Default categories with specific archive pages or custom post types?

  • John McCarthy

    (@john-lion)


    10 years, 1 month ago

    Hi Everyone,

    I’m creating a site that has 3 pages. Each page will have the capability of expanding at a later date. The way I plan to do this is to make each page an archive page that in the future will hold posts that relate to it. Making each page like a mini site for that subject.

    I am unsure which would be the best way to go about this.

    Should I use ‘only’ core WordPress features? Create different archive templates and tell them to fetch only the category/tag for that subject?

    Or

    Should I create a custom post type for each? That has it’s own archive page and also enabling it to be sorted further with each CPT having its own categories etc.

    Any advice or links to further reading would be much appreciated. Just to note, I have spent many hours learning about both methods, on blog posts and reading the codex. I have also used both methods in projects recently. I’m still unsure, that’s why I’m reaching out.

    Thanks in advance for any comments and replies 🙂

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Senff – a11n

    (@senff)

    10 years, 1 month ago

    It depends, really. If the posts/articles have the same setup/format, but their topic is different (e.g. books, movies and TV), then I would just go for using default categories, and you can just show them by going to http://www.yoursite.com/category/books, http://www.yoursite.com/category/movies and http://www.yoursite.com/category/tv
    No “special” work needed that way.

    But if your posts have different setup (the content is laid out differently, or posts of type movies have some fields that are not in the posts of the other categories), or their layout is different, then you might want to consider custom posts types.

    I always try to view it from a “format” point of view; if the various topics are written in the same way (e.g. all posts are reviews, or they’re all descriptions, etc.) then use regular posts but sort by category — because in essence, it’s just the topic that’s different.

    But if the various topics have different structure (e.g. book posts are just summaries, movie posts are critical reviews, TV posts are pictures of actors) then I will go into CPT territory.

    Web Guru

    (@laraib110)

    10 years, 1 month ago

    it’s really depends on the situation you have ….. other wise i used to make things as simple as possible ….
    while making each page in your single site is best practice …

    Thread Starter John McCarthy

    (@john-lion)

    10 years, 1 month ago

    Great advice Senff, thanks.

    Sometimes having someone else talk about your situation can really help to clarify what you think yourself!

    I agree. When the style and functionality are the same across all subjects that you wish to publish on your site then default categories is the way to go. When you are publishing very different sets of material then that’s where CPTs come in.

    In Reply to Iaraib110, first of all thanks for your input. I agree, it does depend very much on your situation and I also like to keep things simple. Generally everything that is in the core of wordpress is simple when you know how. Including custom post types.

    If anyone else would like to add their opinions, please do!

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