How to create custom post types on WordPress

Navigate to your WordPress admin dashboard and go to Appearance > Theme Editor, or access your site files via FTP/cPanel. Locate your active theme's functions.php file. Alternatively, you can create a custom plugin file in the /wp-content/plugins/ directory.

Open the functions.php file and add the following code before the closing PHP tag:

function create_custom_post_type() {
    register_post_type('your_post_type',
        array(
            'labels' => array(
                'name' => 'Custom Posts',
                'singular_name' => 'Custom Post',
            ),
            'public' => true,
            'has_archive' => true,
            'supports' => array('title', 'editor', 'thumbnail'),
        )
    );
}
add_action('init', 'create_custom_post_type');

Customize the labels array to define how your post type appears in the admin area:

'labels' => array(
    'name' => 'Products',
    'singular_name' => 'Product',
    'add_new' => 'Add New Product',
    'add_new_item' => 'Add New Product',
    'edit_item' => 'Edit Product',
    'new_item' => 'New Product',
    'view_item' => 'View Product',
    'search_items' => 'Search Products',
    'not_found' => 'No products found',
    'not_found_in_trash' => 'No products found in trash'
),

Add additional parameters to control post type behavior:

'public' => true,
'publicly_queryable' => true,
'show_ui' => true,
'show_in_menu' => true,
'show_in_rest' => true,
'has_archive' => true,
'supports' => array('title', 'editor', 'thumbnail', 'excerpt', 'custom-fields'),
'menu_icon' => 'dashicons-products',
'menu_position' => 5,

Set 'show_in_rest' => true to enable Gutenberg editor support.

Save the functions.php file and navigate to your WordPress admin dashboard. Go to Settings > Permalinks and click Save Changes without making any modifications. This flushes the rewrite rules and ensures your custom post type URLs work correctly.

Check your WordPress admin sidebar - you should now see your new custom post type listed in the menu. Click on it to access the post management screen where you can Add New posts of your custom type. The interface will be similar to regular posts but with your custom labels.

To customize how your custom post type appears on the frontend, create template files in your active theme directory:

• single-your_post_type.php for individual post display
• archive-your_post_type.php for the archive page

Copy existing template files like single.php or archive.php and modify them as needed.