One of the most anticipated features of WordPress 3.0 was the ability to add your own custom post types to WordPress, which allows you to display and categorize different types of content outside of the 5 native WordPress content types (i.e. Post, Page, Attachment, and so forth). The addition of this feature is a big step forward in making WordPress a full-fledged CMS, extending outside its normal use as a blogging platform.

In this guide, we’ll go through the process of creating and using your own custom post type. More specifically, we will create an "Event" post type for your special events and dates, sort of like a calendar.
What is a Custom Post Type?

If you’re familiar with WordPress, then I’m sure you’ve already had some exposure to the default WordPress post types used for content creation: Post and Page. Almost all of the content in any WordPress site prior to 3.0 is composed of some combination of posts and pages.

Posts are generally used for content that is updated frequently (blog posts, for example), and pages are generally used for static content (such as the About page of a site).

Often, however, you may have a more specific type of data that you want to include on your site. This is where custom post types come in.

We’re going to create a custom post type that we’ll call "Event". This content type will let us add events such as birthdays, holidays, conference dates, and so forth.

We’ll be working with the default TwentyTen theme that comes with WordPress 3.0 so that we have a uniform code base, but the concepts and techniques will be applicable to any theme.