While not quite ready for release, it’s close enough to announce…
What is Link? Link is add-on plugin that is the solution to the very often requested feature of being able to link a registered WordPress user to a Connections entry. Ok, what does this really mean for you? This will allow registered users on your site to maintain their own entry within Connections, either moderated or not. This effectively turns Connections into a member directory plugin! Well, the first steps.
How does it work? You install Link like you would any other plugin and activate it. Link has no user interface of its own, it works silently in the background. Well, sort of. It will add a new menu item under the User admin menu named, “Your Directory Entry”. On this page you’ll find the form you’ve come to love from the Connections : Add Entry admin page, just tweaked slightly. The only settings that you will need to set after activation are on the Connections : Roles admin page. You’ll need to chose whether your registered users can add / edit their entry moderated or not. Now your registered users will be able to maintain their own entry.
Sounds great, but I already have a bunch of registered users and entries in Connections, how are those going to get “linked”? Silently in the background when your registered users login, Link will check the entries in Connections for an email address that matches the one in their user account. If a match is found, Link will “link” them together.
To bring you Link, some challenges had to be overcome. Connections was designed so its entries were not linked to users to offer you greater flexibility in creating your directories. So there were workflow issues that had to be resolved such as commingling regular entries and “linked” entries, ensuring that once a link was created that it would not be lost by an admin edit, and making sure it would not be possible for someone to edit an entry that didn’t belong to them.
I’m sold. How much longer? As always I’m running behind schedule, but it will definitely be this month.
Patiently waiting for this update! This will be an awesome addition to the already very useful Connections! It just keeps getting better. Thanks Steve!
Sounds great! I use a membership plugin but it conflicts with features in Connections so this is good news… Keep adding more membership features please.
Is it here yet?
@ Ivan
Yes, it was released roughly three months ago, I think …
Quick Question on Link, if I have an e-mail address for a family can additional family members be added. I.e. how does link work for families?
This looks good, I plan to incorporate it into our parish web site but I want to know a bit more.
@ Chris
Replying to this in the support forums, here.