Custom Post Types #

Introduction #

Post types are a way to separate different forms of content. As an example, Your site may feature a blog (posts) and a list of your favourite films. Whilst you could add a "film" category to your posts, a better solution would be to create a film post type.

Creating A Post Type #

To get started, we'll use make:post-type to create a film post type. The PostType name should be in the singular form for example Film not Films.

wp radiate make:post-type Film

Radiate will generate a Film post type in your app/WordPress/PostTypes directory.

<?php

namespace Theme\WordPress\PostTypes;

use Radiate\WordPress\PostType;

class Film extends PostType
{
    /**
     * The name
     *
     * @var string
     */
    protected $name = 'film';

    /**
     * The singular label
     *
     * @var string
     */
    protected $singular = 'Film';

    /**
     * The plural label
     *
     * @var string
     */
    protected $plural = 'Films';

    /**
     * The taxonomies
     *
     * @var array
     */
    protected $taxonomies = [
        //
    ];

    /**
     * The options
     *
     * @var array
     */
    protected $options = [
        'public'       => true,
        'has_archive'  => true,
        'show_in_rest' => true,
        'menu_icon'    => 'dashicons-admin-post',
        'supports'     => ['title', 'editor', 'author', 'thumbnail'],
    ];
}

Post Type Options #

The post type options are an array of properties for the PostType for example, has_archive determines if the post type will have an archive page, menu_icon specifies the Dashicon to use.

The different arguments accepted are well documented in the WordPress documentation

Post Type Labels #

One pain point of creating post types the standard WordPress way is the many labels that tend to require the same string-replace treatment. I.e. Add New Film, Add New Book, Add New Event.

Radiate makes handling labels a breeze. In your PostType class, the $singular and $plural names are determined for you. These labels are then inserted in the required places so you don't have to.

If you do want to specify your own labels, you can add a labels method to the PostType and return an array of your own options.

/**
 * Return the post type labels
 *
 * @return array
 */
public function labels()
{
    return [
        'new_item'     => __("New Awesome Film"),
        'add_new_item' => __("Add New Amazing Film"),
        'edit_item'    => __("Edit SuperDuper Film"),
        'view_item'    => __("View The Film"),
        'view_items'   => __("View Some Films"),
        'search_items' => __("Search Our Catalogue Of Films"),
    ];
}

Registering Post Types #

Registering your custom post types is as easy as generating them. In your WordPressServiceProvider, add the PostType classname to the $postTypes array.

<?php

namespace Theme\Providers;

use Radiate\Foundation\Providers\WordPressServiceProvider as ServiceProvider;
use Theme\WordPress\PostTypes\Film;

class WordPressServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
    /**
     * The custom post types to register
     *
     * @var array
     */
    protected $postTypes = [
        Film::class,
    ];
}

Reserved Post Types #

WordPress has some reserved post types that you shouldn't override. make:post-type determines if the PostType you attempted to create is reserved.

Special Post Types #

Some reserved post types have been deemed "special" and may be extended with custom taxonomies in the usual way. When using make:post-type on one of these reserved post types, the PostType will be generated with a slimmed down class.

• post
• page
• attachment

Blocked Post Types #

Post types that do not require custom taxonomies cannot be generated using make:post-type, returning an error in the console instead.

• revision
• nav_menu_item
• custom_css
• customize_changeset
• oembed_cache
• user_request
• wp_block
• action
• author
• order
• theme