Page for Custom Post Type

Assign any WordPress page as the archive page for a custom post type — just like the native “page for posts” setting.

The problem

WordPress custom post type archives are dynamically generated and can’t be edited as regular pages. This creates recurring issues:

• No editable content: clients can’t add a title, excerpt, cover image, or custom fields to archive pages.
• No SEO control: archive pages lack the metadata management that pages offer through SEO plugins.
• No page builder support: archive templates can’t leverage the page editor or custom fields.

Several plugins have attempted to solve this:

• post-type-archive-pages
• wp-post-type-archive-pages
• page-for-post-type (humanmade)
• page-for-post-type (statenweb)

While these provided inspiration, none fully replicate WordPress’s native behavior.

Approach

This plugin mimics how WordPress handles the posts page (show_on_front=page, page_for_posts={id}). On a posts page request, $wp_query contains both:

• $wp_query->queried_object — the page itself (WP_Post)
• $wp_query->posts — the post type’s posts (WP_Post[])

This plugin replicates this exact behavior for custom post types, with no extra queries or new functions needed to get your page object.

Setup

Once activated, your public custom post types appear in Settings > Reading.

Select any published page to serve as the archive page for each custom post type.

Use page slug as rewrite slug

An optional checkbox lets you use the assigned page’s slug as the post type’s rewrite slug. This means your archive URL and single post URLs will share the same base path (e.g., /products/ for the archive and /products/my-product/ for a single post).

Warning: Enabling this option changes all single post URLs for the post type. Consider the SEO implications before toggling it on an existing site.

Slug-change protection

Once “Use page slug as rewrite slug” is on, changing the page slug breaks every published URL for that custom post type. The plugin guards both editing surfaces:

• Block editor: a warning notice and confirmation checkbox appear in the document sidebar; the Update button stays disabled until the checkbox is ticked.
• Quick Edit on the Pages list: a confirmation dialog blocks the save until acknowledged.

Both only fire when the slug actually differs from the saved value, on pages assigned to a CPT with “use page slug” enabled.

Key differences with native CPT archives

	CPT archive	Page for CPT
Conditionals	is_post_type_archive = true is_archive = true	is_home = true is_{posttype}_page = true is_page_for_custom_post_type = $posttype
Queried object	WP_Post_Type	WP_Post
Template hierarchy	archive-{posttype}.php archive.php index.php	home-{posttype}.php home.php index.php

API

Functions

// Check if the current page is a "page for custom post type"
is_page_for_custom_post_type(?string $postType = null): bool

// Get the custom post type associated with a page ID
get_custom_post_type_for_page(int $pageId): ?string

// Get the page ID assigned to a custom post type
get_page_id_for_custom_post_type(?string $postType = null): ?int

// Get the URL for a custom post type's archive page
get_page_url_for_custom_post_type(?string $postType = null): ?string

All functions are available both in the n5s\PageForCustomPostType namespace and in the global namespace.

Query properties

// The post type slug, or false if not a PFCPT page
$wp_query->is_page_for_custom_post_type

// Boolean for a specific post type (e.g., is_product_page)
$wp_query->is_{posttype}_page

Hooks

Filters

Filter	Description
pfcpt/page_ids	Modify the array of page ID / post type mappings
pfcpt/post_type_from_id/page_id	Filter page ID resolution for a post type
pfcpt/dropdown_page_args	Customize the page dropdown arguments in Settings

Actions

Action	Description
pfcpt/template_redirect	Fires on template_redirect when on a PFCPT page
pfcpt/flush_rewrite_rules	Fires before rewrite rules are flushed

Integrations

Polylang

Full multilingual support:

• Each language can have its own assigned page
• Archive URLs are automatically translated
• Page slugs are translated when using the “use page slug” option
• Settings dropdown only shows pages in the default language

Requires Polylang 3.4+.

Yoast SEO (WordPress SEO)

• Full SEO metadata support on archive pages
• Correct breadcrumb trails (archive page appears in single post and taxonomy breadcrumbs)
• Proper CollectionPage schema markup
• Pages are indexed as pages, not archives

Requires Yoast SEO 26+.

WPML

Multilingual support via WPML’s String Translation:

• Each language can have its own assigned page
• Archive URLs follow WPML’s URL structure
• Page slugs are translatable when using the “use page slug” option

Requires WPML 4.5+.

The SEO Framework

• SEO metadata support
• Correct breadcrumb trails
• Proper query type detection (page, not archive)

Requires The SEO Framework 5.1+.

Advanced Custom Fields

• Adds a is_page_for_custom_post_type location rule
• Allows field groups to be conditionally displayed on PFCPT pages

Requires ACF 6+.

Requirements

• WordPress 6.0+
• PHP 8.2+

Installation

Composer (recommended)

composer require n5s/page-for-custom-post-type

Manual

Download the latest page-for-custom-post-type-X.Y.Z.zip from the releases page and upload it via Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin. The zip ships with vendor dependencies bundled, so no build step is required.

Upgrading from 0.x

1.0 makes the “use page slug” behavior opt-in (it was previously always on). On upgrade, the plugin automatically enables it for every CPT that already has a page assigned, so existing URLs stay intact. If you’d rather use the default CPT rewrite slugs going forward, uncheck the option per CPT under Settings > Reading.

The legacy procedural API (is_page_for_custom_post_type(), get_page_id_for_custom_post_type(), etc.) is preserved as deprecated shims that forward to the namespaced equivalents. They’ll emit a _doing_it_wrong notice when WP_DEBUG is on.

License

GPL-3.0-or-later