Business Directory User Profile Shortcodes By ProfileGrid

Business Directory User Profile in WordPress and ProfileGrid

If you are building a directory of business providers, complete with their type of business, location, contact details etc, then the Business Directory plugin is one of the best choices you have.

However, when integrated with user profiles, it allows users to maintain a kind of an address book. This boosts the capabilities of the Business Directory plugin considerably. In this article, we will utilize the ProfileGrid plugin to create a Business Directory user profile on your WordPress site.

The Privilege Of Shortcodes

ProfileGrid offers Custom Tabs extension which allows integration of its user profiles with other plugins. When users apply the plugin specific shortcodes on ProfileGrid custom tabs, their functionality appears on the user profile frontend.

The Business Directory plugin comes with its own set of shortcodes. When we use these shortcodes on a page, the Directory functionality appears on that particular page. There are several shortcodes that come with the business directory plugin. Here is the list of a few basic ones:

• [businessdirectory] – Displays the main directory page and all directory content.
• [businessdirectory-submit-listing] – Creates a separate ‘Submit Listing’ page for business directory.
• [businessdirectory-manage-listings] – Creates listing editor page for users to see and manage their listings when logged in.
• [businessdirectory-search] – Shows the ‘Advanced Search Screen’ on any single page.
• [businessdirectory-featuredlistings] – Shows all the featured listings within the directory on a single page.
• [businessdirectory-categories] – Displays the list of categories created in a directory

Customizing a Business Directory User Profile With Custom Tabs

Now that you have started creating your own business directory, you can start integrating it in user profiles. So that when a user logs in, he/she gets to see the whole directory or even edit it from his/her own profile. Here comes the necessity of ProfileGrid’s Custom Profile Tabs extension. Once enabled, the plugin allows the site admin to add as many tabs as they want on a user profile.

Applying The Magic Spell Of Shortcodes On Custom Tabs

Now, let us see what magic these two plugins create to make a Business Directory user profile in WordPress. In the “Custom Tab List” first create a new tab named ‘Business Directory’

Now if we start editing this tab we will find two options to create the tab content – ‘User Custom Post’ and ‘Custom Content’. Here we need to select the ‘Custom Content’ option. This will open up a text box where we now have to paste the shortcodes of the Business Directory plugin. This will eventually integrate a Business Directory user profile on your site.

In the above picture, we can see the [businessdirectory-submit-listing] shortcode has been applied. Now let’s see what customization appears on the frontend after we click the save button.

Here we see the submit listing feature has been added to the user profile, complete with category selection, contact details, business descriptor area, options to post pictures etc.

Now if we go ahead and paste [businessdirectory-categories] in the same text box, we will see the categories that have been created in the business directory, appearing just below the ‘Listing Form’

In order to make life easier for our users, if we want them to manage their directory. Or give them a search bar that will include all the listed businesses or the option to view the whole directory, then we have to use the shortcode [businessdirectory-manage-listings].

Eventually, in the frontend we will find a bar with the required options ‘Advanced Search’, ‘Find Listing’ to manage the whole directory in a few clicks.

Convenience At Hand

We have seen how simply by pasting the shortcodes in the custom tabs we can create a fully functioning Business Directory user profile. This not only allows a person to promote their own business but also to keep track of all the businesses listed around him/her.