Custom Post Types - Content Beyond Posts and Pages 📚

Why Custom Post Types (CPTs)? 🤔

Okay, sure, WordPress gives you Posts and Pages by default. But what if you're building something like a movie database, a product catalog, or a real estate listing site? Would you really want to stuff all that into Posts? No way, José! This is where Custom Post Types come in handy. CPTs allow you to create new content types that suit the specific needs of your site.

For example:

• Movies for a movie database 🎬
• Products for an e-commerce site 🛍️
• Recipes for a food blog 🍕🍲

Let’s dive into creating your very own CPT.

Step 1: Registering a Custom Post Type 🏗️

To add a new custom post type, we’ll modify the functions.php file again. Say, for example, you want to create a custom post type called “Movies”. Here’s how you can do it:

function my_noob_theme_register_movie_cpt() {
    $labels = array(
        'name'               => _x( 'Movies', 'post type general name', 'mynoobtheme' ),
        'singular_name'      => _x( 'Movie', 'post type singular name', 'mynoobtheme' ),
        'menu_name'          => _x( 'Movies', 'admin menu', 'mynoobtheme' ),
        'name_admin_bar'     => _x( 'Movie', 'add new on admin bar', 'mynoobtheme' ),
        'add_new'            => _x( 'Add New', 'movie', 'mynoobtheme' ),
        'add_new_item'       => __( 'Add New Movie', 'mynoobtheme' ),
        'new_item'           => __( 'New Movie', 'mynoobtheme' ),
        'edit_item'          => __( 'Edit Movie', 'mynoobtheme' ),
        'view_item'          => __( 'View Movie', 'mynoobtheme' ),
        'all_items'          => __( 'All Movies', 'mynoobtheme' ),
        'search_items'       => __( 'Search Movies', 'mynoobtheme' ),
        'not_found'          => __( 'No movies found.', 'mynoobtheme' ),
        'not_found_in_trash' => __( 'No movies found in Trash.', 'mynoobtheme' ),
    );

    $args = array(
        'labels'             => $labels,
        'public'             => true,
        'publicly_queryable' => true,
        'show_ui'            => true,
        'show_in_menu'       => true,
        'query_var'          => true,
        'rewrite'            => array( 'slug' => 'movies' ),
        'capability_type'    => 'post',
        'has_archive'        => true,
        'hierarchical'       => false,
        'menu_position'      => null,
        'supports'           => array( 'title', 'editor', 'thumbnail', 'excerpt', 'comments' ),
    );

    register_post_type( 'movie', $args );
}
add_action( 'init', 'my_noob_theme_register_movie_cpt' );

• register_post_type(): This function registers a new post type (in this case, “Movie”).
• supports: This specifies the WordPress features that your post type will support, like the editor, featured image (thumbnail), and comments.
• has_archive: If set to true, WordPress will automatically generate an archive page for this post type (e.g., yoursite.com/movies).
• rewrite: You can define the custom slug for your post type, in this case, movies.

Step 2: Displaying Custom Post Types 🚀

Now that you have registered the "Movies" post type, let’s display the custom posts on the frontend. First, create a new file called archive-movie.php. This file will be used to show the archive page for your movies.

<?php get_header(); ?>

    <h1>Movies Archive</h1>

    <?php if ( have_posts() ) : ?>
        <ul>
            <?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>
                <li>
                    <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>
                </li>
            <?php endwhile; ?>
        </ul>
    <?php else : ?>
        <p>No movies found.</p>
    <?php endif; ?>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

• archive-movie.php: This is a special template file in WordPress that handles the archive page for your “Movie” post type.
• have_posts() and the_post(): Standard WordPress functions to loop through your posts.

Now visit yoursite.com/movies, and voilà! Your movie archive is alive! 🎥

Step 3: Custom Post Type Templates 🧱

In WordPress, you can create custom templates for your post types just like you do with regular posts and pages:

• archive-{posttype}.php: Handles the archive page for a custom post type (e.g., archive-movie.php for the "Movies" post type).
• single-{posttype}.php: Handles the individual post display for a custom post type (e.g., single-movie.php).

With this, you can customize how each type of content is displayed on your website.

Now that you're armed with the power of CPTs, you're ready to build a WordPress site that fits any type of content! Whether you're creating a movie database, a product catalog, or a portfolio, CPTs give you the flexibility you need. 💪🎉