1. Custom post types allow users to create different content types like recipes, videos, or events within WordPress rather than just blog posts. 2. They provide more flexibility than plugins and make WordPress more of a true CMS. 3. The code to create a custom post type for recipes was demonstrated, including arguments like labels, supports, and hierarchical settings.

1. Custom Post types
in WordPress 3
Dave Zille
May 15, 2010 - WordCamp Victoria BC

2. About Dave
• President, dazil Internet Services
• WordPress dev, WordPress conversions
• web: dazil.com twitter: @dazil
• Principal, Learn it Today
• WordPress classroom and online training
• web: learnittoday.ca twitter: @learnittodayca

3. Agenda
• Custom Post Types:
• What are they? What aren’t they?
• Why do we need them?
• Custom Post Type ideas/examples
• Demo:
• Creating a custom post type
• Displaying a custom post type
• Resources

4. WordPress 3: Not just for Blogs Anymore!
The term “blog” has been
replaced with “site”
throughout
WordPress 3 is (officially)
an actual CMS!
WordPress install process
now asks for “Site Title”

5. Top 5 Reasons WP is a CMS:

6. Top 5 Reasons WP is a CMS:
1. Scalability

7. Top 5 Reasons WP is a CMS:
1. Scalability
2. Security

8. Top 5 Reasons WP is a CMS:
1. Scalability
2. Security
3. Menu Management

9. Top 5 Reasons WP is a CMS:
1. Scalability
2. Security
3. Menu Management
4. Custom Taxonomies

10. Top 5 Reasons WP is a CMS:
1. Scalability
2. Security
3. Menu Management
4. Custom Taxonomies
5. Custom Post Types

11. What are Custom Post Types?
• Custom Post Types are “content” types
• Not to be confused with “blog post”
• Traditional “post” is actually just another Custom
Post Type
• Can be used to store and administer different
types of content on your WordPress site
• Traditionally done via plugins (Flutter, Pods, etc)
• A huge part of why WP 3 is a CMS

12. What aren’t Custom Post Types?
• Custom Post Types are not:
• A replacement for Custom Fields
• (used in conjunction with Custom Fields)
• Completely GUI driven
• (i.e. cannot be created with default WP GUI)

13. Why do we need
Custom Post Types?
• Because Custom Post Types:
• Make it easy to create and edit different
forms of content within WordPress
• Eliminate the need to “fake” custom post
types by using 3rd party plugins
• Will make you and your clients happy!

14. Custom Post Type Examples
• Media:
• Video, Podcasts
• Title,YouTube URL, Length/Duration, Captions,
Show Notes, etc
• Information:
• Car for Sale
• Make, Model, Color, Features, Pictures, etc..

15. Custom Post Type Examples
• Information (cont’d)
• Real Estate Listing
• Price, # bed, # bath, amenities, photos, etc.
• Gallery/Portfolio
• Thumbnail, description, URL, etc.
• Calendar of Events
• Date, time, cost, location, etc.

16. Your First Custom Post Type

17. Your First Custom Post Type
• Case Study:

18. Your First Custom Post Type
• Case Study:
• Recipe database

19. Your First Custom Post Type
• Case Study:
• Recipe database
• Description

20. Your First Custom Post Type
• Case Study:
• Recipe database
• Description
• Ingredients

21. Your First Custom Post Type
• Case Study:
• Recipe database
• Description
• Ingredients
• Prep Time

22. Your First Custom Post Type
• Case Study:
• Recipe database
• Description
• Ingredients
• Prep Time
• Cook Time

23. Custom Post Types: The Code
• The register_post_type() function was introduced in
WordPress 2.9
• WordPress 3 makes register_post_type() very useful
• Minimal code, and a Custom Post Type is up and running:
add_action( 'init', 'create_recipe_post_type' );
function create_recipe_post_type() {
register_post_type( 'recipe',
array(
'label' => __( 'Recipes' ),
'singular_label' => __( 'Recipe' ),
'public' => true,
)
);
}

24. Custom Post Types: The Code

25. Custom Post Types: The Code
• Where does the code go?
• 2 options:
• Create a plugin file, or
• add to your theme’s functions.php

26. Custom Post Types: The Code
• Where does the code go?
• 2 options:
• Create a plugin file, or
• add to your theme’s functions.php
• This is useful, but can I do more?
• The register_post_type() function has 20+ arguments
• Can control a lot about CP Types using them
• Let’s review some of them..

