Custom Page Template is not shown as page section in Wordpress twentyseventeen theme?

Question

I created a page template and put it as the theme for a page. After that i have chosen this page as a page section in the twenty seventeen theme options but the content of this page is not shown just if you access the page directly and not as a page section.

<?php
/*
Template Name: Contact
*/
?>

<?php
if(isset($_POST['submitted'])) {
    if(trim($_POST['contactName']) === '') {
        $nameError = 'Please enter your name.';
        $hasError = true;
    } else {
        $name = trim($_POST['contactName']);
    }

    if(trim($_POST['email']) === '')  {
        $emailError = 'Please enter your email address.';
        $hasError = true;
    } else if (!preg_match("/^[[:alnum:]][a-z0-9_.-]*@[a-z0-9.-]+\.[a-z]{2,4}$/i", trim($_POST['email']))) {
        $emailError = 'You entered an invalid email address.';
        $hasError = true;
    } else {
        $email = trim($_POST['email']);
    }

    if(trim($_POST['comments']) === '') {
        $commentError = 'Please enter a message.';
        $hasError = true;
    } else {
        if(function_exists('stripslashes')) {
            $comments = stripslashes(trim($_POST['comments']));
        } else {
            $comments = trim($_POST['comments']);
        }
    }

    if(!isset($hasError)) {
        $emailTo = get_option('tz_email');
        if (!isset($emailTo) || ($emailTo == '') ){
            $emailTo = get_option('admin_email');
        }
        $subject = '[PHP Snippets] From '.$name;
        $body = "Name: $name \n\nEmail: $email \n\nComments: $comments";
        $headers = 'From: '.$name.' <'.$emailTo.'>' . "\r\n" . 'Reply-To: ' . $email;

        wp_mail($emailTo, $subject, $body, $headers);
        $emailSent = true;
    }

} ?>
<?php get_header(); ?>
    <div id="container">
        <div id="content">

            <?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
            <div <?php post_class() ?> id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
                <h1 class="entry-title"><?php the_title(); ?></h1>
                    <div class="entry-content">
                        <?php if(isset($emailSent) && $emailSent == true) { ?>
                            <div class="thanks">
                                <p>Thanks, your email was sent successfully.</p>
                            </div>
                        <?php } else { ?>
                            <?php the_content(); ?>
                            <?php if(isset($hasError) || isset($captchaError)) { ?>
                                <p class="error">Sorry, an error occured.<p>
                            <?php } ?>

                        <form action="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" id="contactForm" method="post">
                            <ul class="contactform">
                            <li>
                                <label for="contactName">Name:</label>
                                <input type="text" name="contactName" id="contactName" value="<?php if(isset($_POST['contactName'])) echo $_POST['contactName'];?>" class="required requiredField" />
                                <?php if($nameError != '') { ?>
                                    <span class="error"><?=$nameError;?></span>
                                <?php } ?>
                            </li>

                            <li>
                                <label for="email">Email</label>
                                <input type="text" name="email" id="email" value="<?php if(isset($_POST['email']))  echo $_POST['email'];?>" class="required requiredField email" />
                                <?php if($emailError != '') { ?>
                                    <span class="error"><?=$emailError;?></span>
                                <?php } ?>
                            </li>

                            <li><label for="commentsText">Message:</label>
                                <textarea name="comments" id="commentsText" rows="20" cols="30" class="required requiredField"><?php if(isset($_POST['comments'])) { if(function_exists('stripslashes')) { echo stripslashes($_POST['comments']); } else { echo $_POST['comments']; } } ?></textarea>
                                <?php if($commentError != '') { ?>
                                    <span class="error"><?=$commentError;?></span>
                                <?php } ?>
                            </li>

                            <li>
                                <input type="submit">Send email</input>
                            </li>
                        </ul>
                        <input type="hidden" name="submitted" id="submitted" value="true" />
                    </form>
                <?php } ?>
                </div><!-- .entry-content -->
            </div><!-- .post -->

                <?php endwhile; endif; ?>
        </div><!-- #content -->
    </div><!-- #container -->

<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

I hope you can help me guys. Thanks in advance! :)

Edit:

The website with the custom page template is displayed when you access the page directly like for example http://example.com/testing .

direct link

But if you want to set it as a page section in the twentyseventeen theme under the theme options the space, where the custom template should appear, is blank. This is the case if you access it via http://example.com . The site is a onepager and the testing page with the custom page template is a section of it.

front page

2nd Edit:

I set the custom page as a page section by just setting it in the theme options.

theme options of twentyseventeen theme

Answer 1

You're trying to use wordpress functions out of wordpress. Place this code require_once($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/wp-load.php'); directly to next line of opening php tag <?php at 8th line of your code.

This may not work if your wordpress installation is on some folder of your main server directory. Then you can try this one:

//place this at the same position, as I mentioned above
$needPath = realpath(__DIR__ . '/../../..');
require_once($needPath . '/wp-load.php');

Used solution from here to go several levels up in the filesystem. Because we need to go to main wordpress installation folder from {wp-main-folder}/wp-content/themes/twentyseventeen/{your-file} , we should to go 3 levels up for reaching wp-load.php file.

