How to make custom post types in WordPress

Hi Sean,

I haven't watched the video (I just a quick flick through), but the 2 ways I know of to create a custom post type are the following:

1. Use a plugin.. Quick, easy, and affective (but you won't learn anything).
2. Use the register_post_type() function

The video suggests you install a plugin (which can be found under the teacher notes section of the site)

It's handled with a plugin in the course which is fine if you're building a commercial theme so that if someone changes the theme they don't lose the ability to use the data but, for bespoke sites, you don't want plugins all over it.

Read the codex. All the answers are there on how to create a custom post type via functions.php which is all the plugin does. It just uses a hook instead of being in functions.php.

There's a good tutorial here to get started: http://justintadlock.com/archives/2010/04/29/custom-post-types-in-wordpress

Anything else you need you can find in the codex. Agree with Matthew that for some purposes a plugin is fine - don't reinvent the wheel.

Check out this video: http://teamtreehouse.com/library/how-to-build-a-wordpress-theme/content-strategy-with-wordpress/custom-post-types-and-fields-2 and then the next one. Should go over what you're looking for.