Change the template when the user is not logged in using page_template filter (it does not work)

Question

I want to print other template when the user is not logged in. I use this code:

function restrict_access_to_unlogged_users($template) {
    global $post, $pagename;
    $new_template = get_stylesheet_directory() . '/need-login.php';
    return $new_template;
}
add_filter( 'page_template', 'restrict_access_to_unlogged_users', 20 );

I have got a template file called "need-login.php" in my child theme folder, however, my webpage prints a big blank in the screen.

What Am I doing bad?

Regards.

Answer 1

Your code doesn't really do any "user logged in" check, and you aren't using a couple of the globals you import.

function restrict_access_to_unlogged_users($template) {
  if (!is_user_logged_in()) {
    $template = get_stylesheet_directory() . '/need-login.php';
  }
  return $template;
}
add_filter( 'page_template', 'restrict_access_to_unlogged_users', 20 );

And you could do this more globally with template_include.

function restrict_access_to_unlogged_users($template) {
  if (!is_user_logged_in()) {
    $template = get_stylesheet_directory() . '/need-login.php';
  }
  return $template;
}
add_filter( 'template_include', 'restrict_access_to_unlogged_users', 20 );

If you are getting a white screen is almost certainly because your path is wrong and you do not have debugging enabled. Try:

function restrict_access_to_unlogged_users($template) {
  if (!is_user_logged_in()) {
    $template = get_stylesheet_directory() . '/need-login.php';
  }
  var_dump($template);
  die;
}
add_filter( 'page_template', 'restrict_access_to_unlogged_users', 20 );

That should tell you if you've got the path right.

If you do, check the permissions on your .php file and make sure it is readable by the server.