Advice on Categorization for a Custom Post Type

Question

Here is the scenario...

Say I currently have 4 different car brands and 4 different locations.

Ford, Chevy, Honda and Toyota

Location 1, Location 2, Location 3 and Location 4

Each car brand will have multiple models.

I need pages that:

• Lists all brands
• Lists all Fords at any location
• Lists all Fords at a given location
• List all Ford-Model X at any location
• List all Ford-Model X at a given location

The CPT will actually hold data about each model.

I know how to create the CPT and use ACF for the individual pieces of data for each car but I'm stuck on how to structure the categorization so it outputs things correctly. I've never added the taxonomy complexity to my CPT's before.

Should I use a hierarchical or not?

Ford - Model 1 -- Location 1 -- Location 2 -- Location 3 - Model 2 -- Location 1 -- Location 2 -- Location 3 Chevy - Model 1 -- Location 1 -- Location 2 -- Location 3 - Model 2 -- Location 1 -- Location 2 -- Location 3

My concern is if I use hierarchical, how would I get say all Chevy's (regardless of model) at location 3 or all cars (regardless or brand or model) at location 2.

Do I need to use some combination of hierarchical and non-hierarchical?

Thoughts/suggestions?

Answer 1

This is really a question of information architecture as there are many ways to handle this sort of situation.

One way to look at this would be to identify the relationships between each main category of data. Example: Locations and Brands are associated to Models. So Models would be your main CPT, with Locations and Brands either being additional CPTs or taxonomies that get associated to Models.

You could then easily create queries that query your Models CPT based on Locations or Brands.

Again, there are literally 100s of ways to accomplish what you are describing. But the first step is to architect the flow, and how you want your search/queries/user experience to operate.