Database?

As of right now, the members in the plugin directory are NOT tied to WordPress users (I may make an extension to link users with members in the future).

Right now, each “member” is actually a WordPress Post, using the custom post type “member” that I created. So, the member ID is simply that particular post ID.

I do not create any separate database tables for this plugin, members are simply a custom post type, so they are saved like any other post in the wordpress database.

Hopefully that explanation was clear.

That is a really nifty idea and way to handle it. I love it!

How does the member’s picture appear on their page and in the user list? Will I set that up with a short-code?

Also, is there a short-code to insert the member’s profile description from their Profile into their page? That would be helpful.

Also, can I create a Page for each user instead of a Post? (I think that is what you meant but want to double-check.)

You should install the plugin and play around with it. It’s not too hard to figure out, and there is built-in help on the admin side.

Since each member is a Post (not a page), you still get the full text editor where you can add any content you want… useful for bio, personal links, anything. And, just like any other post in WordPress, you can set a featured image for the member (post) and that is what is used in the member directory listing if you enable the photos column.

If you do enter content into the post content area for the member, then you can have either the person’s name, or the photos, or “more info…” text in the photo column link directly to that member’s post, so people can see the full content. I have set it up so that the plugin will only generate those links if there is something in the content area.

Of course, since it is a post like any other WordPress post, you can link directly to it so each member essentially has their own page on the site. Technically it’s a post, but on the public side there isn’t much difference between pages and posts, and most of the differences will be dependent on what templates your theme uses for posts. Since this is a custom post type, you can easily modify a template file specifically for the member post type if you want to change how those member posts are displayed.

Well, Posts are reserved for news articles and scroll from one article to the next on the home page. And they are public pages.

The member’s pages will be private pages.

So, it would look awkward if someone scrolls to one of their pages in the newsfeed and sees a blank page or “This page is private”. I want to avoid that and keep the member’s pages out of the newsfeed stream.

If I can accomplish that by modifying the custom post type template to remove the scroll links on those pages without messing up the main feed or affecting it in any way, then it would work. But I guess that would not solve the problem of someone scrolling to those pages from other pages in the news article and then they would lose the scrolling feature and get a “this page is private” notice.

Pages would be more desirable for this application since they are not part of the newsfeed.

The way it is set up by default, the member posts won’t show up in any news feeds unless you somehow include them. Also, by default, if you do go to a member post, you should not see any “previous” or “next” type meta, unless your theme does modifies that. Many plugins use custom post types for much more than news articles. In Woocommerce, for example, an order is a custom post type (and products are also, I believe), and they don’t show up in any of the news feeds on our site (we use Woocommerce on several sites).

Plus, with a custom post type, it’s very easy to create a custom template to remove anything your theme might put on those posts that you don’t want.

Custom post type was the best way to set this up without creating custom database tables. The interface is already there, and allows you to set up custom meta boxes for the fields needed, and save all that custom meta with the post. Can’t do that with standard pages.

But, take a look for yourself. One of the guys who helped me beta test this and came up with a lot of great suggestions said I could link to his site, and he has a LOT of members. Good way to see how it works, with some of those members having post content (click on more info under a photo to see their member post):

https://www.d6tm.org/directory/

That is fantastic and exactly what I need if it doesn’t interfere with the newsfeed. : )

I have a lot to learn about custom type posts and custom meta boxes so this is a great way to start.

I will definitely be implementing this on my site. I have been seeking a way for members to be able to connect with each other without using a bloated membership plugin.

This one looks just right and very useful and helpful!