EE template to serve as "base" templates which see if a country-specific version is available (multi-lingual site). If not then the "default" version is loaded.

template-loader.php

{!--
/**
 * This is a template loader for our multi-lingual / multi-regional site
 * It takes pieces of parameters and assembles them into template_group/template format
 * Then checks the DB to see if such a template exists. If it does then it returns the TRUE stuff
 * If the template does NOT exist it returns the FALSE stuff
 * It can be run as a single template tag to return "y" or "n" on if it exists OR
 * it can be run as a tag pair to return other data based on the result
 *
 * A small custom plugin was written for this functionality
 * pi.if_template.php
 */
--}
{exp:if_template:exists
   template_prefix="{country_seg}_"
   template_name="index"
   template_group="site"
   default_prefix="d_"
   require_prefix="y"
}
   {embed="{template_path}"}
{if_template:else}
   {embed="{default_path}"}
{/exp:if_template:exists}