Creating Pages

Build a page WHMCS does not have - a landing page, a policy page, a comparison table - and register it so Page Manager treats it like every page the theme ships. Four small files, no database work, and it survives updates.

Introduction#

A new page is two things stacked on top of each other. WHMCS provides the bottom half: a .php file in your web root that boots the client area and names a template. Hadrian provides the top half: the theme wraps that template in its header and footer, and registers the page so it appears in Hadrian -> Pages with the same SEO panel, template cards and layout overrides as everything else.

You never touch the database and never edit a shipped file, so everything in this article survives both WHMCS updates and theme updates.

Hadrian ships a working example. If your install came with custom-page.php in the WHMCS root, open https://your-domain.com/custom-page.php:

That page is built from exactly the four files this article walks through, and it is already registered - open Hadrian -> Pages and it is in the Public group:

This article is written for whoever edits the files - a developer comfortable with basic PHP and Smarty. Everything after the files exist happens in the admin, like any other page.

The four files#

For a page named about, reachable at https://your-domain.com/about.php:

One name threads through all four: the entry file's setTemplate('about') must match the dispatcher's filename, which must match the core/pages/about/ folder. Lowercase letters, digits and hyphens.

1. 1Copy custom-page.php in your WHMCS root to about.php, change setPageTitle(...), and change setTemplate('custom-page') to setTemplate('about').
2. 2Copy templates/hadrian/custom-page.tpl to templates/hadrian/about.tpl and replace every custom-page inside it with about.
3. 3Create templates/hadrian/core/pages/about/page.php - the reference below.
4. 4Create templates/hadrian/core/pages/about/default/default.tpl and put your markup in it. The shipped custom-page/default/default.tpl is a token-correct starting point.
5. 5Open Hadrian -> Pages. The page is in the list - no cache to clear, no version to bump. Give it SEO copy, a Public URL, or a layout override like any other page.

The entry file#

<?php

use WHMCS\ClientArea;

define('CLIENTAREA', true);

require __DIR__ . '/init.php';

$ca = new ClientArea();

$ca->setPageTitle('About us');
$ca->initPage();

// Uncomment to require a logged-in client (otherwise the page is public):
// $ca->requireLogin();

$ca->setTemplate('about');

$ca->output();

This is plain WHMCS - their documentation covers the ClientArea API. Two lines matter to Hadrian:

setPageTitle is the fallback <title> and on-page heading. It is one string in one language; once the page is registered, the per-language SEO title on the Pages tab is the better home for it and wins when set.

requireLogin gates the page inside WHMCS itself, before any template renders. The admin's Visibility setting on the Pages tab does the same job from a dropdown - Authenticated only redirects signed-out visitors to login, Disabled (404) takes the page offline - details in Page Manager.

The dispatcher#

WHMCS renders templates/hadrian/about.tpl between the theme's header and footer. The file stays two lines of logic forever - the body lives in core/pages, where Page Manager can see it:

{if isset($hadrian.pages['about'].fullPath) && $hadrian.pages['about'].fullPath && file_exists("templates/`$hadrian.pages['about'].fullPath`")}
    {include file="`$hadrian.pages['about'].fullPath`"}
{else}
    {include file="`$template`/core/pages/about/default/default.tpl"}
{/if}

The first branch renders whatever template is activated in the admin - that is what makes the Page template cards work on your page. The fallback keeps the page rendering even if the Hadrian addon is deactivated.

page.php#

<?php
return [
    'display_name' => 'About us',
    'group'        => 'Public',
    'description'  => 'Who we are and why we host.',
    'seoDefaults'  => [
        'indexing'    => 'allow',
        'title'       => 'About us',
        'description' => 'The team and the platform behind the hosting.',
    ],
];

Strictly, page.php is optional - a folder with a valid template inside already registers. Skip it and the page lists under its folder name in the Other group, which is a worse first impression than three lines of PHP.

The body#

Your default.tpl is ordinary Smarty rendered inside the theme, so everything the theme's own pages use is on the table:

• Design tokens. Colour with var(--color-*) and size with the --w-* width tokens, and the page follows every Style Manager change, light and dark mode included. Hardcoded hex values are how a page ends up ignoring dark mode.
• Marketing components. The hp-* classes from the theme stylesheet - heroes, pricing tables, feature grids - are the same ones the homepage and store pages are built from.
• Language strings. {$hadrianLang.*} reaches the theme's language file; add your copy to core/lang/english.php rather than hardcoding it, and the page translates like the rest of the theme.
• Page state. The full $hadrian payload - branding, settings, the page's own saved options - plus every WHMCS variable a client-area page gets.

The details, including the per-page stylesheet convention and how to declare settings of your own, are in What a template can read.

Full-width pages#

A landing page often wants no portal chrome at all. Declare it in the template's metadata file - default/default.php beside the .tpl:

<?php
return [
    'name'        => 'Default',
    'description' => 'The landing layout, edge to edge.',
    'fullPage'    => true,
];

With fullPage set, the page keeps the theme's <head> - SEO tags, styles, scripts - but drops the navigation, sidebar, breadcrumb, content container and footer. You are handed the naked <body>, which is exactly what a hero that starts at pixel zero needs. The shipped "split" login template is a working example.

Because it is declared per template, a page can offer both: a default template inside the portal chrome and a landing template without it, and the admin switches between them from the Page template cards.

More templates, overrides, everything else#

From here the page is a citizen like any other, and the other articles apply as written: