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WB CPT & Taxonomy Order

Drag-and-drop ordering for any WordPress custom post type and its taxonomy terms — filter by taxonomy first so you only sort the items you care about.

by Wbcom Designs · github.com/vapvarun/wb-cpt-taxonomy-order · website

★ 0stars

Install

Download source zip No release zip yet

This is the repository archive. It installs, but the folder name will carry the branch suffix and updates will not flow.

Install straight from GitHub with WP-CLI:

wp plugin install https://github.com/vapvarun/wb-cpt-taxonomy-order/archive/refs/heads/main.zip
No built-in updater. New versions won't appear under Dashboard → Updates. Install new releases yourself, or let Git Updater track the repository.
Readme github.com/vapvarun/wb-cpt-taxonomy-order ↗

Drag-and-drop ordering for any custom post type and its taxonomy terms — filter by taxonomy first, so you only sort the items you care about.

Why this plugin?

Most "post order" plugins force you to drag through thousands of posts in a single flat list. WB CPT & Taxonomy Order takes a smarter approach:

Pick a taxonomy term first → only the posts in that term show up → drag a manageable list.

Built originally for documentation sites where you want to order articles inside a category — but works for any custom post type and any public taxonomy on your site.

Features

  • 📦 Order any public CPT — products, docs, portfolio, recipes, events… anything public => true
  • 🏷️ Taxonomy-scoped post ordering — pick a term, drag only its posts (no infinite-scroll pain)
  • 🌳 Order taxonomy terms — both parent terms and children, hierarchical or flat
  • ⚡ Auto-save on drop — debounced AJAX, no "Save" button needed
  • 🎯 Frontend ordering — pre_get_posts filter applies your custom order on the front end (toggleable)
  • 🔌 REST API — POST /wp-json/wb-cpt-order/v1/term-order and /term-order/bulk for programmatic ordering
  • 🪝 Developer filters — wb_cpto_supported_post_types, wb_cpto_enabled_term_taxonomies
  • 🌐 Translation-ready — text domain wb-cpt-taxonomy-order
  • 📱 Responsive admin UI — drag works on touch devices too

How it works

Thing being ordered Storage Why
Posts wp_posts.menu_order column Native WP field — works with orderby => 'menu_order' everywhere
Terms term_order term meta Sorted post-query so ordering survives WP's lack of native term order

Installation

From GitHub

cd wp-content/plugins/
git clone https://github.com/vapvarun/wb-cpt-taxonomy-order.git

Then activate in Plugins → Installed Plugins.

Manual

  1. Download the ZIP from the releases page
  2. Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin
  3. Activate

Usage

After activation, a new WB CPT Order menu appears in the admin sidebar with three pages:

1. Order Posts

Post Type → Taxonomy → Parent Term → Child Term → drag posts

Drag the list to reorder. Saves automatically.

2. Order Terms

Post Type → Taxonomy → Children-of-X (or all parents) → drag terms

Reorder taxonomy terms for menus, archive pages, and any get_terms() call.

3. Settings

  • Enable Frontend Ordering — toggle whether pre_get_posts and get_terms filters apply your order to the front end
  • Enabled Post Types — choose which CPTs are sortable (defaults to all public non-builtin types)

Screenshots

Screen What you see
Order Posts Filter dropdowns at top, sortable list of posts in selected term, status badges (Published/Draft/Pending), Edit links
Order Terms Filter dropdowns, sortable term list with post counts
Settings Toggle frontend ordering + CPT checkboxes

REST API

Single term

curl -X POST https://example.com/wp-json/wb-cpt-order/v1/term-order \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-WP-Nonce: <nonce>" \
  -d '{"term_id": 42, "order": 3, "taxonomy": "product_cat"}'

Bulk

curl -X POST https://example.com/wp-json/wb-cpt-order/v1/term-order/bulk \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-WP-Nonce: <nonce>" \
  -d '{"taxonomy": "product_cat", "orders": [{"term_id": 42, "order": 1}, {"term_id": 43, "order": 2}]}'

Both endpoints require the manage_categories capability.

Filters & hooks

// Restrict which CPTs the plugin manages.
add_filter( 'wb_cpto_supported_post_types', function( $post_types ) {
    unset( $post_types['attachment'] );
    return $post_types;
} );

// Limit which taxonomies get auto-sorted on the frontend.
add_filter( 'wb_cpto_enabled_term_taxonomies', function( $taxonomies ) {
    return array( 'product_cat', 'doc_category' );
} );

Requirements

  • WordPress 5.0+
  • PHP 7.4+

FAQ

Q. Will it conflict with WooCommerce / Yoast / other "order" plugins? A. The plugin uses native menu_order for posts and a dedicated term_order meta for terms, so it plays nicely with WooCommerce's own product sorting, ACF, Yoast, etc. If multiple plugins try to set pre_get_posts orderby, the later filter wins — disable "Frontend Ordering" in Settings if you want manual control.

Q. Why a custom term meta instead of a term_order column? A. WordPress doesn't ship a native term_order column anymore (it was removed years ago). Term meta works the same, doesn't require schema changes, and is portable across hosts.

Q. Does this work with Gutenberg / FSE block themes? A. Yes. The plugin doesn't touch the editor — it operates at the query layer (pre_get_posts, get_terms), so any block theme, query loop, or core block respects the order automatically.

Q. Will it slow down my site? A. The post ordering uses a native database column (menu_order) — zero overhead. Term ordering does an in-memory sort after get_terms returns results, which is negligible for typical taxonomy sizes (<500 terms).

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md.

Contributing

PRs welcome. Please:

  1. Fork the repo
  2. Branch from main
  3. Match the existing WordPress Coding Standards (run phpcs --standard=WordPress)
  4. Open a PR with a clear description of what changed and why

License

GPL-2.0-or-later. See LICENSE.

Credits

Built by Varun Dubey at Wbcom Designs.