Scaling the WP Property Drive User Account Panel
With everything going on with WP Property Drive, users have a very important place in the website hierarchy. There are several sections that require users to be securely signed in to perform various actions, such as:
- Datarooms (for solicitors)
- Datarooms (for users)
- 4Bids (for auctions and private treaties)
- Vendor properties
- Favourite properties
- Valuations
- Viewings
- Other actions (this is an ongoing list and some features are in development)
Up until now, WP Property Drive used a custom front-end user panel for everything from logging in to managing account details to getting verified for property auctions. As WordPress never had any standardised methods for front-end user content, the custom user panel required a lot of maintenance and lots of duplicated code to match the back-end behaviour.
It was high time we moved all user-related actions to where they belong: the WordPress back-end.
Here are some pros and cons of these change, compared to the front-end approach:
PROs
- Less code and less code maintenance (all methods are native: file upload, forms, role management).
- More native methods (forgotten password, login/registration hooks, social login).
- Less UX work (the user interface uses the WordPress Dashboard styles for headings, sections, tabs, forms and more).
- Better security based on native WordPress roles.
CONs
- With the user panel in the back-end, WordPress requires new user registration to be turned on. This means that the website is now open to spam registrations, so, in some cases, additional plugins are needed for things such as CAPTCHAs, user verification, user approval and more.
It seems that the back-end user panel is a clear winner. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel to build various user-related features, and just leverage the native WordPress core.
Future Updates
This user panel update is the first step in better managing your users. From a design point of view, it has been labelled as a BETA feature. Over the coming months, we will tweak and refine the user account panel UI to make it simpler and more intuitive.
Follow our FAQs and tutorials for more help regarding the user onboarding, user account management and user panel behaviour.
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WordPress Property Drive
A property management plugin for WordPress
Import properties from Property Drive, search, display, filter, sort, and map using our flagship WordPress property plugin.
Import properties seamlessly from Daft, MyHome, Acquaint CRM, Rightmove, and more using our custom feed integrations!
WordPress Lighthouse
A pagespeed optimisation and performance plugin