WordPress Custom Archive Templete for Custom Post Type

When you create a custom post type in WordPress, you often want a special archive page to display all posts of that type. WordPress lets you create a custom archive template file to control how this archive looks.

Step 1: Register Your Custom Post Type

First, you create a custom post type (CPT) in your theme’s functions.php or via a plugin like CPT UI. Here’s a quick example registering a CPT called book:

phpCopyEditfunction create_book_post_type() {
    register_post_type('book', array(
        'labels' => array(
            'name' => __('Books'),
            'singular_name' => __('Book'),
        ),
        'public' => true,
        'has_archive' => true,
        'rewrite' => array('slug' => 'books'),
        'supports' => array('title', 'editor', 'thumbnail'),
    ));
}
add_action('init', 'create_book_post_type');

Make sure 'has_archive' => true is set to enable archive pages.

Step 2: Create the Custom Archive Template File

WordPress uses the template hierarchy to decide which template to load. For a CPT archive, it looks for a file named:

CopyEditarchive-{post_type}.php

For our example CPT book, create a file named:

CopyEditarchive-book.php

Place this file in your active theme’s folder.

Step 3: Build the Template Structure

Here’s a basic example of archive-book.php:

phpCopyEdit<?php get_header(); ?>

<div class="archive-books">
    <h1>All Books</h1>

    <?php if (have_posts()) : ?>
        <ul>
        <?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
            <li>
                <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>
                <p><?php the_excerpt(); ?></p>
            </li>
        <?php endwhile; ?>
        </ul>

        <?php
        // Pagination
        the_posts_pagination(array(
            'mid_size' => 2,
            'prev_text' => __('« Previous'),
            'next_text' => __('Next »'),
        ));
        ?>

    <?php else : ?>
        <p>No books found.</p>
    <?php endif; ?>
</div>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

This template shows a list of your custom post type posts with titles linking to single posts, excerpts, and pagination.

Step 4: Refresh Permalinks

After adding your CPT and archive template, go to Settings > Permalinks in your WordPress admin and click Save Changes to flush rewrite rules. This ensures your archive URLs work properly.