How can I programmatically create "child" pages on theme activation?

Question

I know how to create pages automatically when a theme is activated, but I need help to figure out how to also programmatically create child pages at the same time.

For example:

- Page 1
  - Page 1.1
  - Page 1.2
- Page 2
  - Page 2.1
  - Page 2.2
  - Page 2.3
- Page 3
  - Page 3.1
- Page 4
  - Page 4.1
  - Page 4.2

And here is my function for automatic page creation (top level only).

if (isset($_GET['activated']) && is_admin()){
    add_action('init', 'create_initial_pages');
}

function create_initial_pages() {
    $pages = array(
        'page1' => 'Page 1',
        'page2' => 'Page 2',
        'page3' => 'Page 3',
        'page4' => 'Page 4'
    );
    foreach($pages as $key => $value) {
        $id = get_page_by_title($value);
        $page = array(
            'post_type'   => 'page',
            'post_title'  => $value,
            'post_name'   => $key,
            'post_status' => 'publish',
            'post_author' => 1,
            'post_parent' => ''
        );
        if (!isset($id)) wp_insert_post($page);
    };
}

Does anyone know how to extend this function to also create child pages (if they don't already exist) when the theme is activated?

Answer 1

As @Soulseekah said, you can do this with post_parent. I didn't test with the following code, but it should work

$pages = array( 
    array(
        'name' => 'page1',
        'title' => 'Page 1',
        'child' => array(
            array(
                'name' => 'page11',
                'title' => 'Page 1.1'
            ),
            array(
                'name' => 'page12',
                'title' => 'Page 1.2'
            )
        )
    ),
    array(
        'name' => 'page2',
        'title' => 'Page 2',
        'child' => array(
            array(
                'name' => 'page21',
                'title' => 'Page 2.1'
            ),
            array(
                'name' => 'page22',
                'title' => 'Page 2.2'
            )
        )
    ),
    array(
        'name' => 'page3',
        'title' => 'Page 3',
        'child' => array(
            array(
                'name' => 'page21',
                'title' => 'Page 2.1'
            ),
            array(
                'name' => 'page22',
                'title' => 'Page 2.2'
            )
        )
    ),
);

$template = array(
    'post_type' => 'page',
    'post_status' => 'publish',
    'post_author' => 1
);

foreach( $pages as $page ) {
    $exists = get_page_by_title( $page['name'] );

    if( !$exists ) {
        $my_page = array(
            'post_name' => $page['name'],
            'post_title' => $page['title']
        );
        $my_page = array_merge( $my_page, $template );

        $id = wp_insert_post( $my_page );

        //if there is any child page, create them by {$id} as 'post_parent'
        if( isset( $page['child'] ) ) {
            foreach( $page['child'] as $child ) {
                $child_page = array(
                    'post_name' => $child['name'],
                    'post_title' => $child['title'],
                    'post_parent' => $id
                );
                $child_page = array_merge( $child_page, $template );
                $id = wp_insert_post( $child_page );
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

The example by @Tareq was very helpful, but instead of creating multiple child pages for the parent page, it would make each child page a sub-parent page.

Page 1
- Page 1.1
  -- Page 1.2
     --- Page 1.3
Page 2
- Page 2.1
  -- Page 2.2

etc.

Here is the fixed/improved function (I'm sure that this can be improved even more as the page checks are not that thorough):

function create_initial_pages() {
    $pages = array(
        array(
            'name'  => 'page1',
            'title' => 'Page 1',
            'child' => array(
                'page1-1' => 'Page 1.1',
                'page1-2' => 'Page 1.2',
                'page1-3' => 'Page 1.3',
                'page1-4' => 'Page 1.4'
            )
        ),
        array(
            'name'  => 'page2',
            'title' => 'Page 2',
            'child' => array(
                'page2-1' => 'Page 2.1',
                'page2-2' => 'Page 2.2',
                'page2-3' => 'Page 2.3'
            )
        )
    );

    $template = array(
        'post_type'   => 'page',
        'post_status' => 'publish',
        'post_author' => 1
    );

    foreach( $pages as $page ) {
        $exists = get_page_by_title( $page['title'] );
        $my_page = array(
            'post_name'  => $page['name'],
            'post_title' => $page['title']
        );
        $my_page = array_merge( $my_page, $template );

        $id = ( $exists ? $exists->ID : wp_insert_post( $my_page ) );

        if( isset( $page['child'] ) ) {
            foreach( $page['child'] as $key => $value ) {
                $child_id = get_page_by_title( $value );
                $child_page = array(
                    'post_name'   => $key,
                    'post_title'  => $value,
                    'post_parent' => $id
                );
                $child_page = array_merge( $child_page, $template );
                if( !isset( $child_id ) ) wp_insert_post( $child_page );
            }
        }
    }
}