How To Set Custom Post Type Title Without Supports

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So, I asked this question differently in another thread but it was more of an advice type question so it really didn’t render any useful responses. I believe I can word it better and should help some of you decipher what I am trying to accomplish and possibly help someone else once we collaborate on a solution.

I have a custom post type that is using very limited Supports (described here) values because I only need the meta-box values for my custom post type. It doesn’t make sense for my type to include a title and content. Code below:

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register_post_type( 'athlete',
        array(
            'labels' => array(
                'name' => 'Athletes',
                'singular_name' => 'Athlete',
                'add_new' => 'Add New',
                'add_new_item' => 'Add New Athlete',
                'edit' => 'Edit',
                'edit_item' => 'Edit Athlete',
                'new_item' => 'New Athlete',
                'view' => 'View',
                'view_item' => 'View Athlete',
                'search_items' => 'Search Athletes',
                'not_found' => 'No Athletes found',
                'not_found_in_trash' => 'No Athletes found in Trash',
                'parent' => 'Parent Athlete'
            ),

            'public' => true,
            'menu_position' => 15,
            'supports' => array( 'thumbnail' ),
            'taxonomies' => array( '' ),
            'has_archive' => true
        )
    );

As you can see, I only need the thumbnail supports option because the rest of my post type will be meta-boxes (not including in this question). The problem is, when I save an Athlete, I have two problems, I do not know how to display my meta-box values in the Athlete list (as columns in the grid) and I do not know how to set the Title value as it always sets it to “Auto-Generated” which is not preferred. If the Title will be a field that is searchable, I would prefer to set the value to [First Name]+[Last Name]. Can anyone help with these two issues and explain if I am going to run into any problems by using a custom post type as opposed to using custom database tables and a custom UI to manage my object?

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  1. I’ve dabbled in this as well. For a meta box I recommend the Meta Box plugin (which I regularly contribute code to). A good tutorial on how to use it is here. For custom columns, do a search in WPSE but this should get you started. Saving the post title involves using the save_post filter. When you set up your meta box, remember the id you used for the first and last names and replace then in the code below:

    add_filter( 'save_post_athlete', 'wpse88655_set_title', 10, 3 );
function wpse88655_set_title ( $post_id, $post, $update ){
    //This temporarily removes filter to prevent infinite loops
    remove_filter( 'save_post_athlete', __FUNCTION__ );

    //get first and last name meta
    $first = get_metadata( 'athelete_first_name', $post_id ); //meta for first name
    $last = get_metadata( 'athelete_last_name', $post_id );   //meta for last name

    $title = $first . ' ' . $last;

    //update title
    wp_update_post( array( 'ID'=>$post_id, 'post_title'=>$title ) );

    //redo filter
    add_filter( 'save_post_athlete', __FUNCTION__, 10, 3 );
}