Template Tags

The WordPress standard template tags for inserting snippets of html/php, such as get_header, get_footer, get_sidebar etc reside in the file wp-includes/general_template.php. They are incredibly simple functions, with the names (‘header’, ‘footer’…) hardcoded within the functions. Also if you pass in a string as a parameter then that is appended to the name separated by a ‘-‘, and both the extended name and search for both:

• xxxxx-string_param.php
• xxxxx.php

Full List of Tags

Full list of template tags provided with WordPress can be found at

Tag Categorisation

From my perspective the tags fall into three categories:

• Retrieval of data from the wp database
• Provision of standard functionality
• Insertion of HTML/PHP, usually, but not necessarily with some form of Dynamic content.

Those that are concerned with data retrieval fall into two categories:

• Those retrieving data concerning the current post or page. These Template Tags have to reside within the WordPress data retrieval loop.
• None Post/Page related data, such as Site URL, User, Logged-in status, List of Posts, Pages, Categories etc.