Question

I wish to add a custom page to wordpress, not in the usual sort of way. This page has my own custom script and functions and to develop a plugin is beyond my means so I was wondering if this is possible:

Suppose I were to build it on the existing page.php script in my there folder, my script looks something like this:

<?php get_header(); ?>
                        <div id="left-area" class="clearfix">
                                <?php 

                                //My script would go here 

                                ?>

                                <div class="comments">
                                        <?php comments_template('',true); ?>
                                </div><!-- end of comments div -->             

                        </div><!-- end of left-area -->
                        <!-- LEFT AREA ENDS HERE -->

    <?php get_sidebar(); ?>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

Is this even possible? I tried and got a page not found error. And if so, how do I call this script assuming WP is installed in the root directory? Example: http://www.mysite.com/myscript

Answer 1

Absolutely. Duplicate page.php. Rename it to template_mine.php. Open to edit, and before the get_header tag, add:

<?php 
//
// Template Name: My Custom template (choose something more descriptive, like contact page)
// 
?>

Go to WordPress dashboard for pages, create a new page with your title, and in the Page attributes on the right hand side, under templates, select your template name, update, and you are all set.

Reference: http://codex.wordpress.org/Pages#Creating_Your_Own_Page_Templates