Create a custom “Download” post type using WordPress

This is page 3 of 3. For the first part please go to page 1

Now that our loop is at place, let’s create the markup for the downloads. After <?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?> add:

<?php
   $download = get_post_meta( $post->ID, 'download', true );
   $download_count = get_post_meta( $post->ID, 'download_count', true );
?>

   <article id="download-<?php the_ID(); ?>" <?php post_class(); ?>>

	<header class="entry-header">
           <h1 class="entry-title"><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>" title="<?php printf( esc_attr__( 'Download %s', 'twentyeleven' ), the_title_attribute( 'echo=0' ) ); ?>" rel="bookmark"><?php the_title( '', ' <span>&ra rr;</span>' ); ?></a></h1>

           <div class="entry-meta">
              <?php
		  $show_sep = false;

		  if ( ! empty( $download['postid'] ) )
		     $show_sep = '<span class="sep">|</span>';

		  // Get the download categories
		  echo get_the_term_list( $post->ID, 'download-categories', 'Type: ', ' ', $show_sep );

		  // Get the associated post
		  if ( ! empty( $download['postid'] ) )
		     echo '<a href="' . get_permalink( $download['postid'] ) . '" title="Read the post ' . get_the_title( $download['postid'] ) . '">Read the post</a>';
              ?>
           </div><!-- .entry-meta -->

           <?php
   		  if ( has_post_thumbnail() )
		     the_post_thumbnail();
           ?>
	</header>

	<div class="download-description">
           <?php echo $post->post_excerpt; // We can't use the_excerpt because some themes has a "Continue reading..." link ?>
	</div>

	<footer class="entry-meta">
           <a href="" class="download-btn">Download “<?php the_title(); ?>”</a>
           <span class="download-count">Downloaded <?php echo number_format( $download_count ); ?> times</span>
	</footer><!--.entry-meta-->

   </article><!-- #download-<?php the_ID(); ?> -->

Again, this markup is based on Twenty Eleven – you might want to change it. With some styling, here how it can look

Create the download counter

We have the post type, a custom taxonomy, a metabox and the archive. But we still haven’t created a way for the user to actually download the file. Luckily that’s quite easy to do.

/**
 * Download counter function
 */
function jayj_count_and_redirect() {

   // Return if not download
   if ( ! is_singular( 'jayj_download' ) )
	return;

   $download_id = get_queried_object_id();

   $postmeta = get_post_meta( $download_id, 'download', true );
   $count_meta = get_post_meta( $download_id, 'download_count', true );

   // Get the count
   $count = isset( $download_id ) ? $count_meta : 0;

   // Handle the redirect
   $redirect = isset( $download_id ) ? $postmeta['file'] : '';

   if ( ! empty( $redirect ) ) :
	wp_redirect( esc_url_raw( $redirect ), 301 );
	update_post_meta( $download_id, 'download_count', $count + 1 ); // Update the count
	exit;
   else :
	wp_redirect( home_url(), 302 );
	exit;
   endif;
}

add_action( 'template_redirect', 'jayj_count_and_redirect' );

Let me explain the code. When a user goes to example.com/download/%slug% they normally would see the the single view of the download. But we don’t need that.

What this function does it that it detects when a user vists the single view, it gets the post meta, redirect them to the file and updates the download count. Pretty awesome.

That’s it!

That was it for part 1! Wow. It became quite longer that I imagined – hope I didn’t lose you.

In this part you learned how to

1. Register the post type
2. Create a custom “Download Categories” taxonomy
3. Create a metabox
4. Create the archive
5. and create the download counter

Download the code on Github

The next part will be about creating a download shortcode, a widget and the archive for the custom taxonomy.

If you have any comments, suggestions or have spotted an error please write a comment.