Set static front page and blog page programmatically in WordPress

You want to make sure the About and Blog pages exist, so create them before if necessary, see wp_insert_post()

<?php

// Use a static front page
$about = get_page_by_title( 'About' );
update_option( 'page_on_front', $about->ID );
update_option( 'show_on_front', 'page' );

// Set the blog page
$blog   = get_page_by_title( 'Blog' );
update_option( 'page_for_posts', $blog->ID );

// Switch to our theme
//switch_theme( 'Template', 'stylesheet' );
?>

Published on Dec. 12, 2010 at 10:30 a.m. by Nicolas and tagged plugin, theme, WordPress, WordPress plugin, WordPress theme. You can follow the discussion with the comment feed for this post. Feeling generous? Donate!

24 comments

Frank wrote this comment on Dec. 26, 2010, 7:02 p.m.

Dear Friend, I´m try to get my posts in my blog page and I saw your code but where can I put this?

Index.php or and different file?

Regards
Frank

Reply to this comment
1. nicolas wrote this comment on Dec. 27, 2010, 3:08 p.m.
  
  This code is intended for plugin authors. You should use the usual settings page, settings->reading.
  
  Reply to this comment
James Moelk wrote this comment on Jan. 23, 2011, 5:54 p.m.

do you know what hook you would need to connect with to create this static home page? Or does the update_options do this automatically?

Reply to this comment
1. nicolas wrote this comment on Jan. 23, 2011, 7:58 p.m.
  
  Good question. IIRC plugin activations hook fire before init, so I'm not sure if that would be safe.
  
  For themes, no idea, afaik they don't have activation hooks.
  
  I use this code on wpmu_new_blog, but that's probably not what you're looking for :-)
  
  Reply to this comment
Nick Christensen wrote this comment on March 19, 2011, 4:54 a.m.

I am assuming this goes into functions.php, but where could it be placed to just fire once, on first install of a theme?

Reply to this comment
1. Nicolas Kuttler wrote this comment on March 27, 2011, 11:54 p.m.
  
  Oops, looks like I forgot to answer your question. For a theme you'll want to implement your own activation hook, as WordPress doesn't have one. I think the easiest would be to add a 'theme_setup' option or somesuch that you check on each pageload. But doing this doesn't sound ideal.
  
  Reply to this comment
Errol wrote this comment on June 8, 2011, 1:53 p.m.

I administer a community website in the UK. I am currently using Seashore as our theme which has three columns. We would like to make the site member-ship only and I think that WP-Members would be fine to get viewers and contributors to register and login. However, WPM is based upon Twenty Ten and Twenty Eleven so when I activate it the registration form bleeds into my theme columns.

I thought that a splash page would be better and have noticed your code. However I am not a coder. Can you help?

Reply to this comment
1. Nicolas Kuttler wrote this comment on June 8, 2011, 8:44 p.m.
  
  Hello Errol, I can certainly help. Please use my contact form if you're interested in hiring me.
  
  Reply to this comment
  1. Matt wrote this comment on July 18, 2011, 2:44 a.m.
    
    Is there anyway to have a navigation link in my nav-bar that will point towards the author template page??
    
    Reply to this comment
    1. Nicolas Kuttler wrote this comment on July 20, 2011, 1:50 p.m.
      
      The nav menu system lets you add links to anything you like. There are also plugins like page-links-to if you don't use the (relatively new) menu system.
      
      Reply to this comment
George wrote this comment on July 9, 2011, 1:13 p.m.

Hi Nicolas. I've changed my "home" page from posts to static as described in your guide. However, with this change the static page "moved" upwards and is blocking my header pic. Where do I makes changes for the static page to fit properly? Thx.

Reply to this comment
1. Nicolas Kuttler wrote this comment on July 9, 2011, 1:20 p.m.
  
  Either the css or the right template, see http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Hierarchy
  
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Rob wrote this comment on Sept. 21, 2011, 10:16 p.m.

Hi, maybe you can point me in the right direction for this. I have a WP site, and I'd like to change it to have a NON-WP static front page, that I could use to link to the WP site. Any idea what I'd need to do?

Thanks

Reply to this comment
1. Nicolas Kuttler wrote this comment on Sept. 26, 2011, 7:53 p.m.
  
  You could simply drop an index.html file into the root directory. Depending on the server configuration it should be displayed by default.
  
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GE wrote this comment on Jan. 15, 2012, 3:20 a.m.

I am using the Twenty Eleven theme and have made my home page a static page. I want to change the title and the area where it resides on all the pages to make it smaller in height, to add a logo and slogan under the title and to change the font and its color. I am new to code and do not know where to find the code that allows me to make these changes.

Reply to this comment
1. Nicolas Kuttler wrote this comment on Jan. 17, 2012, 8:35 p.m.
  
  Hi, have a look at http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Development
  
  Reply to this comment
Scott wrote this comment on Jan. 29, 2012, 2:39 a.m.

I set the front page as static and created another page as a blog page for posts. I'm creating a different page for each article I want to publish. I left the blog page blank except for the title as instructed. But I'm confused. I want to make small posts that will appear on the blog page, linking to my article pages. How do I make that happen?

Thanks in advance.

Reply to this comment
axnDomains wrote this comment on Feb. 24, 2012, 1:23 a.m.

I like to create the static page in v 3.3.1 but I can't follow the same directions. The dashboard is different.

So Q: How can I create static page in this new version?

TIA

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Abhay Bajpai wrote this comment on Nov. 22, 2012, 7:20 a.m.

Hi Nicolas,
I am a beginner in word press, I want to create a Joomla Site In word press.
Also I've not any source code or admin id/password for that site. So Guide me how to create
theme & other functionality. thanx.

Reply to this comment
Nicolas Kuttler wrote this comment on Nov. 22, 2012, 8:43 p.m.

It sounds like you may want http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Development

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Chris wrote this comment on Dec. 10, 2012, 11:10 p.m.

It seems as though setting up a static front page has changed in this newest release (3.4.something), and I cannot set up a non post - page only site anymore... what's up with that?

HELP!

Reply to this comment
1. Nicolas Kuttler wrote this comment on Dec. 10, 2012, 11:13 p.m.
  
  Not sure what you mean?
  
  Reply to this comment
2. LJK wrote this comment on Feb. 14, 2013, 6:42 a.m.
  
  Chris - I just discovered that if you delete all pages or haven't created one, then the option disappears in WPadmin...
  
  Reply to this comment
Steve wrote this comment on Jan. 21, 2013, 12:25 p.m.

Hi all - Great plugin

How can I get event to also be displayed on this theme's "Avenue Theme" carousel on th homepage. For all other posts I tag the post to be "featured" and upload a larger image so it adds it to the homepage carousel. Is this possible with events manager? Any help would be appreciated

Also will this work with multsites?

www.grektown.com.au

Thanking you in advance

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