WordPress Taxonomy
Commonly used WordPress theme files
| Standard | 404.php | Error page, served up when someone goes to a URL on your site that doesn’t exist |
| Standard | archive.php | Page that displays posts in one particular day, month, year, category, tag, or author |
| Optional | archives.php | Page template that includes search form, category list, and monthly archives (requires page using it) |
| Standard | comments.php | This file delivers all the comments, pingbacks, trackbacks, and the comment form when called |
| Standard | footer.php | Included at the bottom of every page. Closes off all sections. (Copyright, analytics, etc) |
| Optional | functions.php | File to include special behavior for your theme. |
| Standard | header.php | Included at the top of every page. (DOCTYPE, head section, navigation, etc) |
| Optional | image.php | If you wish to have unique pages for each of the images on your site (for credits, copyright…) |
| Standard | images | DIRECTORY – Keeps all the images that make up your theme in one place |
| Core | index.php | This is typically the “homepage” of your site, but also the default should any other views be missing |
| Optional | links.php | Special page template for a home for your blogroll |
| Standard | page.php | Template for Pages, the WordPress version of static-style/non-blog content |
| Optional | rtl.css | A special CSS file for your optional inclusion to accommodate “right to left” languages |
| Standard | screenshot.png | This is the image thumbnail (880px x 660px) of your theme |
| Standard | search.php | The search results page template |
| Standard | sidebar.php | Included on pages where/when/if you want a sidebar |
| Standard | single.php | This file is displays a single Post in full (the Posts permalink), typically with comments |
| Core | style.css | The styling information for your theme, required for your theme to work, even if you don’t use it |
What template will WordPress choose?
| Page | Tries First >> Tries Second …. >> Tries Last |
| 404 | 404.php >> index.php |
| Search | search.php >> index.php |
| Taxonomy | taxonomy-{tax}-{term}.php >> taxonomy-{tax}.php >> taxonomy.php >> archive.php >> index.php |
| Home | home.php >> index.php |
| Attachment | {mime-type}.php >> single.php >> index.php |
| Single | single-{post-type}.php >> single.php >> index.php |
| Category | category-{slug}.php >> category-{id}.php >> category.php >> archive.php >> index.php |
| Tag | tag-{slug}.php >> tag-{id}.php >> tag.php >> archive.php >> index.php |
| Author | author-{arthor-nicename}.php >> author-{author-id}.php >> author.php >> archive.php >> index.php |
| Date | date.php >> archive.php >> index.php |
| Archive | archive.php >> index.php |
“How does WordPress figure out which template file to use?” You might assume that it is hard-wired into WordPress, but, most of the files in a theme are optional. If your theme doesn’t have an archive.php file, does WordPress just display a blank page? Absolutely not, it moves down its hierarchy of template files to find the next most appropriate file to use. Ultimately, all paths in the WordPress templating world end at the index.php file.
Just as we move down the hierarchy toward index.php, we can travel in the other direction and create template files that are very specific. For example, if we wish to have a unique template when viewing category #45 of our blog, we can create a file called category-45.php, and WordPress will automatically use it.