[ad_1] For the past few years, ProfilePress has carved out a reputation as one of the leading tools for creating WordPress membership sites by tackling a simple yet important problem: Building a fully functioning site that is easy to manage, gives you full control, and doesn’t look like every other membership site on the planet. This last point is particularly important. After all, while there may be a host of popular WordPress user registration plugins out there, their popularity means that everyone who uses them ends up with a near-identical site. ProfilePress aims to solve this problem by giving you a simple-yet-powerful user interface through which you can create beautiful-looking sign-up forms, member directories, and user profiles that can be completely customized to match both the aesthetic design and functionality of your site. So far, so good then, but is it the right plugin for you? To help you decide, we’ve put together this complete ProfilePress plugin review, outlining everything you need to know about this all-encompassing membership tool. ProfilePress Plugin Review ProfilePress is a premium plugin that offers three different packages to suit the needs and budget requirements of most WordPress users. The entry-level Standard package profiles a one-year, single-site license which allows access to core features including: Unlimited custom frontend forms for user registrations, logins, and profile editing A comprehensive user dashboard to make it easier for your members to manage their account and profile Custom avatar uploads for users Automatic Login & Redirections Complete site control with the ability to restrict access to the WordPress dashboard depending on user roles Attractive, customizable themes for all aspects of your site Content access and restriction options. The Standard package also gives you access to 8 add-ons including: If all this isn’t enough for you, you can always upgrade to the Plus package which costs $179 per year for a three-site license and includes all of the above plus additional add-ons such as Article Continues Below User moderation User Moderation Passwordless Login BuddyPress Profile Sync Site Creation WooCommerce support Polylang integration. Finally, if even three sites aren’t enough, the Agency package will set you back $279 per year and includes everything above for unlimited sites, plus access to any additional add-ons the plugin’s developers may release in the future. With all that being said, it’s pretty easy to tell that this is one plugin that’s densely packed with useful features, but of course, the only way to truly test whether those features are any good is to put it through its paces. Using ProfilePress Once you’ve downloaded and installed ProfilePress, you’ll notice a notification that lets you know that user registration is currently disabled. Although it’s tempting to keep things this way while you work on the rest of your site, activating this now makes everything much easier to deal with. Fortunately, this isn’t a tricky task. Simply click the link labeled Settings – General in the notification, and then scroll down until you see the Membership option. From there, you can simply check the box marked Anyone can register and either leave the default user role as subscriber (recommended), or change it to something more suitable for you and your site. Creating Pages With that done, you’ll also notice a second notification that tells you that you need several pages to be created such as one for user profiles, registration, and your membership directory. The good news is that you don’t have to go through all the time-consuming hassle of creating these manually. Simply click the Create Pages button in that notification enables ProfilePress to auto-generate these pages for you and even add shortcodes to each one to provide the relevant functionality. If you wish to create new pages or change which page they are displayed on, you can do this from the plugin’s main settings page. Other Key ProfilePress Settings When you’re on the Global Settings page, you’ll notice that the plugin gives you lots of other settings that you can customize in order to really take control over the way your new membership site performs. In brief, these include: Registration settings – allow users to automatically login after registration. Login settings – Determine whether customers can login using either their email, username, or both. My account – Settings to control how the user’s account page works, including the option to redirect “Edit profile” to the main account page. Frontend profile – Determine who can view profiles and edit other settings. Redirection settings – Determine where customers will be redirected to after logging in, logging out, and changing their password. Access settings – Customize global site access by choosing whether everyone or only logged-in members can view your site. Social logins – Set up your site so that users can register and login using their favorite social media accounts. reCAPTCHA – Configure your reCAPTCHA settings for extra security. Akismet – Connect Akismet to your membership site. Creating Forms and Profiles Finally, we get to the fun stuff, using ProfilePress’s range of beautifully designed, customizable templates to create forms and user profiles. To do this, simply choose ProfilePress from your main dashboard menu, then click Forms and Profiles followed by Add New. This gives you the option to either use the simple, Drag & Drop builder or the more advanced shortcode builder to edit the pre-built designs or create something from scratch. Shortcode Builder For advanced users who know what they’re doing and want the complete freedom to tinker with the behind-the-scenes code powering their forms and profiles, a shortcode builder is an excellent tool, but if even just looking at the image above gives you a headache, you’ll no doubt prefer the easier Drag & Drop Builder much more. Drag & Drop Builder If you select the Drag & Drop builder, you’ll again be presented with separate templates for user logins, registrations, password reset options, and profile editing. If you prefer, you can also build a form from scratch, but since the templates are already well done,
Continue readingTag Archives: User
A Free User Registration, Form Builder, and Profile Plugin for WordPress
