[kris]

Hi there,
Loving the plugin but have a few questions. I’ve posted a few of them on the board but wanted to get them all together in the same place for convenience. Feel free to disregard or route other entries to the is post or vise versa.

I am using WL Membership and want to create an private directory for my membership that they can edit themselves. I’d also like to add a few fields such as Alma Mater to the directory.

I’m not sure which extensions I need to help me accomplish my objectives. Currently, I am using Market Template and Link extension. What I would like to do is

1. use CSV Import Extension to import my 200+ membership data and
2. Have them login to their WP user/member account which would Link the CSV import to their account.
3. Have them verify/update information and make edits as needed.
4. Have a beautiful directory:-) for my membership that is private to our group that they can edit themselves.

Here are the questions and issues I’m running into:

1. Will that entry process with the CSV Importer and the Link accomplish my goals?
2. In my testing, when I input an Entry for a member [Dashboard > Connections> Add Entry] then login as that user and go to http://www.website.com/wp-admin/users.php?page=connections_link I see a blank form NOT the info I just created. If I input info there again with same email address, it does not link to the entry I put in but creates a new entry (with the same email address) and links to this new entry. The one I created is not linked to anything. If I understand the boards, this should be the proper sequence but perhaps it is my membership hijacking. Sounds like there is a fix.. how do I get connected with that?
3. My second thought is just to have the members login and give them the link http://www.website.com/wp-admin/users.php?page=connections_link upon login to input their own info and bypass all the importing and convenience setting up. However, I think the choices may be confusing. I would like to edit the “Edit My Directory Form” to only allow Individual and Private submissions. Can I somehow take off the other choices? Also, how can I add custom fields (such as Alma Mater?)

I would prefer to do the import CSV and linking method rather than have the members do the initial set up of their accounts. I think if left to the members to log in and populate the list, we would not see 100% compliance and have an incomplete list for the membership.

Please let me know what you feel is the best way to proceed and which extensions I would need to accomplish my goal.

Thank you for your time.

[Steven Zahm]

@ kris

I think rather than duplicate my answers I’ll add links to the other posts; but we can continue the discussion in this post rather than all the others. sound good?

Here’s the link to my reply on the CSV Import question:
http://connections-pro.com/support/topic/how-to-make-a-directory-of-existing-wp-users/#post-268124

Here’s the link to my reply on hiding/defaulting to Individual / Private entries.
http://connections-pro.com/support/topic/add-entry-hide-fields-not-using-in-publish-box/#post-268098

An additional thought that just occurred to me is, you might be able to use CSS to hide the additional optionals without negatively affect the functioning of Connections.

Try adding this to the cn-admin.css file:

#visibility label[for^="vis"] {
    display: none;
}
#visibility label[for="vis_0"] {
    display: block;
}
#entry-type label[for^="entry_type"] {
    display: none;
}
#entry-type label[for="entry_type_0"] {
    display: block;
}

Sorry, but Connections doesn’t currently support custom fields so there is not a way to add any new items to the form.

I think the linking issue is related to the member plugin’s actions during the user login. If you grant me a temp admin account, I can login and apply a hot fix that seems to resolve the issue for others.

Did I address all the questions?

[kris]

Hi Steven,
Thank you for your answers and time. Yes mostly all the questions are answered. Just a few more:
1. Where is the cn-admin.css located? I didn’t see that file in the plugin editor under connections or market – Template? Were you abbreviating or am I missing something?

2. Is there a way to hide the option for inputting home or personal information and from the drop down menus on the My Directory Entry Screen? I’m having some people fill in ‘home’ when they really mean ‘work’ and “personal email’ when clearly it is ‘work email’.

3. A suggestion was made that the submit button be moved to the bottom of the form. Is that possible? If not, where can I add a line of text “To submit your information click UPDATE in the top right of the page’

4. Lastly, I think the hot fix on the membership hijacking would be great. However, I’m also using Event Expresso and it is linking to WL Member as well and working perfectly. So I want to be sure that the hot fix would not interfere with that. If you think that can be done, where should I send the temp login creds?

Thanks again! My test users are loving the plugin. Just want to work out all the bugs before we bring everyone in.

[Steven Zahm]

@ kris

1. The cn-admin.css is here:
../wp-content/plugins/connections/assets/css

2. Again, only with CSS. And if it doesn’t work, editing the core PHP files will be the only other solution.

#addresses option[value="home"] { display: none; }
#email-addresses option[value="personal"] { display: none; }

3. Can only be done by editing the core PHP files. The boxes are actually drag and drag orderable widgets. So each user can customize the order and position of the metaboxes.

4. The hot fix should have no impact on the other plugins. The difference is that during the login process they do an internal redirect before Link has the opportunity to run. The hotfix only changes the priority to a value that almost guarantees it get to run. And since Link doesn’t rely on internal redirects the other plugins will very happily run after Link has performed its action.

Just use the contact link at the bottom of the page to send the login details.

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