WordPress plugin to ease the creation of virtual pages.

Controller.php

<?php
namespace GM\VirtualPages;

/**
 * @author  Giuseppe Mazzapica <[email protected]>
 * @license http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT MIT
 */
class Controller implements ControllerInterface {

  private $pages;
  private $loader;
  private $matched;
  
  function __construct( TemplateLoaderInterface $loader ) {
    $this->pages = new \SplObjectStorage;
    $this->loader = $loader;
  }
  
  function init() {
    do_action( 'gm_virtual_pages', $this ); 
  }
  
  function addPage( PageInterface $page ) {
    $this->pages->attach( $page );
    return $page;
  }
  
  function dispatch( $bool, \WP $wp ) {
    if ( $this->checkRequest() && $this->matched instanceof Page ) {
      $this->loader->init( $this->matched );
      $wp->virtual_page = $this->matched;
      do_action( 'parse_request', $wp );
      $this->setupQuery();
      do_action( 'wp', $wp );
      $this->loader->load();
      $this->handleExit();
    }
    return $bool;
  }
  
  private function checkRequest() {
    $this->pages->rewind();
    $path = trim( $this->getPathInfo(), '/' );
    while( $this->pages->valid() ) {
      if ( trim( $this->pages->current()->getUrl(), '/' ) === $path ) {
        $this->matched = $this->pages->current();
        return TRUE;
      }
      $this->pages->next();
    }
  }        
  
  private function getPathInfo() {
    $home_path = parse_url( home_url(), PHP_URL_PATH );
    return preg_replace( "#^/?{$home_path}/#", '/', add_query_arg( array() ) );
  }
  
  private function setupQuery() {
    global $wp_query;
    $wp_query->init();
    $wp_query->is_page       = TRUE;
    $wp_query->is_singular   = TRUE;
    $wp_query->is_home       = FALSE;
    $wp_query->found_posts   = 1;
    $wp_query->post_count    = 1;
    $wp_query->max_num_pages = 1;
    $posts = (array) apply_filters(
      'the_posts', array( $this->matched->asWpPost() ), $wp_query
    );
    $post = $posts[0];
    $wp_query->posts          = $posts;
    $wp_query->post           = $post;
    $wp_query->queried_object = $post;
    $GLOBALS['post']          = $post;
    $wp_query->virtual_page   = $post instanceof \WP_Post && isset( $post->is_virtual )
      ? $this->matched
      : NULL;
  }
  
  public function handleExit() {
    exit();
  }
}

ControllerInterface.php

<?php
namespace GM\VirtualPages;

/**
 * @author  Giuseppe Mazzapica <[email protected]>
 * @license http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT MIT
 */
interface ControllerInterface {

  /**
   * Init the controller, fires the hook that allow consumer to add pages
   */
  function init();
  
  /**
   * Register a page object in the controller
   *
   * @param  \GM\VirtualPages\Page $page
   * @return \GM\VirtualPages\Page
   */
  function addPage( PageInterface $page );
  
  /**
   * Run on 'do_parse_request' and if the request is for one of the registerd
   * setup global variables, fire core hooks, requires page template and exit.
   *
   * @param boolean $bool The boolean flag value passed by 'do_parse_request'
   * @param \WP $wp       The global wp object passed by 'do_parse_request'
   */  
  function dispatch( $bool, \WP $wp );
  
}

gm-virtual-pages.php

<?php namespace GM\VirtualPages;
/*
Plugin Name: GM Virtual Pages
Plugin URI: http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/162240/custom-pages-with-plugin
Description: Virtual pages made easy.
Author: Giuseppe Mazzapica
Author URI: http://gm.zoomlab.it
License: MIT
*/
 
require_once 'PageInterface.php';
require_once 'ControllerInterface.php';
require_once 'TemplateLoaderInterface.php';
require_once 'Page.php';
require_once 'Controller.php';
require_once 'TemplateLoader.php';

$controller = new Controller ( new TemplateLoader );

add_action( 'init', array( $controller, 'init' ) );

add_filter( 'do_parse_request', array( $controller, 'dispatch' ), PHP_INT_MAX, 2 );

add_action( 'loop_end', function( \WP_Query $query ) {
  if ( isset( $query->virtual_page ) && ! empty( $query->virtual_page ) ) {
    $query->virtual_page = NULL;
  }
} );

add_filter( 'the_permalink', function( $plink ) {
  global $post, $wp_query;
  if (
    $wp_query->is_page
    && isset( $wp_query->virtual_page )
    && $wp_query->virtual_page instanceof Page
    && isset( $post->is_virtual )
    && $post->is_virtual
  ) {
    $plink = home_url( $wp_query->virtual_page->getUrl() );
  }
  return $plink;
} );

LICENSE

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Giuseppe Mazzapica

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Page.php

<?php
namespace GM\VirtualPages;

