Adding a content rating system

Question

I run a multiple author site and the content is directed to various age groups. Instead of forcing the writer to manually note which age group the post is appropriate for, I want to add a content rating system with the following labels:

G — Suitable for all audiences

PG — Possibly offensive, usually for audiences 13 and above

R — Intended for adult audiences above 17

X — Even more mature than above

What would be a good way to add such feature? Ideally, on the post page, there is an area with radioboxes where the writer can make their selection. There must be a way to echo the choice in the post template.

Please provide code example if you choose to answer as my coding knowledge is limited.

Answer 1

Custom field will do the task. On the post page there's nothing to do great, just create a Custom Field called agerating or age-rating. Authors will enter the value of the field according to their content with G/PG/R/X.

Then at the frontend, edit single.php. Use this code inside the loop to retrieve the rating value:

<?php $age-rating = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'age-rating', true); ?>

Now use this code to show the rating:

Rated As: <?php echo $age-rating; ?>

Change the codes according to your needs. You can also style the Custom value box inside the Post panel after becoming experienced with this.

More Details: http://codex.wordpress.org/Custom_Fields