Thread

I’m pretty new still to EE but I want to develop a site with a members directory and have got a little confused by some of the posts on the forum around this subject.

It looks like there are 2 ways to build the directory - either using the Membership module or build a new weblog with the custom fields. No problem here.

The site will also have a forum so I’m thinking if I don’t use the membership module, users will effectively have 2 profiles on the site?

I also want to be able to search the directory by the entry name (eg. Company) with list along the lines of A | B | C etc. or Company sector from a drop down menu.

I can figure out how this would work in conjunction with a blog type directory, but how about with the Member module? Is there a way to search the member module in this way or would I have to use the blog approach? Plus, if I go for the blog approach how would users log in and update their profile?

I’ve seen the 2 wiki articles on Alphabetical navigation but I still can’t see the link between the navigation and the member module (maybe there isn’t one!)

Can anyone recommend the best way to go with this? I realise there’s a few questions here but any help will be greatly appreciated!

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

I asked a similar question recently and was pointed in the direction of SolSpace and their User module. I think it might help you out as hopefully it will me!

Check it out here : http://www.solspace.com/software/detail/user/

Thanks for this Andy.

I was aware of this module but was hoping I wouldn’t have to spend another $90!

Does anyone know of an approach using the built in EE functionality or is this extension likely to be the best option?

I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure I could achieve everything I wanted to with the query module - but it kinda defeats the object of using EE.

I know what you mean about the extra spend though, and I would be surprised if EE2 didn’t build on the way it handles members so if you can wait until some more news is announced about that, it could be worthwhile.

Go check out the memberlist here- see the search at the bottom?  You can include custom fields in the selection- so just put company as a custom field and I think that would serve the purpose.

And if you’re running the forum- I’d just pick one set of member templates- either use the forum or use the ‘standard’ ones.  The forum has a config variable in mod.forum.php:

var $use_site_profile    = FALSE;

That will set it up to use the standard member templates.  Or- use the forum member templates and just structure your frontend to point to those.  No sense in duplicating effort by running two member areas.

So on the surface- think it’s doable with the stock member templates.  As soon as things get tricky in that regard, I generally shift over to using queries.  But so far- you don’t sound tricky.

Or- use the forum member templates and just structure your frontend to point to those.

Where will I find the tags/variables for this?

For that bit?  I just meant if you have a link to login on your front page?  Point to the forum login- could just use straight html, could create a global.  But basically?  Just be sure your links to member pages go to the forum member area- which will generally have ‘forum’ as part of the url.  A link is pretty much a link, so it really doesn’t matter.  (That’s pretty much what’s done on this site- you can tell if you poke around a wee bit.)

That help?

Ah - a lightbulb moment! I’m with you now!

I’d read too much into what you were saying and thought there was an ornate way to link pages to the member list.

I’ve been poking around all day - not been very productive but I’ve learnt a lot 😊

Thanks,

Hee- yea, it’s a bit overwhelming at first.  And there are some standard globals for generating member links- I actually think they’d work to link to forum pages as well- just change the path.  But if not- it really is just a link, so no biggie.