Load custom category template?

You have to give it a template name. The following code goes at the top of the page, where you call the header.

<?
/*
Template Name: Index-15
*/

get_header();
?>

and then ensure that the page is assigned to that Template in the admin panel. To do this click ‘Pages’, select the page you wish to use this template and look on the ‘Attributes’ box. The Template selection is made there.

Ah, thanks – so you mean my code should look like this in the beginning?

<?php
/**
 * @package WordPress
 * @subpackage Ztheme
 */
/*
Template Name: Ztheme
*/
require('./eventz/wp-blog-header.php');
get_header();
?>

?

Yes, and then the template will appear in the drop down menu when you go to edit the Page.

Ah, but there is no “page” to edit.
I just want wordpress to use the template “category-15.php” when I choose to click on the category 15.
(according to this)
The thing is, that instead of using my “category-15.php” or even “category.php” or “archive.php” – it is using my main page “index.php” as a template.

Or did I misunderstand you?

EDIT:
This might be a clue.

when I add

define('WP_USE_THEMES', true);

to the root index.php, all category pages show up, using the archive.php template! (if you go to the category url like https://mypage.com/category/dogfood )

BUT – now the index.php does not work by itself, so going to https://mypage.com results in a redirect error…..

now what?

Are you trying to display a single post or a list of posts in a Category? If it is the latter, then all I do is create a dummy page (Category 15) and set that to use the template. You can then call that page, but your template doesn’t have to display any of the information contained in the post.

Also, you can check your Reading settings to ensure that you have the correct pages selected are your homepage there.

For example, my Posts Page is set to a Page called ‘News’, which uses the index.php template but does not draw any information from the Page, so it’s effectivly just a dummy – while my Front Page is set to ‘Home’, which uses an entirely different template called ‘Homepage’.

I may be missing the mark with what you are trying to achieve, but I remember when I first started I was trying to over complicate it and alot of the time it was just unnecessary.

Having re-read I may now be with you –

In my index.php I use –

<?
/*
Template Name: Index
*/
if($_GET['cat'] != ''){
	$typeOf = 'cat';
         $cat =  $_GET['cat'];
}
if($_GET['tag'] != ''){
	$typeOf = 'tag';
         $tag =  $_GET['tag'];
}
if($_GET['contact'] != ''){
	$typeOf = 'contact';
         $contact =  $_GET['contact'];
}
get_header();
?>

Then, befor I write the page I query the Posts to ensure only the correct posts are displayed –

<? query_posts(array('cat' => $cat, 'posts_per_page' => 10, 'paged' => $_GET['paged'], 'tag' => tag, 'contact' => contact));

if(have_posts()){
    while(have_posts()){
        the_post();
    }
} ?>

This will then take the selected Category or Tag and return only Posts that match that critera – if either or both are blank then they will be ignored.

This is used on an intranet, so I use the Permalinks (www.example.com/?cat=75) meaning I can capture data from the URL (Query String), but if you are using friendly URLs (www.example.com/category/test) then you will need to find away of getting that information, which I’m not 100% sure how to do.

Hope that helps.

I really appreciate you taking the time to help!

I now created an empty “Page” in wordpress called “Articles” and connected that to the template file “Media/Articles category” which is called “category.php” and for testing purposes only contains this:
′
<?php
/**
* @package WordPress
* @subpackage Ztheme
*/
/*
Template Name: Media/articles category
*/

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
′

Now, I loaded https://zetterstrand.com/articles expecting to see only a lot of zzzzzzzzzzz — but i once again get my home page, containing an “article post”!

I am totally confused now.

Not sure I’m afraid – from the description that is exactly what I do on several pages and it works

Things to check –

• Sounds silly – but have you clicked ‘Update Page’ after selecting the custom template? It’s an easy oversight to make.
• Check the Reading settings to make sure that page is not set as your Posts page, as I believe that will superceed your custom template.
• Look in to the template heirarchy. I’m not an expert by any means, so I may have missed something.

Hope that helps

Thank you again for all the help, but my problems seem a bit worse that i beleived at first.

I am not using pages at all, so that’s not it. (i tried your example but it didnt work)

I just wanted to use a specific template when the blog showed categories.

A Page (Posts, for example) can only use 1 template as far as I am aware. Perhaps do a search for Plugins that may allow a different template to be used in certain situations?

And just to clarify is it only one Category you are looking to display with the custom template, or just any Category when it is filtered?

One category would be enough.

But, to clarify: I am not using “pages”.
It’s the same loop, i just want to change the look of the template for one of the categories.

Like described here:
https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Template_Hierarchy#The_General_Idea

Your other thread https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/362159 wasn’t closed, but it is now, and I pointed it over to this thread. I also deleted another duplicate topic you started.

Sorry MichaelH, I did not mean to make a doublepost, I found no way to delete it.

Ok, after reading that I would say that, for example, if you are on ‘https://www.example.com/news/&#8217; then you would use index.php.

If you were on ‘https://www.example.com/category/test&#8217; then WordPress would search for a template called category-{test_ID}.php. I wouldn’t have thought you needed to declare it as a template either, so scrap that suggestion.

Off the top of my head, the fact it is using index.php suggests that it can’t find category-15.php – are you certain you have copied it across. I’ve done that a few times where by I cannot work out why it won’t work and it’s because the file is still on my local computer rather than the web server!!

May also be worth looking at the category IDs, as sometimes you can be using the ID of the Parent Category when you should be using the Child’s ID.

Sorry I can’t be more help.