Techniques for Developing Directory and Marketplace Sites with WordPress
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The document discusses techniques for developing directory and marketplace sites using WordPress, highlighting the importance of content submission, display, search, and user accounts. It outlines various tools and plugins available for implementation, as well as the idea that while foundational frameworks can streamline the process, custom development may still be needed. The author encourages participation in a workshop for hands-on experience in creating a classifieds site.
Techniques for Developing Directory and Marketplace Sites with WordPress
- 1. Techniques for Developing Directory and Marketplace Sites with WordPress
- 2. Amir Helzer ● Founder, OnTheGoSystems ○ WPML, Toolset ● Heavy WordPress user ● Developer (but not PHP) ● Windsurfer pictures goes here
- 3. What’s a Marketplace Site? A site where some members post and others find. Post and find what? ● New and used items ● Services ● Work for hire ● Information
- 4. Why Marketplace Sites? Marketplace sites are the basis for many businesses. ● Ebay ● Uber ● Odesk ● Airbnb ● Craigslist Marketplace are like the middleman (making money).
- 5. How Did I Become Such an Expert? We created Toolset Classifieds - a “do it yourself” classifieds site framework.
- 6. What’s Inside Marketplace Sites? ● Content submission ● Content display ● Content search ● Content organization ● Application logic ● User accounts and payments
- 7. Content Submission ● Members submit new content. ● Members should also be able to edit their content. ● Content goes into the WordPress tables (posts, postmeta).
- 8. How Content Submission Works You need to map form- fields to content- fields. Remember: ● Create / edit / delete ● Data validation ● Notifications
- 9. How to Implement Content Submission? ● General ‘form’ plugins + extensions ○ GF with ‘GF + CPT’ ● Dedicated front-end content- editing plugins ○ CRED ● Directory themes ○ Classipress, ET-Estate
- 10. Content Display You will need to design: ● Single-item pages ● Item lists ● Category tree ● Search … Basically, all template files in a theme.
- 11. How to Display Custom Content ● API of custom field plugin ○ ACF, Types ● Content-display plugins ○ Loopbuddy, Views ● Find a nice theme and hack it
- 12. Content Search Visitors need to find items by: ● Custom field values (price < 100) ● Taxonomy (category=’shirt’) ● Text search (‘polo’)
- 13. How to Implement Content Search Coding a custom search is a lot of work. ● Most ‘directory’ themes have a custom search ● Views plugin allows to create custom searches
- 14. Content Organization ● Set-up categories in the WordPress admin ● Put content in categories ● Display a hierarchy of categories ● Display items per category Use ‘custom taxonomy’ for categories.
- 15. How to Implement a Front-End Categories Tree ● Directory themes display nice category trees ● Code the category looks in PHP ○ Nested loops for top-level and child taxonomy, with posts count ● Use plugins ○ WP-dTree, Custom Taxonomies Menu Widget, Views
- 16. ‘Application Logic’ The ‘application logic’ is what makes each site unique. When this happens, do that: ● “Create a PDF of recent 5 articles” ● “Invite to open auctions” ● “Find properties in a 30-Km radius”
- 17. How to Code Your ‘Application Logic’ ● Find a ‘hook’ that runs at the right event ● Write your PHP that implements the required action
- 18. User Accounts and Payments ● WooCommerce provides both the payment processing and user-account. ● You can customize the account to include your items.
- 19. Connect WooCommerce with Forms Submission 1. Create a WooCommerce product for ‘paid ad’. 2. After submitting an ad, before it goes live, ‘sell’ the WooCommerce product. 3. Once paid, the ad goes live.
- 20. Summary ● Yes, you can create great Marketplace sites with WordPress. ● No, there isn’t one “right” way to do it. I presented the way I know, but there are other ways too. ● A good theme or framework will handle 95% of the work for you. The remaining 5% can still be a lot and often requires custom development.
- 21. Try Yourself in the Workshop Join me and Dario at 2pm in the workshop room. All you need is a laptop connected to wifi. Build a fully functional classifieds site from scratch on discover-wp.com.