Custom Post Type Archives by Year & Month?

Question

How do you display the archives of a Custom Post Type by Year & Month?

Answer 1

Yes, you can. All you need is make a filter for wp_get_archives(); so it accepts post_type parameter:

function my_custom_post_type_archive_where($where,$args){  
    $post_type  = isset($args['post_type'])  ? $args['post_type']  : 'post';  
    $where = "WHERE post_type = '$post_type' AND post_status = 'publish'";
    return $where;  
}

then call this:

add_filter( 'getarchives_where','my_custom_post_type_archive_where',10,2);

Whenever you want to display archive by custom post type, just pass the post_type args:

$args = array(
    'post_type'    => 'your_custom_post_type',
    'type'         => 'monthly',
    'echo'         => 0
);
echo '<ul>'.wp_get_archives($args).'</ul>';

Answer 2

You don't, the official line from the Wordpress developers was that custom post types weren't intended to do the job of normal ordinary posts, and that if you need post archives of dates etc, then you're not doing things correctly, and you're better off using post formats etc..

Custom post types are intended for web applications etc, whereas doing something such as setting up a custom post type that acts as a secondary or parallel blog with a different name, e.g. blog vs news, with the same abilities, is not what the feature was intended for, and would mean other technical issues arising from its implementation.

If you are still insistent on this, and simply using custom taxonomies and post formats is not enough, you could add rewrite rules in functions.php and redirect year/month archives in certain URLs to the post archive page, and then check on the custom post archive page if you've specified variables in your rewrite rules and load a different template, making sure in your rewrite rules to set the appropriate values.

Answer 3

If you want to avoid messing around with code and want more options for your archives then use Custom Post Type Archives plugin - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/custom-post-type-archives/.

This plugin creates a function called wp_get_post_type_archives() which works the same as wp_get_archives() but allows you use Custom Post Types.

Only problem it is seems to not work with pretty permalinks, so you need to modify the plugin with this fix reference listed here.

Replace this code in the plugin file "post-type-archives.php" (should be starting at line 164):

$custom_rules["$url_base($post_type)/([0-9]+)/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/?$"] = // enable listing by day
            "index.php?post_type_index=1&post_type=$post_type_slug&year=" . $wp_rewrite->preg_index(2) . '&monthnum=' . $wp_rewrite->preg_index(3) . '&day=' . $wp_rewrite->preg_index(4);
        $custom_rules["$url_base($post_type)/([0-9]+)/([0-9]{1,2})/?$"] = // enabled listing by month
            "index.php?post_type_index=1&post_type=$post_type_slug&year=" . $wp_rewrite->preg_index(2) . '&monthnum=' . $wp_rewrite->preg_index(3);
        $custom_rules["$url_base($post_type)/([0-9]+/?$)"] = // enable listing by year
            "index.php?post_type_index=1&post_type=$post_type_slug&year=" . $wp_rewrite->preg_index(2);

With this code below:

$custom_rules["$url_base($post_type)/([0-9]{1,4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/page/([0-9]{1,})/?$"] = // ### FIX: enable listing by day + paging
            "index.php?post_type_index=1&post_type=$post_type_slug&year=" . $wp_rewrite->preg_index(2) . '&monthnum=' . $wp_rewrite->preg_index(3) . '&day=' . $wp_rewrite->preg_index(4) . "&paged=" . $wp_rewrite->preg_index(5);
        $custom_rules["$url_base($post_type)/([0-9]{1,4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/?$"] = // enable listing by day
            "index.php?post_type_index=1&post_type=$post_type_slug&year=" . $wp_rewrite->preg_index(2) . '&monthnum=' . $wp_rewrite->preg_index(3) . '&day=' . $wp_rewrite->preg_index(4);
        $custom_rules["$url_base($post_type)/([0-9]{1,4})/([0-9]{1,2})/page/([0-9]{1,})/?$"] = // ### FIX: enable listing by month + paging
            "index.php?post_type_index=1&post_type=$post_type_slug&year=" . $wp_rewrite->preg_index(2) . '&monthnum=' . $wp_rewrite->preg_index(3) . "&paged=" . $wp_rewrite->preg_index(4);
        $custom_rules["$url_base($post_type)/([0-9]{1,4})/([0-9]{1,2})/?$"] = // enabled listing by month
            "index.php?post_type_index=1&post_type=$post_type_slug&year=" . $wp_rewrite->preg_index(2) . '&monthnum=' . $wp_rewrite->preg_index(3);
        $custom_rules["$url_base($post_type)/([0-9]{1,4})/page/([0-9]{1,})/?$"] = // ### FIX: enable listing by year + paging
            "index.php?post_type_index=1&post_type=$post_type_slug&year=" . $wp_rewrite->preg_index(2) . "&paged=" . $wp_rewrite->preg_index(3);
        $custom_rules["$url_base($post_type)/([0-9]{1,4})/?$"] = // enable listing by year
            "index.php?post_type_index=1&post_type=$post_type_slug&year=" . $wp_rewrite->preg_index(2);