Post types: Visibility and URLs tabs

Last updated Oct 3, 20264 min read

Both tabs appear when Advanced settings is on in the post type editor (Custom post types).

Visibility tab

Setting	Default	Effect
Show in admin	On	Gives the type an editing interface in the admin. Turn off for types that are managed only by code.
Admin menu	Top-level menu	Where the type's menu entry goes (see below).
Show in navigation menus (Appearance → Menus)	On	Lets editors add the type's entries and archive to menus.
Show in the admin bar (+ New)	On	Adds the type to the "+ New" menu in the black admin bar.
Exclude from site search	Off	When on, entries never appear in the site's search results.
Menu position	empty	A number; lower numbers appear higher in the menu (Posts is 5, Pages 20, Comments 25). Empty lets WordPress place it below Comments. Minimum 0.
Menu icon (Dashicon class or image URL)	`dashicons-admin-post`	A Dashicons class such as `dashicons-book`, or a full `http(s)://` image URL. Empty falls back to the default.
Meta box callback (PHP function name)	empty	See below.

Three radio buttons:

Top-level menu: its own entry in the main menu.
Under an existing menu: a sub-item of another menu. Type the parent in the box, for example edit.php?post_type=page (under Pages) or tools.php (under Tools). If you leave the box empty, tools.php is used.
Hide from the admin menu: no entry. The type still works, and you can link to its list screen yourself.

The "Under an existing menu" value is the file name WordPress uses for the parent. For another custom post type that is edit.php?post_type=key.

Public, publicly queryable and the admin

The Public toggle in Basics is saved as WordPress's public flag, which other plugins read (sitemaps, SEO plugins, REST listings). Mass Custom Fields sends every visibility setting below explicitly, so Public does not switch them on or off for you: set Show in admin, Publicly queryable, Show in navigation menus and Exclude from site search yourself. A common combination for data that only has an admin screen: Public off, Publicly queryable off, Show in admin on.

Meta box callback

An advanced option for developers. For safety, the callback must be on an allow-list; none are allowed by default, so a name typed here is refused with: The callback "name" is not allowed. Allow it with the wpmcf/post_types/allowed_callbacks filter.

php

add_filter( 'wpmcf/post_types/allowed_callbacks', function ( array $allowed, string $arg ) {
	if ( 'register_meta_box_cb' === $arg ) {
		$allowed[] = 'my_book_meta_boxes';
	}
	return $allowed;
}, 10, 2 );

The function must exist when the type is registered.

URLs tab

Setting	Default	Effect
Permalinks	Default (post type key)	Default (post type key): entries live at `/key/post-name/`. Custom slug: use the slug you enter. Disabled: no pretty URLs for the type.
Custom slug (only for Custom slug)	empty	Letters, numbers and hyphens. Empty falls back to the key.
Use the front URL prefix (with_front)	On	If your permalink structure has a fixed prefix such as `/blog/`, the type's URLs get it too. Turn off to leave the prefix out.
Feed URLs	On	Creates feed URLs like `/key/feed/`.
Pagination in URLs	On	Creates `/key/page/2/` style URLs.
Publicly queryable	On	Allows front-end queries for the type, so single entries can be opened by URL.
Archive page	Off	Gives the type a list page of all entries.
Custom archive slug (optional)	empty	Only when Archive page is on. Empty: the archive uses the same slug as single entries.
Disable query variable	Off	Removes `?key=post-name` style URLs.
Custom query variable (optional)	empty	Replaces the key as the query variable name. Hidden while the variable is disabled.

Examples

For a type with key book:

Settings	Single entry	Archive
Defaults, Archive page on	`/book/dune/`	`/book/`
Permalinks: Custom slug `library`	`/library/dune/`	`/library/`
Custom slug `library`, Custom archive slug `shelf`	`/library/dune/`	`/shelf/`
Archive page off	`/book/dune/`	no archive

The Archive column of the post type list shows "On" for any type with an archive.

Applying URL changes

Any change here schedules a rewrite flush that runs on the next page load. You do not need to resave Permalinks (see Custom post types). If entries still return "404 Not Found", the cause is almost always one of: Plain permalinks selected in Settings › Permalinks, a slug clash with a page or another plugin, or an archive slug that equals a page slug.

Notes and limits

Changing a slug does not redirect the old URLs. Add redirects yourself if the old URLs are public.
Slugs are lowercased and cleaned like WordPress slugs; spaces become hyphens.

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