Advanced Custom Post Types

Advanced
Custom Post Types
& Taxonomies
WordCamp San Diego 2013
#wcsd
@theandystratton

Saturday, March 23, 13

Who am I?


Freelance
WordPress Developer


Founder


What are
Custom Post Types?


Generic Post Content
Inherit core user interface
& functionality


Including:
Post meta, attachments, featured image,
hierarchies, comments, etc.


What are
Custom Taxonomies?


Generic Tags/Categories


Taxonomies
create relationships
between content


Why should we use them?


In the old days, we’d:
Re-purpose blog posts
filtering by category/tag


Create custom database
tables and functionality


Use strange plugins
and non-standard code


This is pretty much
doing it wrong.


Why DO we custom post
types/taxonomies?


Future compatible


WordPress Coding Standards


Theme & Plugin compatibility
(page ordering, SEO plugins, etc.)


Flexible & Extendible
Post Meta, attachments,
hierarchies, ordering, featured images


Help maintain a
consistent user-interface
&
consistent user-experience


@alternatekev:
“Build design systems.”


For what can we use
custom post types?


Home Page Sliders


Callout Boxes


Photo Galleries


Locations


Job Postings


People/Teams


Reusable Static Content


HTML Emails


Let’s break these
site elements down into
CPT components.


Callout Boxes
image


Callout Boxes
image

content


Callout Boxes
Element Post Type Element

Image Featured Image

Content Post Title/Content

In post content, OR
Link
custom field


More Post Type Maps


Photo Gallery
Image Gallery Post Attachments
Title Post Title

Description Post Content

Date Post Date


People/Teams
Photo Featured Image
Person Name Post Title

Description Post Content

Additional Info
Custom Fields/Post Meta
(Title, Phone, etc.)


This gives us some
great benefits...


Content Scheduling
Use publish date and
the Post Expirator plugin
wordpress.org/extend/plugins/post-expirator/


Content Staging Library
Save callouts as drafts.
Easily swap content with more options
than text widgets.


Benefits Case Study
Marketing Sliders for Brick Bodies


Marketing Team
Anyone with publish capabilities can
create, schedule and expire slides.


Monthly Plans
Plan their specials/events in advance
Set their next month’s slides to
publish when current expire


WordPress Standards
Consistent UI & user experience
If a user can add/edit a post, they can
add/edit a slide


WordPress Standards
Future compatible
Compatible with plugins
(e.g. post expirator)


Enhancing the Core UI


Enhancing the Core UI
We should add context to everything.
Add logical elements to make
managing content easier.


Enter Title Here


Easy Code

https://gist.github.com/theandystratton/5225881


Custom Menu Icons


Admin Columns


Custom Columns



Custom Column Content


Make Great Experiences
Meet user expectations
(clicking the thumbnail edits the post)
Show all relevant data


Taxonomy:
Store Categories
Can group/relate content
Filter the edit screen


Clicking Entertainment in the “Store
Categories” column filters listing by
locations tagged “Entertainment.”


Using “show_admin_column” when
registering a public taxonomy.
gist.github.com/theandystratton/5226656

Add Context with
Taxonomies
Case Study: Content Tags


General Tags
Applied to pages, posts and
all custom post types


Create relationships across
all post types
Easily relate unrelated content


Example:
LIIFund.org


Some pages are content about
specific types of projects.


Custom post type of “statistics”
used to populate the
left sidebar column


Client wants “Child Care”
statistics to auto-populate in the
sidebar of the child care page


Page


Page

Custom Post Type


Used content tags to relate
pages to statistics
& pull programmatically.


wp_dropdown_categories()


These content tags allow users to
tag content and we can use it to
provide contextual content.


You can pair content tags
(a generic taxonomy)
with content blocks
(a generic post type)
to rapidly deploy all sorts of
contextual content management.


Content Blocks
https://github.com/szbl/szbl-content-blocks/

Content Tags
https://github.com/szbl/szbl-content-tags/


Be Extendible!
Think Like Core.
Be Like Core.


Hooks
Do Actions.
Apply Filters.


What if I want to hide the admin column
and only apply these to pages and posts?


We can hook into Content Tags like this:


Truly Extendible.
You can customize code.
You can re-use code.


Your plugins folder
may look like this:


Your plugins folder
may look like this:

This plugin...


Your plugins folder
may look like this:

This plugin...
Modifies
these
plugins


Saves time.
Saves money.
Updates are easier.
Functionality is not
tethered to a theme.


Some Final DOs & DON’Ts


DON’T
Alter/change core
user-interface
(CSS, Javascript, core hacks)


DON’T
Re-brand WordPress as your
own custom CMS.
(You’re not fooling anyone.)


DON’T
Use custom tables or
database queries when
it is not necessary.
(In most cases, it’s not.)


DON’T
Forget about widgets,
sidebars and menus.


DON’T
Overcomplicate Shit.
(Complicate shit when
shit gets complicated.)


DO
Use the Core UI


DO
Create additional UI
elements via Core CSS.
Let core inspire you.


DO
Place your code into plugins.
Even custom themes need plugin love.


DO
Constantly improve
your code.


DO
Re-use your code.


DO
Write extendible code.
Use Actions and Filters.


DO
Share your code.
WP.org/GitHub/Gist/your blog


DO
Be awesome.
Love what you do. Do it well.


Thanks for the time.


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