A Complex Project Using WordPress

Posted on May 28, 2009 and last modified on December 16th, 2009.

I was recently approached by a friend and they asked me if I would be interested in setting up a new web site for them. As always, I complied and then they gave me the guidelines and specifications as follows:

1. The website was to be a bartering site and the idea was that users would add their details to the website as a means of offering their services and/or products. How I made it and what software I used was totally up to me, although knowing I was a ‘WordPress Pimp’ for most of my site creations, my friend did ask that it was not to look or work like a blog and that people could not easily see that it was a WordPress site. It needed to look professional and yet be very user friendly as well. He wanted it to run as a CMS.

2. There needed to be a login access point available via all pages throughout the site which contained username and password textboxes. Further to this, it was necessary that once the user logged in they were taken directly to a specific front-end page within the site. There was no need for users to access the admin area or backend at all.

3. Once the user logged in the login textbox would be replaced with a ‘Welcome [username]‘ and the option to logout as well. It also needed to be made perfectly clear that they were now logged in and were accessing as a member, as opposed to a guest.

4. Each user’s details needed to be set out in specific format which was consistent throughout the site. A mock PSD file was given to me showing the overall site ‘look’, including the front page, user details page [profile], search page and information pages. Each page had its own set of functions to include and each users details would be a page that could be read by other members. It was to contain all the details of what they offered and what they wanted, plus contact details, an image, and it needed to have keywords specific to each profile

5. Guest were to be allowed access to a few pages throughout the site but members could access 99% of the site. Admins needed full access to everything but they were not overtly website savvy so it needed to be user-friendly for them to manage – without having to read lots of tutorials etc.

6. The details the users provided had 2 distinct parts. a] Details of what they offered in terms of bartering and b] details of what they wanted to barter for in return.

7. The search functions needed to be good enough to cater for complete searches, searches for what was offered and searches for what was wanted.

8. The site had to be quick loading and able to cater for upwards of thousands of users within the database, with possibly hundreds+ online at any given moment.

9. Each page required different set of functions, and in addition the sidebars also needed to have their own set of different functions, on different pages and posts too.

10. SEO was an important consideration and had to be dealt with in the best possible way.

And that was the basic starting point.

Now I have to admit, a few of these specifications had me thinking quite a bit as to whether or not WordPress was a good option for this particular project. But I like a challenge and so I did a quick bit of research, sat down and thought about the best way to go about a few of the major requirements and then I dug my boots in and went for it.

Of course, the great aspect of opting for using WordPress is the sheer amount of plugins that are available, mainly because of the large volume of people using this product.

In all honesty, I would have to say that this has not been an easy project and at times, I was pulling my hair out wondering how I was going to accomplish some of the elements needed, but I am happy to report that as of now, it is all completed.

I have learned quite a bit about some parts of WordPress that I have never really touched upon before, had to find and then ‘hack’ some of the plugins I decided to use for the varying areas, and perhaps most significantly, had to do all of this within a very short time frame.

If nothing else, this project really has proven to me that WordPress certainly is a very flexible product and that it can be used in many different ways.

For those of you who think that some of the elements involved within this project would be useful to you, just let me know via the comment section and I will help out where I can.

I am also considering packaging the whole thing and making it available for others too, but still not sure as to whether this is a good idea or not.

About the author

JamesICT has added 31 posts to this site so far...

Owner/administrator of many sites, including FreshlyPressed.net, James is a website workaholic. Give him a problem to fix and he will not stop until it is completed. Just read his testimonials and it is not hard to see, James is the man when it comes to helping you with your website.