
One of the shortcomings of Custom Post Types in WordPress is that there’s no way to easily set a different custom template from the standard single.php. If it’s a custom post type, it’s got custom information, and I want to put it in a custom template!
So I threw together a plugin to handle this. With this plugin installed and activated, it checks your template directory for posttype.php then t_posttype.php. If neither exists, then the standard WP template rules take effect.
For example, if your custom post type is ‘books’, it’s going to check your template directory for ‘books.php’. If it finds it, it will use that as the template for your ‘books’ posts. If not, it will check for ‘t_books.php’, and use that as the template for your ‘books’ posts. If it finds neither, the standard WP logic kicks into place, looking to see if you’ve defined a template for the post, and, if not, using single.php.
Download & install the zip archive
The plugin package installer can be downloaded from the WP2E project tab called “code”.
1 – Select the version to download if this option is available otherwise the “latest” version of the main plugin will be used.
2 – After downloading the zip archive install the plugin package installer in you local environment and activate the script from the plugin list.
3 – Under the section “Plugins” of the admin dashboard you should see a new “Dependencies & Licenses” link. Follow the instructions from this panel to finalize the installation of the missing dependencies.
Tips: Use the WP2E panel to add/suggest new dependencies to the local installation. Press F5 in the list of dependencies if the changes are not displayed right away.