How to Create a Product Page - P5 - Using Meta Box and Gutenberg

To continue the series about creating a product page, we have a new way to do it using MB Views only. It’s a Meta Box’s extension. If you are using a theme without any page builders or just using only Gutenberg, this tutorial will work.

Table of Contents hide

1. Video Version
2. Before Getting Started
3. Step 1: Create a New Custom Post Type
4. Step 2: Create Custom Fields
5. Step 3: Create a Template
6. Step 4: Style the Page
7. Last Words

As in the previous part of this series, I also take a detailed page about car rental as an example.

Example of a product page

Video Version

Watch this video on YouTube

Before Getting Started

The product is a kind of custom post type. In this case, each car for rent will be a post in that post type. The product’s name and its descriptions are the title and content of the post. We’ll need some extra information about the cars such as price, image gallery, type of fuel, etc. So, we use custom fields to save that data.

The product is a kind of custom post type

To create custom post types and custom fields, we use the Meta Box core plugin. It’s free and available on wordpress.org.

For more advanced features, we also need some Meta Box extensions. You can use Meta Box AIO or install the following extensions individually:

MB Custom Post Type: to create custom post types;
Meta Box Builder: to have a UI on the back end to create custom fields easily;
MB Views: to create a template for the product page without touching the theme file.

Step 1: Create a New Custom Post Type

Go to Meta Box > Post Types > New Post Type to create a new custom post type.

Create a new custom post type

Step 2: Create Custom Fields

Go to Meta Box > Custom Fields, then create fields as you want.

Create custom fields

In this tutorial, I just take a typical example of car rental with some common fields. They are all very simple and don't require any particular setting. Here are the fields that I created.

The created fields

Next, move to the Settings tab > Location > choose Post Type as Car Rental to apply these fields to this post type.

Set Location for the Post type

In the post editor, you will see all of the newly created custom fields.

Newly created custom fields show in the post editor

Step 3: Create a Template

To display the product’s details, you normally have to go to the theme’s files to add code or use a page builder. However, you have another way with the MB Views extension to create templates without touching the theme’s files.

Go to Meta Box > Views to create a new template. Instead of typing code into the box in the Template tab, you can insert fields to get their data.

Create a Template and insert fields to get data

Just click the Insert Field button and choose which one you want.

First, I’ll create a slider with many product images, so insert the Gallery field and choose an image size for it.

To create a slider with many product images, insert Gallery field and choose an image size

Next, insert the product name and its description. They are the default fields of WordPress.

In terms of the fuel, door, and gearbox information, because they are select fields, you’ll have a setting where you can choose the output of the options as Value or Label.

For Select fields, choose the output of options

Moving on, I’ll insert the remaining fields as usual.

Insert the remaining fields

In the Settings section of the view, set the Type section as Singular to assign this template to a single post page. Then, add a rule in the Location section to apply it to the Car Rental page only.

In the Settings section of the view, set the Type section as Singular and add rule in the Location section

Now, go to the product page, all the product information is displayed already.

All the product information is displayed in the product page

It is so messy now. We’ll need some JS and CSS to make it more beautiful with a better layout.

Step 4: Style the Page

Before styling, let’s add some div tags to separate the page into different sections for easier styling.

To style easier, add some div tags

Next, go to the CSS tab, add some code.

Go to the CSS tab, add some code

Also add some code in the JavaScript tab. This is to create a slider for the gallery.

Go to the JavaScript tab, add some code

All of these codes are available on Github, you can refer to it.

After updating the template, you’ll see the new look of the page on the frontend.

The created product page in the frontend

Last Words

Hopefully, all the following steps above could ‘help you a hand’ in creating an advanced product page. In case, you plan to build your own product page using other page builders besides Gutenberg, there are some interesting options for you here. Keep track and send us your ideas if you wish for more tutorials. Good fortune!