Variable Products as custom post types

Question

I'm building a site for ordering food online. It's not a shop (visitors will not be able to pay online, just to order for delivery). My initial idea was to define all the food and drink items as custom post types. But I haven't figured out how to set up product variations. For example, a pizza may be small, medium or large, and depending on the size selected, its price is different. Or a salad may have Italian or French dressing, which also influences its price.

Can this be achieved using WP custom post types?

Answer 1

Use it can be done using CUSTOM META BOX. Add following to function.php:

/* Adds pizza size meta box to the post editing screen 
******************************************************/
function prfx_custom_meta() {
    add_meta_box( 'prfx_meta', __( 'Pizza Size', 'prfx-textdomain' ), 'prfx_meta_callback', 'post' );
}
add_action( 'add_meta_boxes', 'prfx_custom_meta' );


/* Outputs the content of the meta box 
**************************************/
function prfx_meta_callback( $post ) {
    wp_nonce_field( basename( __FILE__ ), 'prfx_nonce' );
    $prfx_stored_meta = get_post_meta( $post->ID );
    ?>

    <p>
    <label for="meta-text" class="prfx-row-title" style="clear:both; float: left; width:100%;" ><?php _e( '<b>Enter Pizza Size</b> ', 'prfx-textdomain' )?></label>
        <textarea name="meta-text" id="meta-text" maxlength="250" style="clear:left; float: left; width: 100%;" rows="4" cols="90"><?php if ( isset ( $prfx_stored_meta['meta-text'] ) ) echo $prfx_stored_meta['meta-text'][0]; ?></textarea>
        <p>You can write like: Available in: 21" and 16" only</p>
    </p>

    <?php
}


/* Saves the custom meta input 
******************************/
function prfx_meta_save( $post_id ) {

    // Checks save status
    $is_autosave = wp_is_post_autosave( $post_id );
    $is_revision = wp_is_post_revision( $post_id );
    $is_valid_nonce = ( isset( $_POST[ 'prfx_nonce' ] ) && wp_verify_nonce( $_POST[ 'prfx_nonce' ], basename( __FILE__ ) ) ) ? 'true' : 'false';

    // Exits script depending on save status
    if ( $is_autosave || $is_revision || !$is_valid_nonce ) {
        return;
    }

    // Checks for input and sanitizes/saves if needed
    if( isset( $_POST[ 'meta-text' ] ) ) {
        update_post_meta( $post_id, 'meta-text', sanitize_text_field( $_POST[ 'meta-text' ] ) );
    }

}
add_action( 'save_post', 'prfx_meta_save' );

And then goto piece of code where you would like to show pizza sizes e.g I want to show it on single.php, so I will add the following code after description:

<?php $meta_value = get_post_meta( get_the_ID(), 'meta-text', true );

// Checks and displays the retrieved value
if( !empty( $meta_value ) )
    echo $meta_value;
else 
    echo "No pizza sizes available";
?>

Answer 2

Yes, this is exactly the purpose for custom post types. To handle your product variations, several custom fields can be added, specific to each post type.

A common solution for the custom fields is Elliot Condon's excellent Advanced Custom Fields plugin. No plugin is necessary for this, however, and there are other options out there for easy custom field management.

Writing the code for your own metaboxes (to enclose groups of product options) and other headaches are managed by the plugin instead.