How would I use the same template file for, say three specific taxonomy terms but not the remaining three?

I know taxonomy-taxname.php is the file for all terms

I know taxonomy-taxname-termname.php is the file for a specific term.

But let's say I want to have...

--taxonomy-fruit-redfruit.php for strawberries, tomatoes and raspberries

--taxonomy-fruit-greenfruit.php for watermelons, apples and kiwi

... without resorting to using duplicated individual theme files for each term?

How would I use the same template file for, say three specific taxonomy terms but not the remaining three?

I know taxonomy-taxname.php is the file for all terms

I know taxonomy-taxname-termname.php is the file for a specific term.

But let's say I want to have...

--taxonomy-fruit-redfruit.php for strawberries, tomatoes and raspberries

--taxonomy-fruit-greenfruit.php for watermelons, apples and kiwi

... without resorting to using duplicated individual theme files for each term?

• themes
• template-hierarchy

• Is the design of the templates for 6 the terms very different or is it just a matter of some content being different...? – jsmod Commented Mar 18, 2019 at 13:20
• A bit different. One group of three similar, another group of three similar - the two groups slightly different from each other. – Robert Andrews Commented Mar 18, 2019 at 21:00

1 Answer 1

You prepare templates (staying with your example):

• content-redfruits.php,
• content-greenfruits.php,
• content-fruits.php.

Then in taxonomy file taxonomy-fruit.php (copy and rename taxonomy.php or index.php), before main loop check the term slug of the currently-queried object.

$red_templ = ['strawberries', 'tomatoes', 'raspberries']; // term slugs
$green_templ = ['watermelons', 'apples', 'kiwi'];         // term slugs
$template = 'fruits';

$obj = get_queried_object();
if ( $obj instanceof WP_Term ){
    if ( in_array($obj->slug, $red_templ) )
        $template = 'redfruits';
    else if ( in_array($obj->slug, $green_templ) )
        $template = 'greenfruits';
}
while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();

    get_template_part( 'content', $template );

endwhile;

Edit: (answer to the comment)

The above example can be written using is_tax:

$red_templ = ['strawberries', 'tomatoes', 'raspberries']; // term slugs
$green_templ = ['watermelons', 'apples', 'kiwi'];         // term slugs
$template = 'fruits';

if ( is_tax('fruit', $red_templ) )        // check taxonomy, then check terms
    $template = 'redfruits';
else if ( is_tax('fruit', $green_templ) ) // check taxonomy, then check terms
    $template = 'greenfruits';

while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();

    get_template_part( 'content', $template );

endwhile;

is_tax performs some additional comparisons, but here is no significant difference in performance.
Each time you call is_tax, you check if given taxonomy matches the current one (this has already been checked when choosing a template file) and compare terms by id, slug and name.

You do not want to use has_term in this case. This function works on a post, therefore for empty terms it will return falsely false.