How to modify a title tag in genesis?

Question

I need to modify the outputted <title></title> tag of a few specific templates, and it has to be done in php so I can dynamically generate content for it. I've been playing around with these two snippets of code to get it to work, but so far the only change I've gotten is a duplicated title tag:

remove_filter('wp_title','genesis_default_title', 10, 3);
add_filter('wp_title', 'process_page_titles', 10, 3);

function process_page_titles($title){
    if ( is_page_template( 'landing-page-template.php' ) ) {
        return 'Select Your Car';
    } 
    elseif( is_page_template( 'dealer-page-template.php' ) ) {
        return 'Select Dealers';
    }
    elseif( is_page_template( 'thank-you-page-template.php' ) ) {
        return 'Thank You';
    }
    elseif( is_page_template( 'ad-page-template.php' ) ) {
        return 'Deals!';
    }
}

And this one

remove_action('genesis_title','genesis_do_title');
add_action('genesis_title', 'process_page_titles');

function process_page_titles(){
    if ( is_page_template( 'landing-page-template.php' ) ) {
        echo '<title>';
        wp_title( '|','Select Car','right' );
        echo '</title>';
    } 
    elseif( is_page_template( 'dealer-page-template.php' ) ) {
        echo '<title>';
        wp_title( '|','Select Dealer','right' );
        echo '</title>';
    }
    elseif( is_page_template( 'thank-you-page-template.php' ) ) {
        echo '<title>';
        wp_title( '|','Thank You','right' );
        echo '</title>';
    }
    elseif( is_page_template( 'ad-page-template.php' ) ) {
        echo '<title>';
        wp_title( '|','Deals!','right' );
        echo '</title>';
    }
    else{
        echo '<title>';
        wp_title();
        echo '</title>';
    }
}

These snippets are going to be placed in a PHP file that will be required by each of these page templates; so no need to worry about affecting other page templates since its not in functions.php.

Answer 1

Try this to create your custom titles.

remove_filter( 'wp_title', 'genesis_default_title', 10, 3 ); //Default title
remove_action( 'genesis_site_title', 'genesis_seo_site_title' ); //Genesis Extra Stuff
remove_action( 'genesis_site_description', 'genesis_seo_site_description' ); //Genesis Extra Stuff

add_filter( 'wp_title', 'genesis_default_title_new', 10, 3 );
function genesis_default_title_new( $title) {

    $title = 'Hello World!';
    return $title;
}

Answer 2

If you wanted to customize the title in the most Genesis way, you can create your own filter for document_title_parts

remove_filter( 'document_title_parts', 'genesis_document_title_parts' );
add_filter( 'document_title_parts', 'custom_document_title_parts' );

function custom_document_title_parts( $parts ) {
    $genesis_document_title_parts = new Genesis_SEO_Document_Title_Parts();
    $custom_document_title_parts = $genesis_document_title_parts->get_parts( $parts );
    $custom_document_title_parts['title'] = 'Hello world';
    return $custom_document_title_parts;
}

---

Background

In the latest version of Genesis, do_action( 'genesis_title' ); found inside of genesis/header.php doesn't actually do anything. There is never an action added to genesis_title in the latest version.

Instead, the <title> is being rendered as is rendered by wp_head(); in header.php, as is standard.

Genesis customizes the title by adding the filter genesis_document_title_parts to 'document_title_parts located in genesis/lib/structure/header.php.

To understand how this works you need to know what document_title_parts is doing. You'll find it in wp-includes/general-template.php within the function wp_get_document_title() as the last step before the title text is sanitized and returned. Because Genesis is adding a filter to this step, it is able to override the title with any custom value they choose.

If you continue following the logic, you'll find that wp_get_document_title() is responsible for creating the title used in wp_head.

If you want to understand how, look in /wp-includes/default-filters.php. There is an action added to wp_head for _wp_render_title_tag. And aha, this function simply wraps the output of wp_get_document_title() in <title> tags.

Back to how Genesis is using this functionality to customize the title, recall that genesis_document_title_parts was added as a filter to document_title_parts.

genesis_document_title_parts is a function that returns a custom SEO title if it is available in the database. It uses the class Genesis_SEO_Document_Title_Parts found in genesis/lib/classes/class-genesis-seo-document-title-parts.php.