EDIT

Also, it will be useful to check, if your page is called from/out of your wordpress installation. So, you can use this solution for it:

//place this to the same place as described above
if(!defined(ABSPATH)) {
    $needPath = realpath(__DIR__ . '/../../..');
    require_once($needPath . '/wp-load.php');
}

Tested and working

Edit: more detailed

<?php
/*
Template Name: Contact
*/
if(!defined(ABSPATH)) {
    $needPath = realpath(__DIR__ . '/../../..');
    require_once($needPath . '/wp-load.php');
}

if(isset($_POST['submitted'])) {
    if(trim($_POST['contactName']) === '') {
        $nameError = 'Please enter your name.';
        $hasError = true;
    } else {
        $name = trim($_POST['contactName']);
    }

    if(trim($_POST['email']) === '')  {
        $emailError = 'Please enter your email address.';
        $hasError = true;
    } else if (!preg_match("/^[[:alnum:]][a-z0-9_.-]*@[a-z0-9.-]+\.[a-z]{2,4}$/i", trim($_POST['email']))) {
        $emailError = 'You entered an invalid email address.';
        $hasError = true;
    } else {
        $email = trim($_POST['email']);
    }

    if(trim($_POST['comments']) === '') {
        $commentError = 'Please enter a message.';
        $hasError = true;
    } else {
        if(function_exists('stripslashes')) {
            $comments = stripslashes(trim($_POST['comments']));
        } else {
            $comments = trim($_POST['comments']);
        }
    }

    if(!isset($hasError)) {
        $emailTo = get_option('tz_email');
        if (!isset($emailTo) || ($emailTo == '') ){
            $emailTo = get_option('admin_email');
        }
        $subject = '[PHP Snippets] From '.$name;
        $body = "Name: $name \n\nEmail: $email \n\nComments: $comments";
        $headers = 'From: '.$name.' <'.$emailTo.'>' . "\r\n" . 'Reply-To: ' . $email;

        wp_mail($emailTo, $subject, $body, $headers);
        $emailSent = true;
    }

} ?>
<?php get_header(); ?>
    <div id="container">
        <div id="content">

            <?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
                <div <?php post_class() ?> id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">
                    <h1 class="entry-title"><?php the_title(); ?></h1>
                    <div class="entry-content">
                        <?php if(isset($emailSent) && $emailSent == true) { ?>
                            <div class="thanks">
                                <p>Thanks, your email was sent successfully.</p>
                            </div>
                        <?php } else { ?>
                            <?php the_content(); ?>
                            <?php if(isset($hasError) || isset($captchaError)) { ?>
                                <p class="error">Sorry, an error occured.<p>
                            <?php } ?>

                            <form action="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" id="contactForm" method="post">
                                <ul class="contactform">
                                    <li>
                                        <label for="contactName">Name:</label>
                                        <input type="text" name="contactName" id="contactName" value="<?php if(isset($_POST['contactName'])) echo $_POST['contactName'];?>" class="required requiredField" />
                                        <?php if($nameError != '') { ?>
                                            <span class="error"><?=$nameError;?></span>
                                        <?php } ?>
                                    </li>

                                    <li>
                                        <label for="email">Email</label>
                                        <input type="text" name="email" id="email" value="<?php if(isset($_POST['email']))  echo $_POST['email'];?>" class="required requiredField email" />
                                        <?php if($emailError != '') { ?>
                                            <span class="error"><?=$emailError;?></span>
                                        <?php } ?>
                                    </li>

                                    <li><label for="commentsText">Message:</label>
                                        <textarea name="comments" id="commentsText" rows="20" cols="30" class="required requiredField"><?php if(isset($_POST['comments'])) { if(function_exists('stripslashes')) { echo stripslashes($_POST['comments']); } else { echo $_POST['comments']; } } ?></textarea>
                                        <?php if($commentError != '') { ?>
                                            <span class="error"><?=$commentError;?></span>
                                        <?php } ?>
                                    </li>

                                    <li>
                                        <input type="submit">Send email</input>
                                    </li>
                                </ul>
                                <input type="hidden" name="submitted" id="submitted" value="true" />
                            </form>
                        <?php } ?>
                    </div><!-- .entry-content -->
                </div><!-- .post -->

            <?php endwhile; endif; ?>
        </div><!-- #content -->
    </div><!-- #container -->

<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php get_footer(); ?>

For calling this template from wordpress . you need to call it like( if your website url is http://example.com ):

Create page from wordpress dashboard and choose from the list template on the right side of create page section instead of Default Template the one you want to use:

After it( dont forget to add page title ) save page and go to the url , provided there. If page don't have parent , or permalinks are as ?p=123 then you should access that page like here: http://example.com/your-page-title .

If you're going to access that template directly, you should write url as http://example.com/wp-content/themes/twentyseventeen/your-template-filename.php . This example provided as your template is directly in your twentyseventeen theme folder.