I’ve learned about Custom Post Type (CPT) before within my SkillCrush blueprint. I got a chance to use them and get used to them, but truth be told… The information gets a little back-burner-ed in my brain with all the other information flowing in and it’s a little garbled up in my mind. The info is there, and I get what are CPT’s, but I may not be able to spit them out on request. Since I’m in the job market now, I think it may be good to get it back out.
So, here I am in the Bootstrap to WordPress course by Bray Hussey and we’re going over CPT’s. From what I’ve read, blog posts are an excellent way to regurgitate new information and so I’m going to give it a little try.
Bootstrap to WordPress – CPT Basics
The basis of what is a CPT is exactly what it’s named… a custom post type. Pages like your Posts page (or your Pages page) are post types. In other content management systems like Drupal or Joomla, you can customize these upfront. Apparently, so says Brad, people who use WordPress for the first time get worried and discouraged because they are only given access to a Posts or Pages post type and often want more. Custom Post Type UI is the answer to that problem.
CPT – Add New – Basics
The content of this plugin has changed quite a bit from when the video was made, so bear with me on my explanations. If I am incorrect on something, you can let me know. When you first choose to add a new CPT, you’re brought to a screen with a fair amount of a fields to fill out. This will be the basic information.
Post Type Slug: This is a value for what you want to be used in the URL. ex: portfolio_item
Plural Label: Plural value of what you want to show up on the side bar. ex: Portfolio Items.
Singular Label: The singular value in case only one of the label is needed. ex. Portfolio Item;
CPT – Advanced Options/Settings
Within the next video, we briefly go over some of the advanced options (some of them are now in the settings menu) which we’ll need for the video content. To keep things orderly, I’ll continue to try to keep the Portfolio Item scenario going.
Description: Pretty self-explanatory. Describe what this CPT is and for what it is used. ex: These are the items to show off in your portfolio.
Exclude From Search: If you have a search function on your site, do you want a portfolio item to be given a whole page when searched? My thought is yes, because these can be pretty extensive.
Has Archive: This may be something I need to retouch on when I get a better grasp on the concept. In the video, the content for which we’re creating this CPT does not need an archive, but I think in our scenario it would be a good idea(?). Specifically, on my portfolio page, a modal style popup displays the additional information, but I guess the idea behind this option is whether you want this portfolio item to have it’s own page when clicked.
Show in Menu: Whether or not the CPT will show in the admin menu. In this case, yes.
Menu Icon: The admin menu icon url.
Supports: What do we want this CPT to support in its editing page? Once again, I may need to give more information at a later time. As far as I can tell, for a portfolio item, we would need a title, a featured image, and a text Editor. But wait! Here’s where we will actually use Advanced Custom Forms to go back through and create most of the fields which we’ll want to fill out. So, for now, just select a title support.
Fin
I don’t know what to title this, so with that… This has been the basic setup for a Custom Post Type (CPT). After setting up the parameters listed above and clicking the “Add Post Type” button, the new menu item shows up in the admin menu. Clicking on that brings us to the newly created Course Features page where we can add new Course Feature Posts.