Custom Post Type Structure

  • Gemfruit

    (@gemfruit)


    11 years, 3 months ago

    I’m going to attempt to rebuild my setup using Custom Post Types (I currently use pages, and Advanced Custom Fields). That being said, I have a few questions about the structure that I’m hoping I can get some insight on.

    For starters, a bit about my site. My site is focused on night life / tourism in the Burlington, Vermont area. As of now, I plan to cover bars, dining, music, hotels, local events, and eventually more (such as taxi companies). Within each category, I have sub categories, like so:

    Bars

    Music
    -Artists
    -Shows

    Dining
    -Restaurants
    -Diners
    -Delis
    -Street Vendors

    Lodging
    -Hotels
    -Inns
    -Bed And Breakfasts
    -Resorts

    My two largest concerns are as follows:

    -Do I make a custom post type for each main category (Bars, Music, Dining, Lodging), for every category (sub categories each getting their own, with a parent custom post type of the main), or do I simply make a “Venue” custom post type? I’ve never actually worked with custom post types, so I’m not sure how much organization here is “over engineering”, or if being as specific as possible is preferred.

    -This part really confuses me – do I use the archive pages for these custom post types, or can I keep my normal “page” setup for the hubs of each category? Every main category has a template (for all of them, handled dynamically), as does every sub category (also using a template, dynamic). For instance, I need the url structure to remain site.com/dining/restaurants/venue-name, with site.com/dining being a “hub” page that leads to all dining options (my template does this), restaurants being the hub for restaurants (it has a template as well), and the venue using the specified template. Can I retain the hierarchy for my urls, and should I keep using “pages” for the “hub” areas, or should I handle it differently?

    I know that’s a lot to read / take in, but I really want to make sure I structure this correctly, as there’s kind of no going back once I lock it in and starting building out. Keep in mind that this site is for me only, and that code / structure is for my eyes only.

    anightinburlington.com

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • csloisel

    (@csloisel)

    11 years, 3 months ago

    You haven’t given any reason why you need to create custom post types. Custom post types are for creating post types with distinct functionality from the regular post type. But it sounds as though you will be treating them exactly as regular posts, and you are only using the custom post type for the label.

    I don’t see why you can’t just accomplish what you want with categories, and maybe a custom permalink structure. Custom post types are not meant to be used to categorize posts. And you may end up making content management more difficult for yourself down the road.

    If you are actually setting up custom handling, you may only need the venue type as you said. It would help if you would go into a little more detail about what problem you are trying to solve instead of your ideal solution for which we don’t know the problem.

    Thread Starter Gemfruit

    (@gemfruit)

    11 years, 3 months ago

    Well, they would actually be more like “pages”, not posts. I’m using Advanced Custom Fields to add a lot of functionality that posts could never do, such as:

    -Determine if a restaurant has dine in, take out, delivery.
    -Assign the location to a “city” field (drop down).
    -Determining if a location is a Bar, Restaurant, Hotel, or more than one (for querying purposes).
    -Assigning specific text fields for the templates (description 1, description 2, images, etc).

    I’m not creating a blog, I’m essentially creating a specialized version of something like Yelp for a specific area. Every business is static, more like a page, where as posts are specifically for articles, news, etc.

    The other HUGE reason to use custom taxonomies / custom post types, is for organization on the admin panel. With 100+ businesses of various categories, having them all reside under the “page” or “post” sections of the dashboard is sloppy. I need to be able to go to the Restaurants section, see just restaurants, and add a new restaurant if desired.

    Is that enough reason to use custom post types / custom taxonomies?

    Check out the images in this article. There are drop down to see specific items, sort by fields, etc, that’s what I want. I want to be able to be under “venues” or “restaurants”, and sort through top level categories for the former, or sub-level categories for the latter.

    Thread Starter Gemfruit

    (@gemfruit)

    11 years, 3 months ago

    I could still really use some help with this. I’m at a brick wall with the development of my website until the permalink structure is decided upon, and the custom post type / taxonomy(s) structure is crucial to that.

    I was reading about the “with_front” property tonight, and I feel like that could help me out here somewhere. I know the answer exists, I just can’t wrap my head around it, and I’m incredibly burnt out from trying. Feel free to just offer information, suggestions, or anything that could help me snowball into a solution.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

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