How can I get the current page name in WordPress?

Question

What PHP code can be used to retrieve the current page name in a WordPress theme?

All the solutions I have seen so far (the_title(), get_page()->post_name, get_post(), etc.) don't work for a page that contains post entries. They will all return the name of the latest blog entry.

Stated another way, assume that you have a page created in WordPress with the name "My News". This page is set as the "post page". Add a couple of posts to the page. Now, what API can be used to retrieve the string "my-news" instead of the name of the latest post?

---

I've found the following variable which seems to work.

$wp_query->queried_object->post_name

This is actually the URL friendly version of the page name (slug), which is what I was looking for too. This was tested with the default template (Twenty Ten). I'm really not sure why the two variables given below do not work on my site. Thanks to keatch for the print_r() tip.

Now, why is this information hidden so deep down?

Answer 1

The WordPress global variable $pagename should be available for you. I have just tried with the same setup you specified.

$pagename is defined in the file wp-includes/theme.php, inside the function get_page_template(), which is of course is called before your page theme files are parsed, so it is available at any point inside your templates for pages.

• Although it doesn't appear to be documented, the $pagename var is only set if you use permalinks. I guess this is because if you don't use them, WordPress doesn't need the page slug, so it doesn't set it up.

• $pagename is not set if you use the page as a static front page.

• This is the code inside /wp-includes/theme.php, which uses the solution you pointed out when $pagename can't be set:

--

if ( !$pagename && $id > 0 ) {
  // If a static page is set as the front page, $pagename will not be set. Retrieve it from the queried object
  $post = $wp_query->get_queried_object();
  $pagename = $post->post_name;
}

Answer 2

My approach to get the slug name of the page:

$slug = basename(get_permalink());

Answer 3

<?php wp_title(''); ?>

This worked for me.

If I understand correctly, you want to get the page name on a page that has post entries.

Answer 4

Ok, you must grab the page title before the loop.

$page_title = $wp_query->post->post_title;

Check for the reference: http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/WP_Query#Properties.

Do a

print_r($wp_query)

before the loop to see all the values of the $wp_query object.

Answer 5

You can get the current page, post, or custom post type with the global variable $post:

echo $post->post_title

Note: In a function or class you'll need to specify global $post; prior to trying to use $post.

If you have loops on your page, make sure you end each loop with wp_reset_postdata(); to set $post back to the default item being displayed (the page).

Note, the 'post_title' variable is also available for any custom loop / query... including menu items and media attachments... everything in WordPress is a 'post'.

Answer 6

If you're looking to access the current page from within your functions.php file (so, before the loop, before $post is populated, before $wp_query is initialized, etc...) you really have no choice but to access the server variables themselves and extract the requested page from the query string.

$page_slug = trim( $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"] , '/' )

Note that this is a "dumb" solution. It doesn't know, for instance that the page with the slug 'coming-soon' is also p=6. And it assumes that your permalink settings are set to pagename (which they should be anyway!).

Still, can be a useful little trick if you have a controlled scenario. I'm using this in a situation where I wish to redirect non-logged in visitors to a "coming soon" page; but I have to make sure that I'm not throwing them into the dreaded "redirect loop", so I need to exclude the "coming soon" page from this rule:

global $pagenow;
if (
        ! is_admin() &&
        'wp-login.php' != $pagenow &&
        'coming-soon' != trim( $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"] , '/' ) &&
        ! is_user_logged_in()
){
   wp_safe_redirect( 'coming-soon' );
}

Answer 7

I believe that the Roots starter theme has a fantastic function to get the current page title. It is very hackable, covers all bases, and can be easily used with the wp_title hook.

