Why would a developer build all page content in php?

[mphdavidson]

Picked up a new client. Site is built on Wordpress.  Previous developer built nearly all page content in their custom theme's PHP files.

In other words, the theme's "page.php" file contains virtually all the HTML for each of the site's pages. Each individual page's back-end page editor appears blank, except for some of the page text. No markup, no widgets, no custom fields. And no dedicated, page-specific php files either.

Pages are differentiated within page.php using:

elseif (is_page("27")

Has anyone ever come across this approach before? Why might someone do this?

[Lumina]

The only reasons I can think of are:

• the developer might have been unfamiliar with Wordpress back-end editing.
• the developer is rooted mostly in PHP and thus favors that structure.
• there was something specific to the client's website that requires this method.

There are several possible reasons, and I think the only way to proceed safely would be for you or your client to get in contact with the previous developer and ask. Aside from that, looking through the PHP to see if there's a genuine reason is the next safest option.

[mphdavidson]

Thanks Bryan! I appreciate the time you took to respond to this. I'm sorry I didn't respond sooner!

Cheers!