[wp-hackers] WP 3.0 and beyond: Custom post types + custom fields

[Jeremy Clarke]

On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 4:59 PM, Mohammad Jangda <batmoo at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>  It might be overkill for core (at this point, at least) but anyone want to
> join forces to make this happen as a plugin?
>
>
The general idea is definitely appropriate for core. It's an obvious and
common need, and when putting together a theme the functions.php file is an
obvious place to define custom fields that will be displayed in the theme.

I actually have something like this hacked together for myself that lets me
define an array in functions.php which then gets converted into a metabox
(hacked it off an old coffee2code plugin that no longer works). It is
incredibly useful and handy and I couldn't live without it. Having the same
functionality in core is a no-brainer.

Your proposed function is pretty intense, though most of it seems relevant.
Ideally it would be modeled on the Settings API and add_settings_field() but
those functions are a huge mess and dearly in need of some wp_parse_args(),
so I like your idea of balancing the mandatory info and overrides.

Not sure about the naming, here are some other ideas:

 add_metadata_field()
 add_post_meta_field()
 register_post_meta_field()
 add_custom_post_meta_field()

They get pretty long at the end there but I think its worth being specific.
"metadata" is a very general term in WP especially with the 'metadata api'
that can be used for any purpose. Specifying 'post' (as in 'post-type', not
as in post-type='post') will make it much clearer.

We'd probably also want something like:

 add_post_meta_section()

Which could be used to define a 'group' which would have its own metabox,
similar to add_settings_section().

The paste and formatting of your proposed function were all messed up in my
gmail so I'll repaste it below (also at http://pastie.org/1010807 ):

register_metadata_field('fieldName1', 'post-type', array(
    'group' => '', // To which meta_box the field should be added
    'field_type' => 'text', // The type of field; possibly values:
text,checkbox, radio, select, image. 'custom' if display_callback is
specified
    'label' => '', // Label for the field
    'description' => '', // Description of the field, displayed below the
input
    'value' => array(), // values for select, checkbox, radio buttons
    'display_callback' => '', // function to render the field, if not using
a built-in type
    'save_callback' => '', // function name for saving
    'client_validation_callback' => '', // function name for client-side
validation
    'server_validation_callback' => '', // function name for server-side
validation
    'show_in_columns' => false, // Add the field to the columns when viewing
all posts
    'add_to_edit' => false, // Add the field to the Edit page
    'add_to_quick_edit' => false // Add the field to Quick edit
) );


-- 
Jeremy Clarke
Code and Design | globalvoicesonline.org