/**
 * @author  Giuseppe Mazzapica <[email protected]>
 * @license http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT MIT
 */
class Page implements PageInterface {

  private $url;
  private $title;
  private $content;
  private $template;
  private $wp_post;
  
  function __construct( $url, $title = 'Untitled', $template = 'page.php' ) {
    $this->url = filter_var( $url, FILTER_SANITIZE_URL );
    $this->setTitle( $title );
    $this->setTemplate( $template);
  }
  
  function getUrl() {
    return $this->url;
  }
  
  function getTemplate() {
    return $this->template;
  }
  
  function getTitle() {
    return $this->title;
  }
  
  function setTitle( $title ) {
    $this->title = filter_var( $title, FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING );
    return $this;
  }
  
  function setContent( $content ) {
    $this->content = $content;
    return $this;
  }
  
  function setTemplate( $template ) {
    $this->template = $template;
    return $this;
  }
  
  function asWpPost() {
    if ( is_null( $this->wp_post ) ) {
      $post = array(
        'ID'             => 0,
        'post_title'     => $this->title,
        'post_name'      => sanitize_title( $this->title ),
        'post_content'   => $this->content ? : '',
        'post_excerpt'   => '',
        'post_parent'    => 0,
        'menu_order'     => 0,
        'post_type'      => 'page',
        'post_status'    => 'publish',
        'comment_status' => 'closed',
        'ping_status'    => 'closed',
        'comment_count'  => 0,
        'post_password'  => '',
        'to_ping'        => '',
        'pinged'         => '',
        'guid'           => home_url( $this->getUrl() ),
        'post_date'      => current_time( 'mysql' ),
        'post_date_gmt'  => current_time( 'mysql', 1 ),
        'post_author'    => is_user_logged_in() ? get_current_user_id() : 0,
        'is_virtual'     => TRUE,
        'filter'         => 'raw'
      );
      $this->wp_post = new \WP_Post( (object) $post );
    }
    return $this->wp_post;
  }
}

PageInterface.php

<?php
namespace GM\VirtualPages;

/**
 * @author  Giuseppe Mazzapica <[email protected]>
 * @license http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT MIT
 */
interface PageInterface {

  function getUrl();
  
  function getTemplate();
  
  function getTitle();
  
  function setTitle( $title );
  
  function setContent( $content );
  
  function setTemplate( $template );
  
  /**
  * Get a WP_Post build using viryual Page object
  *
  * @return \WP_Post
  */
  function asWpPost();
}

TemplateLoader.php

<?php
namespace GM\VirtualPages;

/**
 * @author  Giuseppe Mazzapica <[email protected]>
 * @license http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT MIT
 */
class TemplateLoader implements TemplateLoaderInterface {

  public function init( PageInterface $page ) {
    $this->templates = wp_parse_args(
      array( 'page.php', 'index.php' ), (array) $page->getTemplate()
    );
  }
  
  public function load() {
    do_action( 'template_redirect' );
    $template = locate_template( array_filter( $this->templates ) );
    $filtered = apply_filters( 'template_include',
      apply_filters( 'virtual_page_template', $template )
    );
    if ( empty( $filtered ) || file_exists( $filtered ) ) {
      $template = $filtered;
    }
    if ( ! empty( $template ) &&file_exists( $template ) ) {
      require_once $template;
    }
  }
}

TemplateLoaderInterface.php

<?php
namespace GM\VirtualPages;

/**
 * @author  Giuseppe Mazzapica <[email protected]>
 * @license http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT MIT
 */
interface TemplateLoaderInterface {

  /**
  * Setup loader for a page objects
  *
  * @param \GM\VirtualPagesPageInterface $page matched virtual page
  */
  public function init( PageInterface $page );
  
  /**
  * Trigger core and custom hooks to filter templates,
  * then load the found template.
  */
  public function load();
}

@paulmiller3000 @nirajkvinit Did you manage to get the custom template folder working? I was testing in a normal theme and it worked fine. Now I want to move it over to production, which is using a child theme, and now the template files can't be found.

@Eaglejohn I built mine out in a plugin, not a theme. I'll post here in case it helps you or other visitors.

