Custom Post Types. Are there any disadvantages/advantages in using a plugin to develop them?

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There are a few plugins which can assist you in building your CPT’s, and these can usually handle your taxonomies and sometimes postmeta also. Some even take it further than that. I know that as with any plugin it’s possible that development may cease; but aside from that are there any reasons why it’s better to code your own CPT’s taxonomies etc.

Here are some of the plugins I’m referring to

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  • Custom Post Type UI
  • Types
  • WCK
  • Custom Post Type Maker

Here’s my Advantage/Disadvantage list

Advantages

  • Quicker and Easier
  • Developers have hopefully considered security so
    no need to worry about nonces or protecting the database etc

Disadvantages

  • Might be a performance issue for some applications
  • Depending on
    development to continue.
  • Possibly Less Flexible

Does anyone want to add to or take away from this list?

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2 comments

  1. I think there’s no really huge difference, you choose the tool that you feel most comfortable yourself. Plugins have the drawbacks you mentioned, and doing them from scratch can be a bit slow and tedious.

    The 3rd alternative, that I find really good, is a PHP class that does all the heavy lifting for you, but is still light and easy to use, e.g. Easy-WordPress-Custom-Post-Types. This particular class does custom taxonomies and metaboxes also. Very handy. So you’ll eliminate bunch of plugins with one hit.

  2. This really isn’t a good question. But if you’re a developer you really should register your own custom post types in the functions.php file of the theme you’re using.

    look at the template below:

        add_action( 'init', 'register_cpt_[post_name]' );
function register_cpt_[post_name]() {
$labels = array(
'name'               => '[post name]',
'singular_name'      => '[singular post name]',
'add_new'            => 'Add New',
'add_new_item'       => 'Add New [post name]',
'edit_item'          => 'Edit [post name]',
'new_item'           => 'New [post name]',
'all_items'          => 'All [post name]',
'view_item'          => 'View [post name]',
'search_items'       => 'Search [post name]',
'not_found'          => 'No [post name] found',
'not_found_in_trash' => 'No [post name] in Trash',
'parent_item_colon'  => '',
'menu_name'          => '[post name as it will appear in the WP dashboard]'
);

$args = array(
'labels'             => $labels,
'public'             => true,
'publicly_queryable' => true,
'show_ui'            => true,
'show_in_menu'       => true,
'query_var'          => true,
'rewrite'            => array( 'slug' => '[post-name]' ),
'capability_type'    => 'post',
'has_archive'        => true,
'hierarchical'       => false,
'menu_position'      => null,
'supports'           => array( 'title', 'editor', 'author', 'thumbnail', 'excerpt',     'comments' )
);
register_post_type('[post_name]', $args);
};

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