wildernessVoice

There are a couple of things about stock WordPress that bug me. When it comes to managing users, I really think they could have done a lot better than to simply track names, nicknames and various IM accounts. What if you’re using WP to front-end a business site and you want to track company name, phone number, address and things like that? I have found a couple of plugins out there that will allow a user to add more information after he has registered, but during the registration process. Seriously, how many of you like to go in afterwards to add more registration information?

The other problem I have experienced has had to deal with restricting certain pages from access unless someone has indeed been registered with my site. Most of the plugins that deal with this function will restrict the entire site from access unless a person has been registered. Now imagine someone coming to your home page and the first link he clicks on is restricted. That can get annoying real fast. And it’s worse when even the home page is also restricted.

So, I wanted to put in place a simple live demo page off my company’s website and wanted to make it registration based without actually affecting all of the other pages on my site. And we determined there was more a little more user information we wanted to capture. Unfortunately, this wasn’t to be had with a single plugin and I really didn’t have the time to modify the WordPress database to add the additional user fields I wanted to track. I managed to pull this together with three items:

1. The iframe tag: This tag, which is used just like any other html tag set allows you to embed a website into another website. Its attributes work very much like those of the image tag in that you have to designate the src, which is the url of the page you wish to embed. Then you have to declare your height and width. I felt this would be a bit easier to manage than merely having people click on a link to be directed to where the demo software actually resides.
2. The Page Restrict plugin: This is the plugin that I used to very easily require login to view specific WP Pages. Once it’s uploaded and activated, you simply go to the settings page and then click on whatever pages you want to require login for. It’s as simple as that.
3. Register Plus plugin: This is what I used to modify the user registration information, including the additions of some custom fields. A very handy plugin to have if you care about who visits your site. Plus, this plugin provides numerous customizations to the way email notification works as well as provides you the ability to get rid of that WordPress logo on the registration page and replace it with your own logo. Great stuff!

So, there are obviously better ways for building up such a site. But if you’re using WordPress as a form of CMS, and you don’t want to spend much time or cash to develop such a solution, this is a good way to go. You can literally be up and running in a matter of a few minutes.

Enjoy!

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cms, members only, mike young, registration, restrict pages, wildernessvoice, wordpress