Simple WordPress custom post types.

Run the following in your terminal to install PostTypes with Composer.

$ composer require jjgrainger/posttypes

As PostTypes uses PSR-4 autoloading you will need to use Composers autoloader. Below is a basic example of getting started with the class, though your setup maybe different depending on how you are using composer.

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

use PostTypes\PostType;

$books = new PostType('book');

$books->register();

See Composers basic usage guide for details on working Composer and autoloading.

A new post type can be created by simply passing the post types name to the class constructor. To register the post type to WordPress you must call the register() method.

// Create a book post type
$books = new PostType('book');

// Register the post type to WordPress
$books->register();

The post type labels and slugs are automatically generated from the post type name, however, if you need to define these manually pass an array of names to the post types constructor.

$names = [
    'name' => 'book',
    'singular' => 'Book',
    'plural' => 'Books',
    'slug' => 'books'
];

$books = new PostType($names);

$books->register();

It can accept the following names:

• name is the post type name (required, singular, lowercase, underscores)
• singular is the singular label for the post type (Book, Person)
• plural is the plural label for the post type (Books, People)
• slug is the post type slug used in the permalinks (plural, lowercase, hyphens)

The only required name is the post types name.

You can define the options for the post type by passing an array as the second argument in the class constructor.

$options = [
    'has_archive' => false
];

$books = new PostType('book', $options);

$books->register();

All available options are on the WordPress Codex

You can define the labels for the post type by passing an array as the third argument in the class constructor.

$labels = [
    'featured_image' => __( 'Book Cover Image' ),
];

$books = new PostType('book', $options, $labels);

$books->register();

Alternatively, you can use the labels() method to set the labels for the post type.

$books = new PostType('books');

$books->labels([
    'add_new_item' => __('Add new Book')
]);

$books->register();

All available labels are on the WordPress Codex

To work with exisiting post types simple pass the post type name into the object. Be careful using global variables (i.e $post) which can lead to unwanted results.

// Create a PostType object for an existing post type in WordPress
$blog = new PostType('post');

// Make changes to the post type...

// You still need to register the changes to WordPress
$blog->register();

Taxonomies are created using the Taxonomy class. This works indetically to the PostType class and holds similar methods.

To create a new taxonomy simply pass the taxonomy name to the Taxonomy class constructor. Labels and the taxonomy slug are generated from the taxonomy name.

// Create a new taxonomy
$genres = new Taxonomy('genre');

// Register the taxonomy to WordPress
$genres->register();

You can define names by passing an array as the first argument. Only the name is required.

• name is the post type name
• singular is the singular label for the post type
• plural is the plural label for the post type
• slug is the post type slug used in the permalinks

$names = [
    'name' => 'genre',
    'singular' => 'Genre',
    'plural' => 'Genres',
    'slug' => 'genres'
];

$genres = new Taxonomy($names);

$genres->register();

You can further customise taxonomies by passing an array of options as the second argument to the method.

$options = [
    'hierarchical' => false,
];

$genres = new Taxonomy('genre', $options);

$genres->register();

All available options are on the WordPress Codex

You can define the labels for a Taxonomy by passing an array as the third argument in the class constructor.

$labels = [
    'add_new_item' => __('Add new Genre'),
];

$genres = new Taxonomy('genres', $options, $labels);

$genres->register();

Alternatively, you can use the labels() method to set the labels for the post type.

$genres = new Taxonomy('genre');

$genres->labels([
    'add_new_item' => __('Add new Genre')
]);

$genres->register();

All available labels are on the WordPress Codex

You can work with existing taxonomies by passing the taxonomy name to the Taxonoy constructor. Once you have made your changes you need to register them to WordPress using the register() method.

// Create a new Taxonomy object for an existing taxonomy
$tags = new Taxonomy('post_tags');

// Modify the taxonomy...

// Regsiter changes to WordPress
$tags->register();

Depending on the object type (Taxonomy/PostType) you can link the two together with the respective methods.

For registering a Taxonomy to a PostType use the taxonomy() method.

For regsitering a PostType to a Taxonomy use the posttype() method.

// Create a books post type
$books = new PostType('book');

// Add the genre taxonomy to the book post type
$books->taxonomy('genre');

// Register the post type to WordPress
$books->register();

// Create the genre taxonomy
$genres = new Taxonomy('genre');

// Use this method instead of the PostTypes taxonomy() method
$genres->posttype('book');

// register the genre taxonomy to WordPress
$genres->register();

Set the taxonomy filters on the post type admin edit screen by passing an array to the filters() method

$books->filters(['genres', 'category']);

The order of the filters are set by the order of the items in the array. An empty array will remove all dropdown filters.

You can now modify a Taxonomy columns using exactly the same methods listed below. For example:

// Create a taxonomy
$genres = new Taxonomy('genre');

// Add a column to the taxonomy admin table
$genres->columns()->add([
    'popularity' => __('Popularity')
]);

// Register the taxonomy to WordPress
$genres->register();

You can add columns to the admin edit screen by passing an array of slugs and labels to the add() method.

// add multiple columns and set their labels
$books->columns()->add([
    'rating' => __('Rating'),
    'price' => __('Price')
]);

You can hide columns by passing the column slug to the hide() method. You can hide multiple columns by passing an array of column slugs.

$books->columns()->hide('author');

$books->columns()->hide(['author', 'date']);

You can force set all the columns to display on the admin page with the set() method by passing an array of the column slugs and labels.

$books->columns()->set([
    'cb' => '<input type="checkbox" />',
    'title' => __("Title"),
    'genre' => __("Genres"),
    'rating' => __("Rating"),
    'date' => __("Date")
]);

After hiding and adding columns you may want to rearrange the column order. To do this use the order() method. You only have to pass through an array of the columns you want to reposition, not all of them. Their positions are based on a zero based index.

$books->columns()->order([
    'rating' => 2,
    'genre' => 4
]);

You can populate any column using the populate() method and passing the column slug and function.

$books->columns()->populate('rating', function($column, $post_id) {
    echo get_post_meta($post_id, 'rating', true) . '/10';
});

You can choose which custom columns are sortable with the sortable() method. This method accepts an array of column slugs and an array of sorting options.

The first option is the meta_key to sort the colums by.

The second option is whether to order the items numerically (true) or alphabetically (false) by default.

// will make both the price and rating columns sortable and ordered numerically
$books->columns()->sortable([
    'price' => ['price', true],
    'rating' => ['rating', true]
]);

With WordPress 3.8 comes Dashicons an icon font you can use with your custom post types.

$books->icon('dashicons-book-alt');

You can programmatically recreate the sites rewrite rules with the flush() method. This is an expensive operation and should be used with caution, see codex for more.

$books->flush();

Since 2.0 the translation() method has been removed. You can translate any labels and names when you assign them to the PostType or Taxonomy. It was removed to provide more control to the developer while encouraging best practices around internationalizing plugins and themes set out by WordPress.

// Translating the PostType plural and singular names
$books = new PostType([
    'name' => 'book',
    'singular' => __('Book', 'YOUR_TEXTDOMAIN'),
    'plural' => __('Books', 'YOUR_TEXTDOMAIN'),
    'slug' => 'books'
]);

// Translating Labels
$books->labels([
    'add_new_item' => __('Add new Book', 'YOUR_TEXTDOMAIN')
]);

• The class has no methods for making custom fields for post types, use Advanced Custom Fields
• The books example used in the README.md can be found in the examples/books.php
• Licensed under the MIT License
• Maintained under the Semantic Versioning Guide

Joe Grainger

• http://jjgrainger.co.uk
• http://twitter.com/jjgrainger