[ad_1] For the past few years, ProfilePress has carved out a reputation as one of the leading tools for creating WordPress membership sites by tackling a simple yet important problem: Building a fully functioning site that is easy to manage, gives you full control, and doesn’t look like every other membership site on the planet. This last point is particularly important. After all, while there may be a host of popular WordPress user registration plugins out there, their popularity means that everyone who uses them ends up with a near-identical site. ProfilePress aims to solve this problem by giving you a simple-yet-powerful user interface through which you can create beautiful-looking sign-up forms, member directories, and user profiles that can be completely customized to match both the aesthetic design and functionality of your site. So far, so good then, but is it the right plugin for you? To help you decide, we’ve put together this complete ProfilePress plugin review, outlining everything you need to know about this all-encompassing membership tool. ProfilePress Plugin Review ProfilePress is a premium plugin that offers three different packages to suit the needs and budget requirements of most WordPress users. The entry-level Standard package profiles a one-year, single-site license which allows access to core features including: Unlimited custom frontend forms for user registrations, logins, and profile editing A comprehensive user dashboard to make it easier for your members to manage their account and profile Custom avatar uploads for users Automatic Login & Redirections Complete site control with the ability to restrict access to the WordPress dashboard depending on user roles Attractive, customizable themes for all aspects of your site Content access and restriction options. The Standard package also gives you access to 8 add-ons including: If all this isn’t enough for you, you can always upgrade to the Plus package which costs $179 per year for a three-site license and includes all of the above plus additional add-ons such as Article Continues Below User moderation User Moderation Passwordless Login BuddyPress Profile Sync Site Creation WooCommerce support Polylang integration. Finally, if even three sites aren’t enough, the Agency package will set you back $279 per year and includes everything above for unlimited sites, plus access to any additional add-ons the plugin’s developers may release in the future. With all that being said, it’s pretty easy to tell that this is one plugin that’s densely packed with useful features, but of course, the only way to truly test whether those features are any good is to put it through its paces. Using ProfilePress Once you’ve downloaded and installed ProfilePress, you’ll notice a notification that lets you know that user registration is currently disabled. Although it’s tempting to keep things this way while you work on the rest of your site, activating this now makes everything much easier to deal with. Fortunately, this isn’t a tricky task. Simply click the link labeled Settings – General in the notification, and then scroll down until you see the Membership option. From there, you can simply check the box marked Anyone can register and either leave the default user role as subscriber (recommended), or change it to something more suitable for you and your site. Creating Pages With that done, you’ll also notice a second notification that tells you that you need several pages to be created such as one for user profiles, registration, and your membership directory. The good news is that you don’t have to go through all the time-consuming hassle of creating these manually. Simply click the Create Pages button in that notification enables ProfilePress to auto-generate these pages for you and even add shortcodes to each one to provide the relevant functionality. If you wish to create new pages or change which page they are displayed on, you can do this from the plugin’s main settings page. Other Key ProfilePress Settings When you’re on the Global Settings page, you’ll notice that the plugin gives you lots of other settings that you can customize in order to really take control over the way your new membership site performs. In brief, these include: Registration settings – allow users to automatically login after registration. Login settings – Determine whether customers can login using either their email, username, or both. My account – Settings to control how the user’s account page works, including the option to redirect “Edit profile” to the main account page. Frontend profile – Determine who can view profiles and edit other settings. Redirection settings – Determine where customers will be redirected to after logging in, logging out, and changing their password. Access settings – Customize global site access by choosing whether everyone or only logged-in members can view your site. Social logins – Set up your site so that users can register and login using their favorite social media accounts. reCAPTCHA – Configure your reCAPTCHA settings for extra security. Akismet – Connect Akismet to your membership site. Creating Forms and Profiles Finally, we get to the fun stuff, using ProfilePress’s range of beautifully designed, customizable templates to create forms and user profiles. To do this, simply choose ProfilePress from your main dashboard menu, then click Forms and Profiles followed by Add New. This gives you the option to either use the simple, Drag & Drop builder or the more advanced shortcode builder to edit the pre-built designs or create something from scratch. Shortcode Builder For advanced users who know what they’re doing and want the complete freedom to tinker with the behind-the-scenes code powering their forms and profiles, a shortcode builder is an excellent tool, but if even just looking at the image above gives you a headache, you’ll no doubt prefer the easier Drag & Drop Builder much more. Drag & Drop Builder If you select the Drag & Drop builder, you’ll again be presented with separate templates for user logins, registrations, password reset options, and profile editing. If you prefer, you can also build a form from scratch, but since the templates are already well
Continue readingCustom User Avatar Plugins for WordPress – WordPress Tavern
