How to Customize Post in WordPress with Toolset

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Avoiding drops of cold sweat with clients

Let’s learn how customize post in wordpress with toolset!

Are WordPress implementer (you have clients to whom, install a good template or a good framework, some essential plugins, make a more or less advanced configuration of the options, and you don’t know how to program 100% although you do know WordPress like the back of your hand)?

Or if you simply have your own website and you have hackneyed so much that you know how to move very well for her but you feel that you lack something else and you are limitedthis post will come in handy.

What we are going to see is how to create our own structure and taxonomyapart from the one that comes by default with WordPress.

The purpose is to be able to show our visitors any type of content, ranked as we want, and with the informative elements that we decide (not just a title, description and photo).

In addition, I am going to explain it to you with a simple example to understand, and we are going to do it in 20 steps, divided into three phases (set up, to create Y to show), all thanks to one of the best premium plugins on the market, for this purpose: (it also has the option to lifetime licenseThe ones I like the most).

By default, WordPress comes with three post types: Posts, Pages Y Media. within the poststwo types of taxonomy are added: Categories Y tags.

So far everything perfect and wonderful. But what if he calls you a client, and he tells you:

“Oh, do you make websites? how good.

Well, I would like you to create a website for my school, where we teachers can see a list of all the students, with the file of each student, and another list of the parents, with the file of each couple.

In addition, I want to see what class the child attends, if he stays to eat in the cafeteria, if he can do gymnastics or has any problems, if he is allergic to something and what extracurricular activities he will do that year.

On the parents’ side, I am interested in knowing if they are registered with the Parents and Students Association (APA), who their children are, and their contact information (phone, e-mail and Skype). “

Immediately afterwards, you move the phone away from your ear, rest your hand on a nearby table, snort, and notice how the fat drop of cold sweat slides down your forehead until it falls into the void.

You think that how are you going to do that, that how many pages and subpages you will have to create for each child and each parent, or if you will use posts for parents, and pages for children, and then how to relate them to each other? What a ruckus.

Nothing happens! We are going to use this example to build a website (basic, without frills, so that the concept is understood) that meets the requirements of our school example.

And we’re going to do it by 20 stepswhich will be distributed in three phases: Settings, Create content, Show content. Each phase comes with its detailed steps, as well as a video at the end of each phasein which you can see how I do it myself.

Ideally, you should have basic knowledge of HTML and CSS, so that you can then beautifully display the content to web visitors, but don’t be scared because we’re not going to see almost any code when customizing posts in WordPress with Toolset.

All these advanced configurations can be done perfectly with phpbut if you don’t master it 100% and prefer something more visual and understandable (and equally professional), keep reading.

SETTING

Step 0: Definition of the web requirements

The essence of this initial step is translate the paragraph that the client has told us, to a conceptual scheme.

This scheme will allow us to understand exactly what needs does the school have (requirements).

It will even help us to exchange emails with the client, making modifications until we have the conceptual scheme finaland in which our client will have to give us the ok in writing (and it cannot be modified later, to avoid surprises and lost work).

And all this, without even touching a single WordPress link!.

In this example, this is the final outline of the requirements for the school:

Step 1: Add Free Version of Toolset Plugin

Here we simply look for the plugin toolset and add and activate it to our WordPress installation.

Step 2: Understand fundamental concepts of the plugin

Here we take a look at what the plugin allows, to get down to business. understand concepts like Content Type, Content Fields, Taxonomy, Template View, File View…

Step 3: Rename Default Content Types

Here we are going to rename the types of content that come by default in WordPress: Pages, Posts and Multimedia. And we are going to change them to Classrooms (pages), News (posts) and Photos (multimedia).

Step 4: Review the rest of the options

Here we see above the plugin options, which we will not need to touch to fulfill the objective of this post.

This is not a post about the plugin (it is very extensive and is not the purpose of this post). We use this plugin because it is the most professional tool I have found for our purpose.

Step 5: Definition of Students, Parents, and Teachers

In the plugin panel, we are going to see where each information is going to go. Students and parents will have their own files and data groups, and teachers will act as users of the web.

Here is the video that develops all these steps:

CREATE CONTENT

Step 6: Create the content type Students

We will use the plugin options to create our first content type: Students.