FYI, I'm using the WordPress Plugin Boilerplate. I added the following to the load_dependencies function in /includes/class-wp-stripe-connect-auto-provision.php:

/**
 * The namespace responsible for virtual pages         
 */
require_once WP_STRIPE_CONNECT_AUTO_PROVISION_PLUGIN_PATH . 'includes/wpscap-virtual-pages.php';

wpscap-virtual-pages.php is gmazzap's gm-virtual-pages.php file with the following addition at the bottom:

add_action( 'gm_virtual_pages', function( $controller ) {
    // Registration page 
    $controller->addPage( new \WPSCAP\VirtualPages\Page( '/registration' ) )
      ->setTitle( 'Registration' )      
      ->setTemplate( 'registration.php' );

    // Get Registrant page 
    $controller->addPage( new \WPSCAP\VirtualPages\Page( '/get-registrant' ) )
      ->setTitle( 'Registration' )
      ->setTemplate( 'get-registrant.php' );

    // Registration Received page 
    $controller->addPage( new \WPSCAP\VirtualPages\Page( '/registration-received' ) )
      ->setTitle( 'Registration Received' )
      ->setTemplate( 'registration-received.php' );

    // Registration Completed page 
    $controller->addPage( new \WPSCAP\VirtualPages\Page( '/registration-completed' ) )
      ->setTitle( 'Registration Completed' )
      ->setTemplate( 'registration-completed.php' );

} );

The above code is where I designated the names that will appear in the browser along with their corresponding templates, which are loaded below.

Next, I extended TemplateLoader.php as follows:

<?php 
namespace WPSCAP\VirtualPages;

class TemplateLoaderBSD extends TemplateLoader {
    public function wpscap_locate_template( $template_names, $load = false, $require_once = true ) {
        $located = '';

        foreach ( (array) $template_names as $template_name ) {            
            if ( ! $template_name ) {                
                continue;
            }
            if ( file_exists( WP_STRIPE_CONNECT_AUTO_PROVISION_PLUGIN_PATH . 'includes/templates/' . $template_name ) ) {                
                $located = WP_STRIPE_CONNECT_AUTO_PROVISION_PLUGIN_PATH . 'includes/templates/' . $template_name;                
                break;
            }
        }

        if ( $load && '' != $located ) {
            load_template( $located, $require_once );
        }

        return $located;
    }

	public function load() {
        // TO DO: Add support for Thesis theme: http://answers.diythemes.com/t/thesis-2-8-5-custom-page/1552

        do_action( 'template_redirect' );
        $template = $this->wpscap_locate_template(array_filter($this->templates), TRUE);

        $filtered = apply_filters( 'template_include',
          apply_filters( 'virtual_page_template', $template )
        );
        if ( empty( $filtered ) || file_exists( $filtered ) ) {
          $template = $filtered;
        }
        if ( ! empty( $template ) &&file_exists( $template ) ) {
          require_once $template;
        }        
	}
}
?>

That file checks to see if there is an actual template file. I created a templates folder under includes that contains those actual pages.

This approach might be a bit kludgy, but it worked for the four templates I needed. A future enhancement may be to create an admin interface for this.

@paulmiller3000 Thanks for the code! Turns out it was a plugin that was causing this problem (but not showing an error). After deactivating the plugin, all virtual pages started working again immediately...

@gmazzap, Thanks for the great plugin. However we are not able to access custom query through the URL
Have gave my 7 hours on the same thing. But no luck.
However when I create a Template page and assign it in the backend the query works fine.

I need to acheive the following
E.G. http://mysite.com/virtualpage?post_id=1

It goes to 404
Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks !

@Eaglejohn Could you let me know, if this is possible ?

Hi everyone here. I see a lot going on, but don't really have the time to follow. The reason why I put this in a Gist instead of a proper repo, was to "release and forget".

Just to mention that you need something more complex/powerful/flexible you should probably look at https://github.com/Brain-WP/Cortex

I'll stick with your plugin Giuseppe, it works great for what I need. Cortex looks pretty complicated.

Great plugin! Found it after looking for a more OO approach to WP plugins. I notice that it creates front-end pages - is it also possible to use this to create back-end / admin pages too?

Hi,
I a m facing problem on pagination permalinks. Let say i create a virtual page "members". In which i list all the members with pagination links.
The first page render successfully http://mysite/members. When i tried 2nd page http://mysite/members/2 it's leads to 404

Hello, I'm using this gist for a plugin & I needed to allow passing query parameters, this gist as is doesn't support them (leads to 404).
Luckily it can be easily tweaked to bring support to query parameters.
Just need to tweak checkRequest in Controller.php
& updating the $path definition like so:

private function checkRequest() {
    $this->pages->rewind();
-   $path = trim( $this->getPathInfo(), '/' );
+   $path = trim(strtok($this->getPathInfo(), "?"), "/");
    while( $this->pages->valid() ) {
      if ( trim( $this->pages->current()->getUrl(), '/' ) === $path ) {
        $this->matched = $this->pages->current();
        return TRUE;
      }
      $this->pages->next();
    }
  }        

Bless your heart, @angel-rs , this was epic!
Thanks Giuseppe as well for such fine code 💯

-   $path = trim( $this->getPathInfo(), '/' );
+   $path = trim(strtok($this->getPathInfo(), "?"), "/");

Works amazing! Thank you @gmazzap !

To others looking at this coming from StackOverFlow, the code on the gist works. Copying from here rather than the answer gets everything working properly.