Question

I am looking for some sort of method to have a user based system for a wordpress site.

Basically a user will be able to store simple pieces of information.

These pieces of information will then be displayed when the user logs in.

I notice in WordPress you can have users login to something like an admin section, all i would like is the user to login from the homepage, and then redirect to one page that allows a user to add information, the information is based on variables added to a google map. the information added to the map should then be saved.

This information can then viewed by all users of the site

i have looked at Buddypress and wpsymposium but i think it is a little overkill for what i want.

Any ideas on how i could get this going?

Answer 1

There are several ways you can go about doing this. You can either:

1. Create your own user table (ID, username, email, password, etc.) and
   a separate data table for the information you want to store for each
   user. This would not exist as a part of the WordPress Framework, but instead simply be displayed from within your WordPress Installation.
2. You can look into a combination of hooks to create the environment you want for your users that exists as an extension of WordPress itself. Look into Adding Roles for these users. You will also have to define their Capabilities as well. From there, you can either Create A Menu Page for those users to enter their information, or use a combination of Custom Post Types and Custom Meta Boxes to provide an environment for your users to work within.

Since you’re using this specifically for Google Maps, I would say that the second option would be overkill, especially if your users aren’t expected to log in very often. The benefit to the second approach, however, is that you would be able to utilize the information provided in each post in more than one way if you wanted to.

Weigh your options, and see what suits your – and your users’ – needs best.