The portfolio plugin does maintain the same portfolio custom post type. However, I can’t say if the meta data will be preserved. I’m fairly certain that gallery images will be maintained, but other special meta data may not transfer. I tried to make the plugin work with the older themes as best I could, but did not write a script to port old meta data over to the new structure.
While I’m still maintaining the plugin, I am no longer affiliated with ThemeZilla. I would suggest a quick test with a different theme and the plugin. You’ll be able to to quickly tell what data isn’t carried over. When you switch the theme back, any data “lost” in the switch will be present again.
Thank you for your response. Do you mean the metadata like dates and authors or do you mean something else?
This is precisely why I try not to deviate from the basic structure of WordPress. I don’t like things breaking when I change a theme, especially something that contains so much content. I just don’t understand the advantage of having the portfolio feature. How is it better than just calling a page or post a portfolio?
Is a portfolio like a blog? Is each project like a post?
I guess I should install it and check it out.
I would just be worried about becoming dependent on it and then losing the content if you decide to not continue updating the plugin.
I in no way intend to criticize your plugin, it appears to me that you are freeing people from being dependent on Themezilla themes, and from what I can tell, this type of functionality should be implemented via plugins like yours and not in the theme.
Thanks!
A portfolio is like a post. It is a custom post type of it’s own. Regardless of whether a theme has built in support for the plugin or not. It will load all portfolio posts at /portfolio/ using the archive template (or the fallback). Similarly it will use single.php to display the singular portfolio post.
If you want to customize the layout, you can add archive-portfolio.php and single-portfolio.php to your theme (preferably your child theme).
I’ve used portfolio as it seems to be a common usage for similar plugins. Additionally, images uploaded to a portfolio are attached to a portfolio so they would be easily accessible. The meta data is unique to the plugin, but would never be erased unless you went in and erased it. It would still be accessible if you moved on to a different plugin, but you would need to add some code to pull it from the database.