/**
 * Page titles
 */
function roots_title() {
  if (is_home()) {
    if (get_option('page_for_posts', true)) {
      echo get_the_title(get_option('page_for_posts', true));
    } else {
      _e('Latest Posts', 'roots');
    }
  } elseif (is_archive()) {
    $term = get_term_by('slug', get_query_var('term'), get_query_var('taxonomy'));
    if ($term) {
      echo $term->name;
    } elseif (is_post_type_archive()) {
      echo get_queried_object()->labels->name;
    } elseif (is_day()) {
      printf(__('Daily Archives: %s', 'roots'), get_the_date());
    } elseif (is_month()) {
      printf(__('Monthly Archives: %s', 'roots'), get_the_date('F Y'));
    } elseif (is_year()) {
      printf(__('Yearly Archives: %s', 'roots'), get_the_date('Y'));
    } elseif (is_author()) {
      $author = get_queried_object();
      printf(__('Author Archives: %s', 'roots'), $author->display_name);
    } else {
      single_cat_title();
    }
  } elseif (is_search()) {
    printf(__('Search Results for %s', 'roots'), get_search_query());
  } elseif (is_404()) {
    _e('Not Found', 'roots');
  } else {
    the_title();
  }
}

Answer 8

We just need to use the "post" global variable:

global $post;
echo $post->post_title;

This will echo the current page/post title.

Answer 9

Try this:

$pagename = get_query_var('pagename');

Answer 10

I have come up with a simpler solution.

Get the returned value of the page name from wp_title(). If empty, print homepage name, otherwise echo the wp_title() value.

<?php $title = wp_title('', false); ?>

Remember to remove the separation with the first argument and then set display to false to use as an input to the variable. Then just bung the code between your heading, etc. tags.

<?php if ( $title == "" ) : echo "Home"; else : echo $title; endif; ?>

It worked a treat for me and ensuring that the first is declared in the section where you wish to extract the $title, this can be tuned to return different variables.

Answer 11

Use:

$title = get_the_title($post);
$parent_title = get_the_title($post->post_parent);

echo $title;
echo $parent_title;

Answer 12

This seems to be the easiest to use:

<?php single_post_title(); ?>

Answer 13

Show the title before the loop starts:

$page_title = $wp_query->post->post_title;

Answer 14

One option, if you're looking for the actual queried page, rather than the page ID or slug is to intercept the query:

add_action('parse_request', 'show_query', 10, 1);

Within your function, you have access to the $wp object and you can get either the pagename or the post name with:

function show_query($wp){
     if ( ! is_admin() ){ // heck we don't need the admin pages
         echo $wp->query_vars['pagename'];
         echo $wp->query_vars['name'];
     }
}

If, on the other hand, you really need the post data, the first place to get it (and arguably in this context, the best) is:

add_action('wp', 'show_page_name', 10, 1);

function show_page_name($wp){
     if ( ! is_admin() ){
        global $post;
        echo $post->ID, " : ", $post->post_name;
     }
}

Finally, I realize this probably wasn't the OP's question, but if you're looking for the Admin page name, use the global $pagenow.

Answer 15

Within the WordPress Loop:

if ( have_posts() ) : while ( have_posts() ) : the_post();
/******************************************/
echo get_the_title();
/******************************************/
endwhile; endif;

This will show you the current page title.

For reference: get_the_title()

Answer 16

Here's my version:

$title = ucwords(str_replace('-', ' ', get_query_var('pagename')));

get_query_var('pagename') was just giving me the page slug. So the above replaces all the dashes, and makes the first letter of each word uppercase - so it can actually be used as a title.

Answer 17

This is what I ended up using, as of 2018:

<section id="top-<?=(is_front_page() ? 'home' : basename(get_permalink()));?>">

Answer 18

I've now found this function on WordPress Codec,

get queried

which is a wrapper for $wp_query->get_queried_object.

This post put me in the right direction, but it seems that it needs this update.

Answer 19

This also works if you are in the functions.php. It is not the best approach since you have to use the global array, but it works.

1. First, we need to add a filter. There must exist a better filter to use than the template_include, but I don't know all of them. Please point me to the right one.

   add_filter( 'template_include', 'var_template_include', 1000 );
   function var_template_include( $template ){
       global $wp_query;
       $GLOBALS['current_page'] = $wp_query->get_queried_object()->post_name;
       return $template;
   }
   

2. Avoid using the variable directly

   function get_current_page( $echo =  false ) {
       if( !isset( $GLOBALS['current_page'] ) )
           return false;
       return $GLOBALS['current_page'];
   }
   

3. Now you can use the function get_current_page() in any other part of the functions.php.