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I've been working on a project for nearly a year now, and am nearing the completion of my website. I've set up my site almost exactly how I want it, and everything seems to work perfectly, but I'm trying to be super careful about the structure to ensure it's future-proof. I was reading about Custom Post Types tonight, and while I know what they are, I don't actually use them. I've been using Pages, and the Advanced Custom Fields plugin to accomplish everything I need.
Many "recommended" cases for Custom Post Types, are for exactly what I'm doing - bars, restaurants, hotels, etc. My site has a page for each and every one of these in Burlington, Vermont, and each type of page has a lot of specific content (prices, ratings, food, pictures, etc), with some overlap (contact info, title, etc). While a Custom Post Type might make sense, I have not lacked the ability to accomplish EXACTLY what I need with ACF. I have specific fields only showing on certain pages (by template, as each "type" of page uses a specific template), can set these properties from the dashboard, and they display on the pages.
One other reason I avoid Custom Post Types, was because of URL structure. With "Pages" as I have them now, I have child pages, which results in the exact URL structure I want, where as I've read Custom Post Types don't play well, not to mention the child / parent behavior may be lost (not sure how that works with Custom Post Types).
Really, I'm just looking for some clarification or guidance from a veteran as to if my methods are acceptable, or if I really should look into Custom Post Types more heavily. Like I said, my site works perfectly as is right now, my system is neat, and nothing is broken (so why fix it, right?), but again, I want to do it right the first time (the site isn't launched), and remain future-proof. Below is a rough sample page of my setup.
This uses ACF, and is a "PAGE". The template it uses sorts the ACF information, and in my eyes, is as good, if not better than a Custom Post Type - anightinburlington.com/bars/jps-pub
You can use ACF with Custom Post Types. Lots of video tutorials in this thread (including how to add ACF to Custom Post Types):
http://cobaltapps.com/forum/forum/main-category/main-forum/30236-using-dwb-with-acf-advanced-custom-fields-brilliantI'm going to watch those videos, just to get a better understanding of what he's doing there.
That being said, it's not that I can't add them, it's that I'm not seeing the reason to. ACF is so powerful, if you combine it with the fact that I have templates, the conditionals allow me to do anything I need. Essentially:
ACF + Custom Template = Win
I'm mostly wondering what advantages a custom post type can give me. Why, if at all, should I stop using pages, ACF, and custom templates? Are there perks? To me, it seems that ACF and a custom template brings the EXACT same power, but I don't know.
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