A Separate Custom Admin Panel

  • Hello WordPress Gurus,

    I have a question, i can’t really find the right information on line so wanted to ask the community!

    I am looking into creating a directory, where by users can login / register, add their business details and be featured on the site.

    I want to use WordPress to power it, as i am familiar with building sites with WordPress and querying the database etc.

    However i have never tried something this complicated with WordPress before.

    I want to have a separate backend system that users can register and login to, in their they will have their custom admin panel (Not WordPress’s) and be able to edit their business details add images etc.

    I have only ever done this sort of stuff before using pure PHP, with sessions and SQL etc, but i know with WordPress there are probably better ways to do it. You guys are far more advanced with WordPress than me, so i wondered if i could “WP_Query” your brains (Worst Joke Ever).

    A bit more details

    – Regarding the login & registration form, would you store the data in the same table as where WP_Users are stored or a separate one? Also are their build in WP functions to do this or should i use PURE SQL? If any of you no of any resources on the codex please send the url:)

    – Regarding the backend, would use normal PHP sessions and code it using WordPress pages? Is their a better way to control this with WP.

    – Storing the data, would you use WordPress’s table to store the data or a seperate table?

    – In an ideal world, I wanted to control all entries through a Custom Post Type in the backend of the actual WordPress admin.

    So when someone submits their data, it automatically adds a new entry to the post type named businesses for example, and has all of the information associated with the post type filled out dynamically (Taxonomies and Custom Fields), so all i have to do it simply publish it. I know it would be possible, but wanted to see your recommendation.

    If you could let me know your views on what you think would be the best way of doing it i would really appreciate it guys.

    Thanks in advance for any advice!

    Adam

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

  • The way that I’ve done this in teh past is to have a page set up that has it’s content automatically stripped and changed to the members area functionality. It’s (relatively) easy to do with a few filters or using shortcodes.

    You also should use the standard WordPres ssession handling – there’s no reason to re-invent the wheel here. WordPress has a whole heap of functions for checking if a user is activ,e checking which user it is, etc.

    As for storing your data, how you do it will depend on the type of data that’s being stored. Most cases will work well with a new custom post type as that will let you display everything in the WordPress way, but if you need something that’s more like statstics it could be better off in it’s own table. Not difiniative I know, but there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for that question.

    Oh, and for “worst joke ever”… Not even close. ?? What about this:

    Q. What’s red and sits in the corner?

    A. A naughty strawberry.

    Thread Starter mashwebdesign

    (@mashwebdesign)

    Haha, cheers mate really helpful. One question i do have is this.

    I understand that their are WordPress functions to check if the users are logged in. However If i store their registration data inside the WordPress wp_users table then surly they would be able to log into the backend of WordPress, which i definitely don’t want.

    If i store user data in a seperate table i have created myself i suppose i can’t use WP built in functions to check if a user is logged in?

    There’s nothing to worry about with users logging into the back-end – as long as you’ve set them up as the correct user level. In most cases this will be ‘Subscriber’ which most installations default to. Anyone like that has a very limited range of options in the admin area, so they can’t do anything even if they do find out how to get to the admin area.

    If you’re concerned, set yourself up with a new subscriber account, and see what that lets you do. I’ll guarantee that it’s a whole lot less then you thought it was.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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