One of the advantages of WordPress is that you can extend its functionality using plugins to a great extent. The drawback of using a lot of plugins though is that it can become terribly tough to consolidate user data from them in a single interface. Most WordPress plugins are developed and managed by third-party teams. And these teams of developers hardly have any proper interface to consolidate user data for easier access. And what better way would there be to consolidate user data, than right within your user profile itself.
ProfileGrid has turned that dream into a reality now. ProfileGrid consolidates user data from various third-party plugins into your very own user profile. Let us find out how ProfileGrid does that.
Table of Content
1. Customize User Profile with WooCommerce Shortcodes
2. Boost Connections Business Directory User Profiles using Shortcodes
3. Boost WPAdverts Classifieds Plugin User Profiles with ProfileGrid using Shortcodes
4. Boost WP Job Manager Plugin User Profiles with ProfileGrid using Shortcodes
5. Boost Easy Media Download Plugin User Profiles with ProfileGrid using Shortcodes
6. Boost WP Download Manager User Profiles with ProfileGrid using Shortcodes
But first of all, you need to install and activate ProfileGrid on your WordPress website. You can do it from the ‘Plugins’ -> ‘Add New’ Dashboard menu. Search for ‘ProfileGrid’, then click install, and then activate.
Next, visit the ‘Extensions’ page on the ProfileGrid website and purchase any one of the Premium Plans. Download the zip file for ‘Custom Profile Tabs’ from the purchased bundle and activate it on the site too.
Laying the Groundwork to Consolidate User Data
Now that the ‘Custom Profile Tabs’ extension is active, you’ll get a new setting within the Global Settings of ProfileGrid. This will be by the name of ‘User Generated Data’…
Turn on custom user data from inside this setting…
You’ll then see a new menu item emerge in the ProfileGrid Dashboard menu. Click on this new menu item and let’s explore what is inside…
As you can see on this screen, there are no custom tabs created yet. The screen displays a message that you need to click on the ‘New Tab’ link above in order to create one. So why wait? Just click on it and we’ll proceed to the next step.
In the ‘New Tab’ options, you will find two options to configure…
- Title of the Tab: This is the text that will appear on the custom tab title.
- Fetch Content from: This will decide what content will appear within that tab. You can either set the content of the tab to be ‘User Custom Posts’ or ‘Custom Content’.
Consolidate User Data to the Custom User Profile Tabs
Let’s move forward and name our new custom profile tab as ‘Products’. This custom tab will display the products that I have created using the WooCommerce plugin. Now you may or may not be aware of this, WooCommerce allows you to create products on a WordPress site by using a custom post type named ‘Products’. Since the custom profile tab can show posts from any post type on the site, it can display the products I created through WoooCommerce as well.
This only will work though when I select the ‘Fetch Content from’ option to be ‘User Custom Posts’. And then in the ‘Post Type’ selection, I’ll select the ‘Products’ post type. Like this…
Now let’s see how this appears on the user profile…
Custom Content in Custom User Profile Tabs
Next, we’ll see how to display any custom content on the custom profile tab, without restricting it to any particular post type. This works by setting the ‘Fetch Content from’ option to ‘Custom Content’. Choosing the ‘Custom Content’ option will automatically disable the ‘Post Type’ selection and replace it with ‘Tab Content’ editor. This ‘Tab Content’ editor is no different from the default Post/Page editor and you can use it to create any kind of content you want.
Now here’s an interesting question for you – If the ‘Tab Content’ editor works just like the default WordPress Post/Page editor, then can I also add third-party shortcodes to it as well? The answer is yes! Let me show this to you by using a shortcode from the highly popular user registration plugin – RegistrationMagic. I already have a simple contact form created with it and I am going to add it’s shortcode to the ProfileGrid custom profile tab…
Now the contact form will appear on the user profile…
ProfileGrid – the Hub of All User Data
Like the examples we explored above, you can show content from any plugin in ProfileGrid’s Custom User Profile Tabs. Regardless of whether that plugin displays content using custom post types or shortcodes. Couple this extension with ProfileGrid’s other amazing extensions, such as WooCommerce Integration and bbPress Integration, and you’ll have a user profile system on your site that’ll compel users to keep coming back for more.
Talking about coming back for more, just stay tuned to our Blog to keep receiving further assistance on ProfileGrid.
Good bye for now!
[…] This concludes our overview of the Front-end Blog Posts functionality of ProfileGrid. Do try it out and let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And while you are checking out blogging with ProfileGrid, I recommend that you also check out how it can consolidate user data from other plugins in one user profile. […]