Step 7: Review the options the plugin offers for our first content type

When creating a type of content, the plugin gives you several possibilities. Some do not need to be touched, and others do.

In this case we have to understand how each student is going to relate to each pair of parents.

Step 8: Create the content type Fathers

Now it’s time to create the content of Fathers. Here I wanted to keep it simple, and let’s say, each set of parents will have only one tab.

For example, Pepe Gonzalez, and Mariana Serrano we take it as a single record (it does not make sense to make a record for each one). If you are a single or divorced parent, just use one name.

Step 9: Relate one type of content to another

In this step we will be able to relate each student or students with their parents, and vice versa.

In this way, when our users (teachers) enter the file of each student, they will be able to see what parents that student has, and when entering the parents’ file, they will be able to see what child or children they have at school.

Step 10: Add Field Group for Students

Now it’s time for the most interesting part of the entire content creation section: creating the groups of fields, based on the map of requirements that we have initially prepared. We remind here the information we need for students:

• Academic profile
  
  
  • Student information: Name, Surname, Photo, Parents.
  • Gymnastics: If you are unable to do gymnastics due to illness or injury, check one box.
• Feeding
  
  
  • Dining room: Option to know if you stay to eat or not in the school dining room.
  • Allergies: Checkboxes to know what allergies the child has, or if they do not have any.
• Activities
  
  
  • Sports: Soccer, Basketball, Tennis, None.
  • Workshops: Kitchen workshop, Mechanical workshop, None.
  • Summer Camp: A checkbox to know if you will go to summer camp.

Step 11: Add Field Group for Parents

The information that we have to know about the parents according to our requirements scheme is less, but just as important for our client:

• Member(s) of the Parent-Student Association (APA): Yes or no.
• Contact information: telephone, email, postal address, Skype.
• Photo.

Step 12: Creating taxonomies for Students

Here we are going to include the missing information about the students: the course they belong to.

I have separated it into a taxonomy, because later it will be easier to put each student in the corresponding course, and teachers will be able to find them sooner.

• Grade: First second Third Fourth Fifth sixth.

As the content of the web is already growing, we are going to add a menu with three options: Students (will take us to the list of students), Fathers (will take us to the list of parents) and courses (it will show us lists of students of each course).

Step 14: Add a field group for taxonomies

We are going to add a photo here for each category created (courses) in the students.

It is not an option that is often used a lot, but it will be useful, for example, if we want to display a page in the form of a grid, with photos of each course, so that the teacher can select it more easily.

Step 15: Create your own fields for user files

The users of the web are going to be the teachers. We are going to create for each one a couple of their own fields in their profiles: languages ​​you speak and telephone.

Below is the video that explains each step in the Creation phase:

SHOW CONTENT

To show the content to our users (for example a student file, with all the information that we have detailed previously), we need a addonwhich is achieved by purchasing the version premium of the plugin, and that totally worth it.

Such an extension is called (views).

Step 16: Install add-on views

We install the extension views and we will see how new options are activated in the Toolset plugin panel.

Step 17: Create a view for each student’s record

with a kind of attendee we will be able to easily create each student file. This is where it is ideal to know a bit of HTML and CSS code to put the information that the assistant gives us where we want.

In this post, and not to confuse you, we will do it very very basic.

Step 18: Create a View for Each Parent Set Tab

Here we are going to do the same, but for parents.

Step 19: Create a view for the list of all students

As if in a normal blog, we click on File, Archive and it shows us a list of all the posts that have been written in that blog, or if we click on a specific category of the blog, it shows us all the posts written in that category, we are going to do the same for e list of all the students of the center.

Step 20: Create a view to list all parents

Same concept, but this time applied to a list of all parents.

If we came up with a special categorization for parents (just as we have categorized students under the taxonomy of courses), we could also apply it here.

Let’s go now with the video in which I explain each step of this last phase in detail on how to customize posts in WordPress with Toolset:

Now is the time to call our client and show him the excellent work we have achieved, by fulfilling in a professional and very efficient way all the requirements that he has asked us at the beginning.

Other usage examples could be:

• Restaurant with food dishes, categorized by ingredients, by country…