[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #13818: There should be index pages for custom post types

[WordPress Trac]

#13818: There should be index pages for custom post types
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 Reporter:  frankieroberto  |       Owner:  nacin   
     Type:  task (blessed)  |      Status:  accepted
 Priority:  normal          |   Milestone:  3.1     
Component:  Template        |     Version:  3.0     
 Severity:  normal          |    Keywords:          
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Comment(by greenshady):

 > Actually, we always know. We know exactly what post types a user has
 because we build those post types right into the theme.
 >
 > Any existing post types which they have will be replaced by the ones in
 the theme which is being developed. If they're going to the trouble of
 migrating a custom post type from one theme to another then it's fairly
 reasonable to assume that they might also migrate the CPT template.

 Actually, we don't always know.  Post types don't have to be developed
 within a theme.  Plugins can also create post types.  We can find out
 which post types are registered, of course.  We don't always know
 beforehand (during development) which exist and should be able to create
 fallbacks within our themes.

 For example, suppose a plugin registers the "movie" post type.  The theme
 would normally handle the presentantion of this on the front end of the
 site.  For the movie archive page, a theme developer cannot know to create
 a special template called `archive-movie.php` to handle that specific
 archive.  However, a theme developer would likely want to have a
 conditional within `archive.php` to handle post type archives in general.

 This is no different than other archive-type conditional tags such as
 `is_category()`, `is_author()`, and `is_tax()`.  The proposal for
 `is_post_type_archive()` is not some weird stretch of the imagination
 here.  It fits right in with other, similar conditional tags.  The other
 proposed functions do as well.

 > Fallbacks are always good, but I don't think it's a major issue for
 custom post types.

 I *know* it'll be a major issue.  I've already done enough of these types
 of sites and setups with average users to know the above three things will
 be critical.

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Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/13818#comment:50>
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