Advanced Custom Post Types

transcript

AdvancedCustom Post Types

& TaxonomiesWordCamp San Diego 2013

#wcsd@theandystratton

Saturday, March 23, 13

Who am I?

Freelance WordPress Developer

Founder

What areCustom Post Types?

Generic Post ContentInherit core user interface

& functionality

Including:Post meta, attachments, featured image,

hierarchies, comments, etc.

What areCustom Taxonomies?

Generic Tags/Categories

Taxonomies create relationships

between content

Why should we use them?

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

In the old days, we’d:Create custom database tables and functionality

In the old days, we’d:Use strange plugins

and non-standard code

This is pretty muchdoing it wrong.

Why DO we custom post types/taxonomies?

Future compatible

WordPress Coding Standards

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

Flexible & ExtendiblePost 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 thesesite elements down into

CPT components.

Callout Boxes

Callout Boxesimage

content

Element Post Type Element

Image Featured Image

Content Post Title/Content

LinkIn post content, ORcustom field

Callout Boxes

More Post Type Maps

Image Gallery Post Attachments

Title Post Title

Description Post Content

Date Post Date

Photo Gallery

Photo Featured Image

Person Name Post Title

Description Post Content

Additional Info(Title, Phone, etc.)

Custom Fields/Post Meta

People/Teams

This gives us somegreat benefits...

Content SchedulingUse publish date and

the Post Expirator pluginwordpress.org/extend/plugins/post-expirator/

Content Staging LibrarySave callouts as drafts.

Easily swap content with more options than text widgets.

Benefits Case StudyMarketing Sliders for Brick Bodies

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

Monthly PlansPlan their specials/events in advance

Set their next month’s slides to publish when current expire

WordPress StandardsConsistent UI & user experience

If a user can add/edit a post, they can add/edit a slide

WordPress StandardsFuture 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 Contenthttps://gist.github.com/theandystratton/5225903

Make Great ExperiencesMeet user expectations

(clicking the thumbnail edits the post)Show all relevant data

Taxonomy: Store Categories

Can group/relate contentFilter 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 TagsApplied to pages, posts and

all custom post types

Create relationships acrossall 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

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 Blockshttps://github.com/szbl/szbl-content-blocks/

Content Tagshttps://github.com/szbl/szbl-content-tags/

Be Extendible!Think Like Core.Be Like Core.

HooksDo 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:

This plugin...

This plugin...Modifies

theseplugins

Truly Extendible.You can customize code.

You can re-use code.

Saves time.Saves money.

Updates are easier.Functionality is not

tethered to a theme.

Some Final DOs & DON’Ts

DON’TAlter/change core

user-interface(CSS, Javascript, core hacks)

DON’TRe-brand WordPress as your

own custom CMS.(You’re not fooling anyone.)

DON’TUse custom tables or

database queries whenit is not necessary.

(In most cases, it’s not.)

DON’TForget about widgets, sidebars and menus.

DON’TOvercomplicate Shit.

(Complicate shit whenshit gets complicated.)

DOUse the Core UI

DOCreate additional UI

elements via Core CSS.Let core inspire you.

DOPlace your code into plugins.Even custom themes need plugin love.

DOConstantly improve

your code.

DORe-use your code.

DOWrite extendible code.Use Actions and Filters.

DOShare your code.

WP.org/GitHub/Gist/your blog

DOBe awesome.

Love what you do. Do it well.

Thanks for the time.

Advanced Custom Post Types

Technology