element so we want to take this article
element and cut it and then create a new
file in our theme folder named content
dot PHP and then just paste in the code
that we just removed from index okay so
now where that code was sitting we want
to enter a new line that says get
template part this is a wordpress
function it accepts two parameters for
now we're only going to use one and
we'll say content obviously this slug
matches the name of the new file that we
just created so it will pull in this
code so we said content close the line
with a semicolon and then because we
removed HTML and we added PHP we just
need to drop into and out of PHP at the
correct moments so I'll edit that okay
we're looking good now if i refresh
quite literally nothing changes which is
good we're not looking to change the
output or behavior of our theme we just
want the code to be less repetitive
so now we can reuse this line get
template part content and other theme
files so for example when we perform a
search on our site so if I search for
the phrase opinion this output is being
controlled by search PHP now we're in
search PHP and this code looks really
familiar this code is nearly identical
beginning with article this is what's
getting looped through it's nearly
identical to what was in index dot PHP
which means we don't need this so I can
delete this and then paste in git
template part and obviously drop into
and out of PHP where it makes sense if i
refresh the search results screen we see
very little change but let's go ahead
and review the tiny change that we did
see so we noticed that now we see the
full text for this post whereas before
we substituted the code with git
template part for search PHP search
results were always only returning a
short excerpt let's restore that
functionality so in content dot PHP
scroll down here this is the file that's
being included with the git template
part code and we want to adjust this so
that when we're on the home page it uses
this existing logic to decide between
showing either the excerpt or the full
text but if we're on the search results
page we want it to always be the excerpt
so we can just create a new if statement
that will do that for us so we'll say it
will drop into PHP and say if we're
currently in a search so we'll say is
search so we'll include certain code in
here otherwise else will include other
code here so here's the code for the
excerpt so we always only want that if
we're in a search so that goes into
these brackets drop out of PHP and then
back into PHP here and then this entire
logic that decides between the excerpt
or the full content when we're on the
home page can go in these brackets so
we'll just copy and paste this here and
then obviously we don't need to drop
into
P again and then we don't need to drop
out of it again okay so now if we
refresh and we can see that the search
results page is always only showing an
excerpt but the home page is still using
the logic to decide whether to use the
excerpt of the full content but the neat
thing is is that both search and index
they're both being powered by git
template part which means we're keeping
our code dry we're not repeating
ourselves unnecessarily we're letting
content.php power the output for both
views and where there is a tiny bit of a
difference we're just using an if
statement instead of having two separate
files completely let's make our code
even less repetitive you'll remember
that we also have an archive view so if
I click on opinion it'll only show posts
from the opinion category now that's
being controlled by archive dot PHP and
it also has very similar code so you'll
remember this article code that we
already created a separate file for so I
will remove article and instead write
get template part content
so here we can see that if we refresh
archive dot PHP this is the archive view
for opinion it is now using the exact
same code as the home page and the
search page now if we stop and think for
a moment we'll probably conclude that
the archive should be similar to the
search page and that we only want to
show excerpts no matter what so what we
can do in content dot PHP you remember
that if statement that we created we're
at saying if we're currently viewing a
search then always show the excerpt we
can simply say or if we're in an archive
and then if we refresh you can see that
now archives will always use the excerpt
okay so let's review what we've
accomplished so far we had code that was
nearly identical in index.php and we
replaced that search dot PHP and we
replaced that an archive dot PHP we
replaced all three of those with a
single line get template part content
which looks in the content dot PHP file
that we created so now all of our code
is in one central place and it's not
repeated throughout our theme files and
this is fantastic because now if we ever
want to make any changes we can make
them once instead of having to repeat
ourselves three times now before we
close out this lesson you'll remember
that earlier I mentioned that this
function get template part accepts two
parameters not just one now obviously in
this lesson we've only seen the first
parameter in use the first parameter is
required that's the slug and it's the
base file name that WordPress will look
for so this code obviously like we've
said before will make WordPress look for
content PHP in our theme folder now the
second parameter that's optional allows
you to specify a more particular name so
if I say home or single or page but
let's put it back to home WordPress will
now try to include or require a file
named content - home dot PHP now that
might not be very useful but let me show
you something that we can play with in
the future that would be very useful
instead of quotes we could say get post
format so what that will do is it's a
function that will return what type of
post is currently being looped through
so it will be either a standard post or
an aside or a photo gallery or an audio
file and if future lessons will learn
more about WordPress and post formats
but for now just know that the git
template part function allows you to
pass along a second parameter that can
make things much more dynamic that will
bring this particular lesson to a close
the takeaway point should be that the
git template part function allows your
theme to avoid repetitious code but even
beyond that it allows you as the
developer to stay organized to break out
code into certain chunks and certain
files so it's easier to manage and we'll
learn more about that in the future so
thank you very much for watching I hope
you feel like you learn something and
stay tuned for more wordpress and web
development tutorials thanks bye