How to create a plugin page on the fly

This example shows how to create a page for the plugin on the fly (without creating the real page in DB). For the output of such page will be responsible our php template file. And we no need to create a page in the admin panel for such a page.

To do this, first we need to add an endpoint for the main page.

add_action( 'init', 'add_my_endpoint' );

function add_my_endpoint(){
	add_rewrite_endpoint( 'myplug-page', EP_ROOT );
}

Now, we need to reset the friendly URL rewrites and we will have such working URL:

• site.com/myplug-page.
• or site.com/myplug-page/my-query_parameter.

// truncate the main query for the main page of the site,
// so improve load performance.
add_filter( 'posts_clauses_request', 'skip_main_query_for_myplugpage', 10, 2 );

function skip_main_query_for_myplugpage( $pieces, $wp_query ){

	if( isset( $wp_query->query['myplug-page'] ) && $wp_query->is_main_query() ){
		$pieces['where'] = ' AND ID = 0';
	}

	return $pieces;
}

Create a page template

$var = get_query_var( 'myplug-page' );

Now let's process the query and include our template file using template_include hook.

add_action( 'template_include', 'myplugpage_template_file', 20 );

function myplugpage_template_file( $template ) {
	global $wp_query;

	// our query
	if ( isset( $wp_query->query['myplug-page'] ) ) {
		$template = __DIR__ . '/path/to/myplug-page-template.php';
	}

	return $template;
}