How to create custom post types in WordPress

Last updated on February 10, 2018

Often clients ask for different content types in WordPress. Creating custom post types in WordPress is a lot easier job. A custom post type can be added to WordPress via the register_post_type() function. This function allows you to define a new post type by its labels, supported features, availability and other specifics.

Custom post types are content types like posts and pages. Following are the reserved content types in WordPress – Post, Page, Attachment, Revision, Nav Menu.

In addition, the following post types should not be used as they interfere with other WordPress functions – action, author, order, theme.

To avoid conflicts with existing WordPress query variables, you should always prefix your post types.

Lets create custom post type called “Movies”. Shorted form of the custom post type implementation is:

register_post_type( 'movies',
		array(
			'labels' => array(
				'name' => __( 'Movies' ),
				'singular_name' => __( 'Movie' )
			),
			'public' => true,
			'has_archive' => true,
			'rewrite' => array('slug' => 'movies'),
		)
	);

Now let’s take a look at a detailed piece of code that adds more options to your custom post type.

// Set UI labels for Custom Post Type
	$labels = array(
		'name'                => _x( 'Movies', 'Post Type General Name', 'twentythirteen' ),
		'singular_name'       => _x( 'Movie', 'Post Type Singular Name', 'twentythirteen' ),
		'menu_name'           => __( 'Movies', 'twentythirteen' ),
		'parent_item_colon'   => __( 'Parent Movie', 'twentythirteen' ),
		'all_items'           => __( 'All Movies', 'twentythirteen' ),
		'view_item'           => __( 'View Movie', 'twentythirteen' ),
		'add_new_item'        => __( 'Add New Movie', 'twentythirteen' ),
		'add_new'             => __( 'Add New', 'twentythirteen' ),
		'edit_item'           => __( 'Edit Movie', 'twentythirteen' ),
		'update_item'         => __( 'Update Movie', 'twentythirteen' ),
		'search_items'        => __( 'Search Movie', 'twentythirteen' ),
		'not_found'           => __( 'Not Found', 'twentythirteen' ),
		'not_found_in_trash'  => __( 'Not found in Trash', 'twentythirteen' ),
	);
	
// Set other options for Custom Post Type
	
	$args = array(
		'label'               => __( 'movies', 'twentythirteen' ),
		'description'         => __( 'Movie news and reviews', 'twentythirteen' ),
		'labels'              => $labels,
		// Features this CPT supports in Post Editor
		'supports'            => array( 'title', 'editor', 'excerpt', 'author', 'thumbnail', 'comments', 'revisions', 'custom-fields', ),
		// You can associate this CPT with a taxonomy or custom taxonomy. 
		'taxonomies'          => array( 'genres' ),
		/* A hierarchical CPT is like Pages and can have
		* Parent and child items. A non-hierarchical CPT
		* is like Posts.
		*/	
		'hierarchical'        => false,
		'public'              => true,
		'show_ui'             => true,
		'show_in_menu'        => true,
		'show_in_nav_menus'   => true,
		'show_in_admin_bar'   => true,
		'menu_position'       => 5,
		'can_export'          => true,
		'has_archive'         => true,
		'exclude_from_search' => false,
		'publicly_queryable'  => true,
		'capability_type'     => 'post',
                'menu_icon' => bloginfo('template_directory'). '/images/movie-menu-icon.png',

	);
	
	// Registering your Custom Post Type
	register_post_type( 'movies', $args );