Change page template programmatically ?

Question

I have two page templates and Qtranslate installed.

I want to choose one or another depending the language selected.

Can I do something like this ?

if($q_config['lang'] == 'en'){
// load page-template_en.php
}else{
// load page-template_de.php
}

Any idea ?

Thanks!

Answer 1

It is possible using the template_redirect hook.

Looks something like this :

 function language_redirect()
 {
      global $q_config;

      if( $q_config['lang'] == 'en' )
      {
           include( get_template_directory() . '/page-template_en.php' );
           exit;
      }
      else
      {
           include( get_template_directory() . '/page-template_de.php' );
           exit;
      }
 }
 add_action( 'template_redirect', 'language_redirect' );

Code is untested, but should look like that.

See my similar answer HERE for more help.

Answer 2

Finally found it! If I understand your question right, the template is basically saved as metadata that needs to be updated.

update_post_meta( $post_id, '_wp_page_template', 'your_custom_template' );
// or
update_metadata('post_type',  $post_id, '_wp_page_template', 'your_custom_template' );

Source and further info

Answer 3

The best (canonical) way is use template_include hook: http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Filter_Reference/template_include

Example code:

function language_redirect($template) {
    global $q_config;
    $new_template = locate_template( array( 'page-'.$q_config['lang'].'.php' ) );
    if ( '' != $new_template ) {
        return $new_template ;
    }
    return $template;
}
add_action( 'template_include', 'language_redirect' );

Answer 4

Should be possible using the template_include hook. Code is untested:

 add_action( 'template_include', 'language_redirect' );

 function language_redirect( $template ) {
      global $q_config;
      $lang = ( 'en' === $q_config['lang'] ) ? 'en' : 'de';

      $template = str_replace( '.php', '_'.$lang.'.php', $template );
      return $template;
 }

Answer 5

Thank you everyone for these suggestions ! I wanted to set "Elementor canvas" template by default on post only and I did like that :

function default_post_template_elementor_canvas($post_type, $post) 
{
    $wishedTemplate = 'elementor_canvas'; // to see available template var_dump(get_page_templates($post))
    if ($post_type === 'post'
            && in_array($wishedTemplate, get_page_templates($post)) // Only if elementor_canvas is available
            && $post->ID != get_option('page_for_posts') // Not the page for listing posts
            && metadata_exists('post', $post->ID, '_wp_page_template') === false) {  // Only when meta _wp_page_template is not set
      add_post_meta($post->ID, '_wp_page_template', $wishedTemplate);
    }
}
add_action('add_meta_boxes', 'default_post_template_elementor_canvas', 10, 2);