Custom post types team data

Question

I am in the process of designing a website for a hockey team(more so the teams history).

I have collected all data needed, which in turn will continue to grow. I have been told that the easiest way to set up this information on Wordpress is through custom post types. To give you an idea of what some of the info that I have is I will explain.

Obviously with a teams history site I have all players and their stats, all coaches and their stats, all of the teams games played with results, whether it was home or away, win or loss etc. as well I have awards, team drafts, team records( fastest goals, most goals in a season by a player etc). With the team still existing the player list will continue to grow and infor will have to be updated regularly.

I would like to have site visitors to be able to sort through this info. ie on the players page the user would be able to sort through the players data with a search box or drop down to sort by position or season. The info would then show up dynamically in a table form on the front end (player page, coaches page etc)

I'm not so much having an issue with custom post types but is this the best way to go? I will have to re-enter the data that I have into custom post types for sure. Is there a step by step guide anywhere or some knowledge of getting this done)? I am new to this and have done quiet a bit of reading on topic. But still having problems completely understanding.

Thanks for any help

Answer 1

More than trying to give a definitive answer, some suggestions.

WP Development Installation

Although you can have an online test install, a local install will give faster results in a trial/error process.
WordPress local development environment

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Gathering External Data

Depends on your source of content. But if handling data in a SpreadSheet, the plugin CSV Importer is quite nice to make batch import of Posts/Pages/CPTs, their taxonomies and custom fields.

Of course, you'll work with just a sample of the total data until having a definitive setup.

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Custom Posts, Custom Fields and Relationships (plugins of interest)

Posts 2 Posts
Efficient many-to-many connections between posts, pages, custom post types, users.

^{Probably will be the most useful in the described scenario.}

Custom Content Type Manager
It allows users to create custom content types (also known as post types) and standardized custom fields for each, including dropdowns, checkboxes, and images.

^{Has repeatable fields and "relationships" (select other post types items as a field).
Having both CPTs and CFs in a single plugin can be a plus.}

Advanced Custom Fields
Fully customise WordPress edit screens with powerful fields.

^{Repeatable fields are a premium add-on. Also has "relationships".
Its location rules for the CFs are quite interesting: Post Type, Logged in User Type, Page, Page Type, Page Parent, Page Template, Post, Post Category, Post Format, Post Taxonomy, Taxonomy, User, Media.}

Custom Metaboxes and Fields for WordPress
This is a code library for WordPress themes and plugins that makes it easy to add metaboxes to the post screen.

^{If developing a custom made theme, this library can be useful.}

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Conclusion

After having a probable course of action, split your issues in small/answerable bits and open new questions for each. E.g., "How to search the Custom Fields of two CPTs?", "How to make the YYYY relationship work?".

And, of course, search this Stack as it has a great accumulated knowledge base.