27. Custom Post Types: The Code

28. Custom Post Types: The Code
register_post_type() arguments
• label
• A plural descriptive name for the post type
• eg “Recipes”
• singular_label
• A singular descriptive name for the post type
• eg “Recipe”

29. Custom Post Types: The Code

30. Custom Post Types: The Code
register_post_type() arguments
• description
• A short descriptive summary of what the post type is
• eg. “A set of directions with a list of ingredients for making
or preparing food.”
• public
• Whether or not the post type should be made available in the
admin
• boolean, default: false

31. Custom Post Types: The Code

32. Custom Post Types: The Code
register_post_type() arguments
• menu_position
• Allows the positioning of the post type in the admin menu
• Default: a new post type is added after Comments
• menu_icon
• Allows you to specify a custom icon for the post type
• Default: posts icon

33. Custom Post Types: The Code

34. Custom Post Types: The Code
register_post_type() arguments

35. Custom Post Types: The Code
register_post_type() arguments
• hierarchical

36. Custom Post Types: The Code
register_post_type() arguments
• hierarchical
• Determines whether the post type is hierarchical (as in ‘pages’),
or not (as in ‘posts’)

37. Custom Post Types: The Code
register_post_type() arguments
• hierarchical
• Determines whether the post type is hierarchical (as in ‘pages’),
or not (as in ‘posts’)
• Default: false

38. Custom Post Types: The Code
register_post_type() arguments
• hierarchical
• Determines whether the post type is hierarchical (as in ‘pages’),
or not (as in ‘posts’)
• Default: false
• can_export

39. Custom Post Types: The Code
register_post_type() arguments
• hierarchical
• Determines whether the post type is hierarchical (as in ‘pages’),
or not (as in ‘posts’)
• Default: false
• can_export
• Specifies whether posts of the post type can be exportable using
WordPress’ export function

40. Custom Post Types: The Code
register_post_type() arguments
• hierarchical
• Determines whether the post type is hierarchical (as in ‘pages’),
or not (as in ‘posts’)
• Default: false
• can_export
• Specifies whether posts of the post type can be exportable using
WordPress’ export function
• Default: true

41. Custom Post Types: The Code

42. Custom Post Types: The Code
register_post_type() arguments

43. Custom Post Types: The Code
register_post_type() arguments
• supports

44. Custom Post Types: The Code
register_post_type() arguments
• supports
• Defines what meta boxes and other fields appear when editing
or creating a post

45. Custom Post Types: The Code
register_post_type() arguments
• supports
• Defines what meta boxes and other fields appear when editing
or creating a post
• Options: title, editor, comments, trackbacks,
revisions, author, excerpt, thumbnail, custom-
fields, page-attributes

46. Custom Post Types: The Code
register_post_type() arguments
• supports
• Defines what meta boxes and other fields appear when editing
or creating a post
• Options: title, editor, comments, trackbacks,
revisions, author, excerpt, thumbnail, custom-
fields, page-attributes
• Default: title, editor

47. Custom Post Types: The Code

48. Custom Post Types: The Code
register_post_type() arguments

49. Custom Post Types: The Code
register_post_type() arguments
• register_meta_box_cb

50. Custom Post Types: The Code
register_post_type() arguments
• register_meta_box_cb
• taxonomies

51. Custom Post Types: The Code
register_post_type() arguments
• register_meta_box_cb
• taxonomies
• capability_type / capabilities

52. Custom Post Types: Displaying

53. Custom Post Types: Displaying
• Customizing the custom post type
template

54. Custom Post Types: Displaying
• Customizing the custom post type
template
• single.php

55. Custom Post Types: Displaying
• Customizing the custom post type
template
• single.php
• template for the custom post type (default)

56. Custom Post Types: Displaying
• Customizing the custom post type
template
• single.php
• template for the custom post type (default)
• single-post_type_name.php

57. Custom Post Types: Displaying
• Customizing the custom post type
template
• single.php
• template for the custom post type (default)
• single-post_type_name.php
• custom template for the custom post type

58. Custom Post Types: Displaying
• Customizing the custom post type
template
• single.php
• template for the custom post type (default)
• single-post_type_name.php
• custom template for the custom post type
• eg. single-recipe.php

59. Custom Post Types: Displaying

60. Custom Post Types: Displaying
• Displaying custom post types on your site’s
homepage

61. Custom Post Types: Displaying
• Displaying custom post types on your site’s
homepage
• Add to your theme’s functions.php:

