Building Personal WordPress blog – April Update

This month I was more focused on personal goals, so I didn’t have much time to work on the blog. Still, I set myself one mini-goal: to create a new page called “Things I Like About Living in Ukraine.” 🇺🇦

What I Wanted to Build

• Small blocks featuring a heading, short text, an image, and a link to read more (if available)
• A listing page with AJAX loading for smooth transitions
• A front-end form to quickly add new entries directly from the site

Here’s the result

👉 Things I Like About Living in Ukraine

Now, let’s walk through how I built it – step by step.

Tools and Features I Used

• JetEngine plugin
  • Custom post type;
  • Listing item;
  • Listing grid;
  • Dynamic visibility for hiding the form.
• JetFormBuilder plugin:
  • Form with Insert post submit action.

Creating Custom Post Type

I started off by creating a new Custom Post Type (CPT) and named it “Ukraine.” 🇺🇦

Nothing fancy in the general settings, but I added two optional meta fields to customize the entries:

• Read more (text) – for a link if I want to provide extra details;
• Image (media) – for visuals.

Added Some Content to the Things

Then, I went ahead and added some initial content to get the “Things I Like About Living in Ukraine” page going.

Building the Listing Template

1. Created the Listing Item

I set up a Listing Item for displaying the content.

2. Added Fields to the Group

Tweaked the layout a bit by adjusting padding and borders to make each block stand out a little more.

Front-End Admin Form

To make adding new “Things” easier, I built a front-end admin form using JetFormBuilder form plugin:

• Used the Insert Post form template
• Removed any fields I didn’t need
• Added two new fields: image and text for link insertion.

Set the correct post type and status (as only I’m adding the posts, I want them to be published immediately without review).

Mapped form fields to CPT meta fields:

Marked only the first two fields as required:

Creating the Page

Finally, I made a new page and set its Parent to the “Resources” page. Then, added to the page everything I need: 

1. Listing Grid
2. Heading for the form
3. Form for adding new item

And of course, I set dynamic visibility on the form so it only shows for administrators.🔐

Checking the Results

That’s it for this month’s update!

It’s a small improvement, but it brings a lot of joy – like a little scrapbook of things I appreciate about living here. 🌻