[ad_1] You know what one of the great things about open source is? Others can use a project’s code, share it wholesale, modify it, and/or distribute their changes. These are the pillars upon which WordPress stands. It is a beautiful thing to watch in practice. Most often, it means we can build off the shoulders of those giants who came before us, continually improving the software for ourselves and others. It is how WordPress got its start nearly two decades ago as a fork of the b2/cafelog blogging system. Sometimes, it just means having the freedom to give your friend a copy of something you love and letting them use it. Other times, it is the gateway for a budding developer learning how functions or classes work for the first time, ripping apart a project to see what makes it tick. Every so often, the promise of free software means that others can decide to go their own way when they do not like the direction a project is heading. They can fork the code, carving a new destination for its future. This is what happened when ProfilePress overhauled its WP User Avatar plugin, turning it into a full-fledged membership solution. While its average user may not be able or willing to dip their toes into the depths of the development waters, when you have a 400,000+ user base, a few of them are bound to be programmers. Or at least tech-savvy enough to create a copy of the previous version and distribute it directly. It did not take long — mere days — before ex-users began sharing their forks. The beauty of open source is that they have the power to do this without some corporation cracking down on them. I wanted to acknowledge what they accomplished by jumping into a messy situation and making quick alternatives for many users who felt abandoned. This is my symbolic handclap. 👏 It is not often that we get to mention WordPress’s license without gearing up for battle. However, the GPL played a crucial role in making these forks possible. The license protected the plugin’s user base, giving them multiple alternative paths to take. Without further preaching the merits of open source, the following are the current forks of WP User Avatar: One User Avatar by Daniel Tara (One Designs). It already has nine translations and is available on WordPress.org. Custom User Avatar by David Artiss. It is currently available on GitHub, but it appears he plans to add it to the plugin directory. Orig User Avatar by Philipp Stracker. This one is also only available on GitHub. Each fork looks like a straight port of the latest version of WP User Avatar before version 3.0. There are some necessary code and branding changes. The first two also remove all advertising from the plugin. For anyone looking to return to the exact same functionality as the old plugin, any one of these will do the job. Alternative Solutions Straight ports are nice to have, especially for those who need to keep their data intact for many user accounts, but this could also be an opportunity for others to look at alternatives. And, custom user avatar solutions are a dime a dozen. There is a little something for everyone out there. The following is nowhere near a comprehensive list. I have either tested or used most of these in the past couple of years. I encourage anyone to share plugins I did not include in the comments. Simple Local Avatars Topping any list of custom avatar solutions is Simple Local Avatars by 10up. The WordPress company is one of the most respected in the community, and its employees contribute heavily to core development. 10up tends to put together solid plugins. Simple Local Avatars does just what it says on the box. It allows users to upload custom avatars to their site. It also generates requested image sizes on demand. It works alongside Gravatar, a feature that can be enabled or disabled. It also has built-in options for site administrators to grant permission to non-authorized roles to upload their photos. WP User Avatars WP User Avatars by John James Jacoby, a lead developer for bbPress and BuddyPress, is another simple plugin. Like many similar solutions, it adds a form for users to manage their avatar from their profile pages. It is unique in that it works alongside a suite of other user-related plugins that Jacoby offers. While it can work on its own, it is at least worth checking out his WP User Profiles plugin, which overhauls WordPress profile pages. It and his other user-related plugins work in conjunction with each other. Plugin users can pick and choose which they wish to install. User Profile Picture There seems to be a pattern emerging here — users tend to love these simple avatar solutions. User Profile Picture by Cozmoslabs is another that fits this mold. It also includes a block to allow post or page authors to output any user’s profile (avatar, name, description, and posts link) on the site front end. Users without permission to upload an image cannot add an avatar with this plugin alone. By default, this is the Administrator, Editor, and Author roles. Site admins will need to install either a permissions plugin or Cozmoslabs’ Profile Builder for the extra capability. Pixel Avatars (Toolbelt) Pixel Avatars is a privacy-first Gravatar replacement. It takes a different route than similar options by not providing a method to upload a custom avatar. Instead, it automatically generates unique avatars for each user with a bit of JavaScript. It is a fun twist on the typical avatar system. Technically, this is not a standalone avatar plugin. The Pixel Avatars system is a sub-component of the Toolbelt plugin. Created by Ben Gillbanks, it is a collection of tools that he uses for most of his WordPress projects. It may be overkill for many, but each plugin module can be enabled or disabled based on user needs.
Continue readingProfilePress Draws Criticism For WP User Avatar Rebrand
[ad_1] Hey, WordPress fans. We are checking in with your latest dose of weekly WordPress news. This week, ProfilePress turned WP User Avatar, a single-purpose custom avatar solution into a full-fledged membership management plugin. The unexpected change has drawn criticism from the community and the plugin users. The surge in one-star ratings knocked the plugin’s 4.4 ratings down to 3 in a few days. Beyond that, there are some exciting block editor updates you should check out. We also have some great tutorials and promos for you. Let’s get to all of this week’s WordPress news… WORDPRESS NEWS AND ARTICLES TUTORIALS AND HOW-TOS RESOURCES [ad_2] Source link
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