how to use function arg() in drupal to call .tpl files?

Question

I have 3 .tpl files, how can i call these tpl files by using function arg(). actually i want to show 3 different .tpl files to user when he request from a dropdown options.

The detail description is i want to create a page which render list of nodes in a page but i like to give option to user that weather he wants all the node in single column layout or 2 column layout or 3 column layout. For these layout i'm creating 3 different .tpl files so now i want to call them on the request of dropdown list.

Answer 1

Considering that you want tpl for page, continuing to the answer https://drupal.stackexchange.com/a/149899/39999, you can create layout files as follow:

In template.php add following function and replace with your theme name:

function <THEME>_preprocess_page(&$vars){    
    if(isset($_SESSION['selected_layout']) && !empty($_SESSION['selected_layout']) && $_SESSION['selected_layout'] != 'select'){ 
        $vars['theme_hook_suggestions'][] = 'page__'.$_SESSION['selected_layout']; //setting a new page template
    }
}

Then create following template files:

1. page--layout-1.tpl.php
2. page--layout-2.tpl.php
3. page--layout-3.tpl.php

Answer 2

If I understand it correctly you are looking for a way to render .tpl.php files on certain paths, this article explains how to do it.

In the article they define only one path and show you how to make sure a .tpl.php is rendered. You can easily adjust the code to make it work with 3 different paths and 3 different tpl.php files.

Hope this helps!