in-DB post-type exported as PHP, the scaffold post-type way

[drzraf]

Let's say I have custom post types created via the UI.
I needed them (in another instance, in a unit-test, ...).
Currently:

• scaffold post-type generates a dumb but neatly structured post-type.
• eval var_export(get_post_type_object("xxx")); dumps the existing post-type but including some garbage
• post-type get is handy and uniformized, but lacks the reusable format (including the register_post_type, ...

Could the later be improved to include feature and specificities of the first two?

[danielbachhuber]

Could the later be improved to include feature and specificities of the first two?

Oh, interesting idea. I like it.

We could introduce a new --format=register argument value to create the registration output.

[schlessera]

I think I would prefer a sort of post-type dump command for this, analogous to a mysqldump. I think this is more than just providing a different format of something.

[drzraf]

I think I would prefer a sort of `post-type dump` command for this,

makes sense. The difficulty may be the optional plugins (ACF & co) which extends what a post-type really is. Although it's still postmeta, it needs the ACF layer to dump a readable representation of the post-type.

[schlessera]

The correct way to deal with this would probably be to create the command so that it properly deals with standard WordPress Core behavior, and then have the necessary hooks in place so that a plugin like ACF could add its own processing into the execution flow to adapt the output. This could happen as part of the ACF plugin codebase, or in a separate command package.

[drzraf]

I think most of the logic of the above PR for the simple-custom-types plugin applies.
But the main issue is to have the code generator being kept in sync.
See for example how it used to be written in a 4 years old plugin:
https://github.com/herewithme/simple-custom-types/blob/master/inc/class.client.php#L101
and how it evolved since then:
https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress/blob/master/wp-includes/class-wp-post-type.php#L381

[drzraf]

Do you see any interest interest/merge-feasibility in the above PR done in the simple-custom-types repository (which seems abandonned btw)?
Should really a brand new wp-cli command be created?

[schlessera]

The above PR is tightly integrated with Simple Custom Post Types. That is perfectly okay as an extension to that plugin or an external command. But we cannot easily merge that PR into WP-CLI.

For a command to be added to the WP-CLI bundle, it would need to be generalized to work with all of the standard CPT mechanisms, and optionally also provide hooks for other plugins to then add their own data into the dump, and all of this without directly relying on any plugin itself.