New Feature: Post Meta-Data

In the CVS development code, and the March 24 nightly build, there is a new feature: Post Meta-Data, or “Post Custom Data”. This allows you to attach arbitrary bits of information to a post using key/value pairs. You may have have seen blogs before where every post has something like “mood: happy” or “currently listening to: Linkin Park — Numb”. This can be done with Post Custom.

Though I’ve put in a rudimentary template tag, the_meta(), to display post meta-data, we expect that the real power of this feature will come to light in the form of new plugins. Plugin authors will be able to go beyond the simple ability to store static information such as the song you are currently listening to, or books that you are reading. For example, you might be blogging about your exercise goals, with a weekly post about how many miles you’ve jogged. A plugin could allow you to display a dynamic tally of “total miles jogged this year”, calulated from all of your “miles-this-week” entries.

You can find more details in the PostMeta page on the WordPress Wiki.