Custom Post Types
Extend the scope of your web site
Wordpress started off as a blogging platform and has grown rapidly into a content management system. It has gone from having just posts and pages to covering almost any niche you can think of by using Custom Post Types or CPTs.
Many plugins, including e-commerce, directories, booking and form plugins, use Custom Post Types but if you can't find what you want off-the-peg then we can build it to your specification.
CPTs have their own categories, taxonomies and custom fields. This makes it easy to catalogue and search large numbers of items.
The Power of Custom Post Types
WordPress comes with two ready-to-use post types, Posts and Pages. Custom Post Types are based on the same basic principles as Posts and Pages but can also use Custom Fields to provide more specific information. Custom Fields can also be used to extend Posts and Pages.
Classic examples of sites based on Custom Post Types, or CPTs, would be ECommerce, Bookings Platforms and On-line Learning
Custom Post Types can be Related to each other. This comes in useful when creating more complex collections of content. Product variations, where a product is available in various colours and sizes; a Book Catalogue where there are Authors, Co-Authors, Publishing Houses and ISBN numbers or perhaps a Pet Rescue where animals of different types, sex, age and temperament are available for rehoming, fostering or adoption.
Using CPTs we can build highly customised catalogues, membership sites, directories and similar websites using existing free or premium plugins, or by creating the CPT from scratch. They are also used to extend conventional business web sites through the inclusion of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), Portfolio items, Testimonials, Staff Profiles or Products and Services.
WordPress Custom Post Type Plugins
The quickest and easiest way of including custom content in your site is to search the WordPress Plugins database or conduct a search in any search engine with the type of content and "Wordpress plugin". One of the reasons we use WordPress is because of the huge variety of plugins available, which offer endless possibilities.
It is that great choice, however, that often proves daunting for those building a website for the first time. Faced with so many plugins to choose from, how do you decide which one will work best for you? There can also be compatibility issues between plugins themselves and between plugins and themes. In addition, plugins are created by independent developers who may decide to stop development, leaving the site open to potential plugin failure or at risk of vulnerabilities.
Things to look for when choosing a plugin
Check the number of active installations, the star rating and especially the latest version of WordPress the plugin has been tested with. Ideally the plugin you choose will have been tested with the latest version of WordPress and have a high star rating from a high number of users. The number of users is in brackets to the right of the star rating.
From the individual plugin page you can see what other people have said about the plugin by clicking on the "See all" link to the right of the star ratings. You might also want to view the support forum for that plugin to understand what issues other people are experiencing with it and how active the developer is in resolving those issues.
Incorporating CPT Information into your Design
In some cases a ready-made plugin might have all the functions that you need, but the way it presents the content on the web page out-of-the-box is not really what you want. We are often able to take that content and present it in a way which is more in keeping with your brand and design. If your site has a lot of custom content, we can add filters, similar to those seen in ECommerce sites, which let your visitors find what they want more easily.
Custom Built CPT's and Custom Fields
Even in such a vast ecosystem as WordPress, there are some cases where your particular niche is not covered, or where you like parts of several plugins but no one plugin has exactly what you want.
Custom fields can be used to extend standard WordPress types and those from plugins such as Users, Posts, Pages and WooCommerce Orders. These fields can be used to capture data for administrative use, for example adding a contact phone number to the registration form. They can also be used to present additional information to visitors as an alternative to Tags, and allow the content to be filtered using those custom fields.
Idiot-Proof editing using Custom Fields
Are you worried about messing up when editing content on your web site? Custom Fields added to Posts are a great way of keeping the design and layout of a page separate from the content. Designers like us can create complex page layouts without the risk of it being inadvertently damaged when the content is edited. Editors working on the site content can do so without the fear of "breaking something".
Site Options Pages can be created using Custom Fields for Contact Details, Social Media links, Location Map embed code, Opening Times and other details. This makes it easy for you to change the details in the back-end admin, without having to worry about how things will look on the public-facing front-end.