62. Custom Post Types: Displaying
• Displaying custom post types on your site’s
homepage
• Add to your theme’s functions.php:
add_filter( 'pre_get_posts', 'my_get_posts' );

63. Custom Post Types: Displaying
• Displaying custom post types on your site’s
homepage
• Add to your theme’s functions.php:
add_filter( 'pre_get_posts', 'my_get_posts' );
function my_get_posts( $query ) {

64. Custom Post Types: Displaying
• Displaying custom post types on your site’s
homepage
• Add to your theme’s functions.php:
add_filter( 'pre_get_posts', 'my_get_posts' );
function my_get_posts( $query ) {
if ( is_home() )

65. Custom Post Types: Displaying
• Displaying custom post types on your site’s
homepage
• Add to your theme’s functions.php:
add_filter( 'pre_get_posts', 'my_get_posts' );
function my_get_posts( $query ) {
if ( is_home() )
$query->set( 'post_type', array( 'post', 'recipe' ) );

66. Custom Post Types: Displaying
• Displaying custom post types on your site’s
homepage
• Add to your theme’s functions.php:
add_filter( 'pre_get_posts', 'my_get_posts' );
function my_get_posts( $query ) {
if ( is_home() )
$query->set( 'post_type', array( 'post', 'recipe' ) );
return $query;

67. Custom Post Types: Displaying
• Displaying custom post types on your site’s
homepage
• Add to your theme’s functions.php:
add_filter( 'pre_get_posts', 'my_get_posts' );
function my_get_posts( $query ) {
if ( is_home() )
$query->set( 'post_type', array( 'post', 'recipe' ) );
return $query;
}

68. Other Custom Post Type Functions

69. Other Custom Post Type Functions
• Get the “post type” of a post:

70. Other Custom Post Type Functions
• Get the “post type” of a post:
• get_post_type() allows you to check the post type of a
specific post

71. Other Custom Post Type Functions
• Get the “post type” of a post:
• get_post_type() allows you to check the post type of a
specific post
$post_type = get_post_type($post_id);

72. Other Custom Post Type Functions
• Get the “post type” of a post:
• get_post_type() allows you to check the post type of a
specific post
$post_type = get_post_type($post_id);
• Check if a post is of a specific type:

73. Other Custom Post Type Functions
• Get the “post type” of a post:
• get_post_type() allows you to check the post type of a
specific post
$post_type = get_post_type($post_id);
• Check if a post is of a specific type:
• is_post_type() allows you to check a specific post against
a specific post type

74. Other Custom Post Type Functions
• Get the “post type” of a post:
• get_post_type() allows you to check the post type of a
specific post
$post_type = get_post_type($post_id);
• Check if a post is of a specific type:
• is_post_type() allows you to check a specific post against
a specific post type
if ( is_post_type( 'recipe', $post_id ) )

75. Other Custom Post Type Functions
• Get the “post type” of a post:
• get_post_type() allows you to check the post type of a
specific post
$post_type = get_post_type($post_id);
• Check if a post is of a specific type:
• is_post_type() allows you to check a specific post against
a specific post type
if ( is_post_type( 'recipe', $post_id ) )
echo 'This is a not a blog post. It is a recipe.';

76. Other Custom Post Type Functions
• Get the “post type” of a post:
• get_post_type() allows you to check the post type of a
specific post
$post_type = get_post_type($post_id);
• Check if a post is of a specific type:
• is_post_type() allows you to check a specific post against
a specific post type
if ( is_post_type( 'recipe', $post_id ) )
echo 'This is a not a blog post. It is a recipe.';
else

77. Other Custom Post Type Functions
• Get the “post type” of a post:
• get_post_type() allows you to check the post type of a
specific post
$post_type = get_post_type($post_id);
• Check if a post is of a specific type:
• is_post_type() allows you to check a specific post against
a specific post type
if ( is_post_type( 'recipe', $post_id ) )
echo 'This is a not a blog post. It is a recipe.';
else
echo 'This is not a recipe.';

78. Resources
• WordPress.org Codex: register_post_type function reference:
• http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/register_post_type
• Blog post: Custom post types in WordPress:
• http://justintadlock.com/archives/2010/04/29/custom-post-types-in-
wordpress
• Blog post: First impressions of custom post type:
• http://wpengineer.com/impressions-of-custom-post-type/
• Plugin: Custom post type UI plugin for WordPress
• http://www.strangework.com/2010/03/03/custom-post-type-ui-plugin-for-
wordpress/