Steven Zahm@ Daniel
RE: A private, password-protected, members-only section (Hopefully Connections-pro)
This can be enabled on the Connections Settings admin page under the General tab. Setting it to require a login will require that the visitor login to the site o view the directory.
RE: embers have individual access and will be able to maintain their own profile (Hopefully Connections-pro)
This is possible with the Link addon:
Optionally you may want the Form addon:
RE: A member listserv function (This one can use another plugin)
Sorry, not sure what you are asking. Could you give more details?
RE: A web-based form for online application submission and payment (Not a problem for me to set this up)
Connections does not accept payments for listings. I do not plan on adding such features. I recommend you use a membership plugin like Restrict Content Pro to manage membership payments and renewals. This greatly increases your ability to monetize your site where a directory is just one benefit of the user’s membership.
There are other directory plugins which do integrate payments, but then you lock yourself into only being able to monetize your directory making it very difficult to expand member benefits and further increase your opportunity to monetize.
RE: A ‘Find an ND’ option that offers: multiple search options: a) zip code or city name search with distance parameters, such as a drop down with 5mi, 10mi, 15mi, etc
There is a beta addon for Connections which I offer, on request, to those who purchased the Pro Pack.
I freely give it as a free addon in the bundled price. The reason it is not officially part of the bundle is because I still consider it a beta product. With the release of WP5, my goal for this year is to build it as a block which can be used and configured in the new editor.
You can see it in action on this third part site:
I consider this beta software, though safe to run on live sites. It can be difficult to configure due to the complicate shortcode structure to configure the multiple category setup. If you are familiar with shortcodes it should not be too difficult. They styling is as is, though I can give you CSS to apply you own color (instead of blue).
RE: map search function that shows the clinics as little leafs on the map, like a realtor website.
Sorry but Connections at this time does not have a cluster map feature. All the premium templates do include map support, but, those pas are entry specific and show pins only for addresses added to that specific entry.
Hope this answers you question thoroughly!