Custom WP template design question

Hey guys,

I'm looking to get a WordPress template custom made for my product review site. There's going to be a few categories, though, in a format like below:

Main category Sub Categories Products

Camera products > Cameras > Nikon Camera
Camera products > Accessories > Camera Tripod


My question is, will I be able to get one template product page made, one template category page made and one template sub category page made and then easily create new pages for each category/sub category/product based on those templates from within the WP admin page?

I assume that's the point of having the templates but I just wanted to be sure before I went ahead and spent my $!

Thanks

Almost.

WordPress has a set template hierarchy (I can't post links yet so you'll have to search for it). It will look for the most specific template for that page and if that doesn't exist it will keep looking up each level.

With your example, the product template page would work as expected and so would your top level categories. Your sub categories however would also load the category.php file (which would be the same as the top level category).

Your options for your sub category template would be to either copy your sub category template file and name it "category-slug.php" for each subcategory or to do some checking inside the category file that would load a different template for subcategories.

There might also be a plugin you could use to specifically select which template file to use for a certain category (like you do with posts) but I haven't used ine so I couldn't recommend anything.

Great reply Jmz, thanks a lot!

I have a follow-up question if anyone could help. If we take the below example:

Main category Sub Categories Products

Camera products > Cameras > Nikon Camera | Kodak Camera | Sony Camera
Camera products > Accessories > Camera Tripod | Camera bag | Camera lens cover

Will it be easy enough for me to have search functions for each sub category pages that only search for products in that subcategory, despite basing each sub category off one template? I.e., when in the 'Cameras' subcategory, you could only view the Nikon Camera, Kodak Camera and Sony Camera products?

Thanks a lot (P.S. sorry if this isn't explained very well - it's hard to put into writing!)

you don't creat them by category, you just make the template and make like 3 styles one with 2 colum for example, one a full-width page etc.
When creating the category you will be able to change to the type of style you want to asign to your template.

Take a look at the more profesional templates, they have all these things beautifully done.

Correct me if i am wrong fellow members

According to Op He wants a Different style or layout structure for products page and Accessories pages which can be achieved by custom template settings in wordpress

you have to Design your single.php ( if posting in blog posts ) to one or more styles

When i am talking about style i dont mean the whole site will change but the structure inside like review stars at top and product slider etc anything can be customized even the header

IF you need more help add me on skype : floralchamp

If you're looking for different styles for different categories like cameras and accessories, then your developer should look into custom post types. http://codex.wordpress.org/Post_Types

This way in the wp admin dashboard, with the usual "add new post", "add new page" options, you can have "add new camera" and "add new accessory" etc.

For each custom post type, your developer can design a different template.

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the replies. I see now that ensuring that the layout and appearance of the individual category pages are different will not be difficult but what about the back end database access? Basically, will it be straight forward enough for me to code each individual sub category page copy so that it can only retrieve certain files (i.e., the products in that sub category)? I am struggling to visualize how I would do this.

Thanks again

use the plugin "custom post template", you need to make a template design and use as an atribute

There's plugins you can use to literally customize anything you want. Use a theme compatible with WooCommerce and install a review plugin. If you want to change the way it looks, modify the stylesheet until you are happy. You'll probably be better off hiring a professional to do this for you, if you need any assistance feel free to PM me.

Thanks again for the replies.

That looks like a really useful plugin adamache - I will check it out. Moosey, I am getting a professional to make the basic template, my issue was whether I'd encounter difficulties replicating the template pages. Based on what people are saying though I think I'll be ok