Is it proper to create a page just to generate a listing page (eg. for a custom post type)

Question

I find myself creating pages just as a "placeholder" to a listing page.

eg. I create a page "Blog" and "Portfolio". Both has the editor emtpy. And I just use it so that I can use page-blog.php and page-portfolio.php for the respective listing pages. It doesnt seem proper? Is there a better way?

Answer 1

I guess another way would be including 'has_archive' => true, into your register_post_type array and using archive-{posttype}.php to style your custom post type listings

Answer 2

I only use 'placeholder' pages if I'm listing just a few custom post types with no pagination (or any other miscellaneous data for that fact), so that the end user still has control over the things like the title & content (which you can use for introductory text and so forth).

It also has the advantage of getting listed in wp_list_pages(), which is handy if you're using it for navigation elsewhere in your theme.

However, as @Daniel said, if you want to make benefit of a full-blown archive with pagination & feeds, opt for the has_archive arg.

I tend to use a different slug for the archive as opposed to the single post, just for clarity.

So for example;

http://example.com/product/my-single-product/

And for archives;

http://example.com/products/

http://example.com/products/page/2

http://example.com/products/feed/

The code for it?

register_post_type( array(
    'rewrite' => array(
        'slug' => 'product', // defaults to post type name
        'with_front' => true, // prepends slug to single posts, default true
        'pages' => true, // support pagination, default true
        'feeds' => true // support feeds, default matches 'has_archive'
     ),

     'has_archive' => 'products' // if bool true, defaults to rewrite slug
) );