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Custom Post Types and Taxonomies:

What are custom post types and taxonomies?​

What are custom post types?​

  • There are multiple different post types already defined:
    • Posts
    • Pages
  • Native Post Attributes:
    • Organized in Reverse-chronological order
    • Non-Hierarchical
    • Organized based on author, date published, or tags.
  • Native Page Attributes
    • Single Pieces of content
    • Can have parent/child relationships
    • No index page - shown in menu
    • No categories or tags
    • Usually Accessed through direct links
  • Pages are normally static content, while posts are normally more time-sensitive information.
  • Custom Post Types allow you to create your own custom content types.

What are custom taxonomies?​

  • Taxonomies are schemes of classification
  • Taxonomies - A way to organize data, which allows you to relate one item to other similar itesm ina heiracrhical or non-hierarhicical group.
  • There are two default taxonomies
    • Categories (required)
      • Have a hierarchical structure.
      • Have a parent child relationship.
    • Tags:
      • non-hierarchical
  • Custom taxonimies can be hierarchical or non-hierarchical. This can also apply to your regular posts.

Where does the code belong for custom post types or taxonomies?​

  • They used to belong in themes....
    • However, if you choose to change your theme, you will lose the custom functionality.
  • They are now done in a plugin, so you can keep the custom post types or taxonimies or theme switch. A child theme can then be made so that you can create custom styles.

Creating Custom Post Types without code:​

The no-code solutions:​

  • There are certain plugins that allow you to create custom post types:
    • Custom Post Type UI
    • Pods - Custom Content Types and Fields

... Moving on the the code sections. (UI is self explainitory for those two plugins)

Coding your Own Custom Post Types:​

Creating your post types and taxonomies:​

  • It is a good idea to suffix your folder with post-types.
  • The Plugin definition block must be included.
  • To ensure a plugin isn't accessed directly:
if ( ! defined ( "WPINC" )) {
    die;
}
  • Common definitions for wordpress plugins:
    • define( '<slug>_VERSION', '1.0.0' ) - Version of the plugin
    • define( '<slug>DOMAIN', '<domain>' ) - Normally the name of the plugin folder.
    • define( '<slug>PATH', plugin_dir_path( __FILE__ ) ) - File Path of the plugin.

== See example in parent folder for code implementation ==

  • The wordpress codex will give you all the labels that you can customize.
  • You must flush the permalinks to display the new post types on the front-end.
    • Archive pages are the base permalink.
    • You can flush the permalinks in code:
      • flush_rewrite_rules( $hard );
      • You want to be careful that you are not calling this function too much!
  • Wordpress does support meta-types.
    • You can include singular post types.
    • Advanced Custom Fields is a great plugin that allows you to create custom fields by yourself.
  • Taxonomies do not have a top level archive page.

Coding your Own Custom Post Templates:​

  • Naming custom taxonomy tempalates (words starting with $ can by anything you like):
    • taxonomy-$taxonomy-$term.php
    • taxonomy-$taxonomy.php
  • Page templates are normally named:
    • $custom.php
  • By default, wordpress will only display the default post type on the main page.
    • This must be included in the pre_get_posts hook.