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I have a site which has two main views, a men's blog and a women's blog, both with their own content types, mens-blog-post and womens-blog-post. The problem I am facing is that they share the same page--node.tpl file (node page view, default file:page.tpl not node.tpl), but need to have different content (e.g. other relevant views in the sidebar region). I need to suggest two new template files called page--node--mens-blog-post.tpl.php and page--node—womens-blog-post.tpl.php based on content type.

Here is my attempt:

function force_preprocess_page(&$vars){
 if ($vars['content']->type == 'mens-blog-post') {
  array_unshift($vars['theme_hook_suggestions'], 'page__node__mens_blog_post');
 } 
 if ($vars['content']->type == 'womens-blog-post'){
  array_unshift($vars['theme_hook_suggestions'], 'page__node__womens_blog_post');
 } 
}

Can anyone help me clean this up and make it work? I am looking for any solution that works so I am open to other ideas.

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  • Which errors do you get, or in which way isn't the code you wrote working? (You wrote, "help me clean this up and make it work.") – kiamlaluno♦ Jan 3 '12 at 23:18
  • I'm not getting any errors the code just doesn't suggest the tpl file I need. I just assumed someone who knows this stuff well could take one look at it and see why it doesn't work. – KenAesthetic Jan 4 '12 at 18:14
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To use a different template file for the node being shown, you need to add a new suggestion in $variables['theme_hook_suggestions'] (Drupal 7), or $variables['template_files'] (Drupal 6). In both the cases, the variable is an array.

In a module, the hook to implement is hook_preprocess_page().

function force_preprocess_page(&$variables) {
  if (!empty($variables['node'])) {
    if ($variables['node']->type == 'mens-blog-post') {
      array_unshift($variables['theme_hook_suggestions'], 'page__node__mens_blog_post');
    }
    elseif ($variables['node']->type == 'womens-blog-post') {
      array_unshift($variables['theme_hook_suggestions'], 'page__node__mens_blog_post');
    }
  }
}

If you have a module called force.module, then your code is correct. The same code can be used for a theme whose short name is force; in this case, in its template.php file you add a force_preprocess_page() function.
In Drupal 6, your theme needs to also have the default template file (page.tpl.php), or the custom template is not going to be picked up. I didn't check if this is still valid in Drupal 7. (The only time I created a theme that was using a custom template file was in Drupal 6.)

I would rather check the variable $variables['node'] is not empty, as hook_preprocess_page() is called for every page served from Drupal, including the ones not associated with any node.

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I would use Panels instead of a suggestion.

  1. Active the "node view" page
  2. Create two variants, with
    1. One selection rule for "mens-blog-post"
    2. Another selection rule "womens-blog-post"
  3. Add "Node content" to a region.

Done.

Relevant video tutorials here: http://dev.nodeone.se/en/learn-page-manager first four videos should get you started :)

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  • I tried what you suggested and it partially worked. My first problem is the panel is still using the same page--node.tpl so nothing has changed really just more complicated, secondly the custom breadcrumb trail no longer works, and thirdly I am getting a ton of errors about memory... any idea what I need to do to clean this up? You made it sound so easy... – KenAesthetic Jan 3 '12 at 5:07
  • Warning: require_once() [function.require-once]: Unable to allocate memory for pool. in _drupal_bootstrap_full() (line 4909 of /Users/Ken/Sites/fource7/includes/common.inc). Warning: include_once() [function.include-once]: Unable to allocate memory for pool. in drupal_load() (line 1114 of /Users/Ken/Sites/fource7/includes/bootstrap.inc). – KenAesthetic Jan 3 '12 at 5:08
  • 1) Custom breadcrumb, is indeed a problem, but has a patch here: drupal.org/node/1251520. 2) If you have verified that the node.tpl.php really is in use, then the selection rules are not configured correctly. 3) I How much memory does PHP have? – Letharion Jan 3 '12 at 7:01
  • Did you actually watch any of the videos? That memory warning looks APC related, and probably has nothing to do with PHP's memory. stackoverflow.com/questions/3723316/… – Letharion Jan 3 '12 at 7:15
  • I did. Maybe I need to go back over them. I found that the breadcrumbs don't work only when I specify to serve the body content. When I specify the node's full content the breadcrumbs do work. Any idea why that is? Can you explain? – KenAesthetic Jan 3 '12 at 19:36
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I ended up using context (http://drupal.org/project/context) to swap out the content based on the content type. Big thanks to gilzero on my other post... sorry for the mess won't happen again.

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