Create a User Driven Catalog Site or Link Directory or any Directory

This tutorial is for learning how to create a new post type and BuddyForms forms for submitting and editing content from the front-end.

After you have done this tutorial, you will have a new section (custom post type). The new section will work the same way the normal posts in WordPress are working. You will have a new view for the frontend like archive, single... We will also create a new taxonomy for the post categories. The site users will be able to post new posts from the front-end and manage their submissions (edit/delete). Optionally we can embed the form into the BuddyPress member profile so other users can see all post of an author on their profile.

With this setup, you can create any kind of user-generated content site with all the needed views.

We have used this tutorial to build the BuddyForms extension section. Members of buddyforms.org are able to submit their BuddyForms extension for a review to list them on this site. All the workflow is done the same way we describe in this tutorial.

For this tutorial we need the following plugins:

Install and activate those plugins. If you have BuddyPress installed, install the BuddyForms Member Extension.

Create the new Post Type and Taxonomy for the Categories and Assign them to the Post Type

With the Custom Post Type UI plugin, we can create a new Custom Post Type and taxonomies with some clicks. See this tutorial on How to create a new Custom Post Type and Taxonomy with the CPT UI Plugin for detailed information.

Create the Form

Create the form in BuddyForms for the newly created post type and add the needed form elements. The form elements can be used like you need. For this tutorial, I will use the URL and taxonomy form element to ask for a link to the BuddyForms extension and the extension category. For more information read How to create a Form

Optional Add the Form to BuddyPress Member Profiles

To integrate the form into BuddyPress Member profiles, you need to go to your BuddyForms Add-ons settings page and check the form under the BuddyForms Members section.

With this setup, we have built a new section on our website.

Follow Up Topics

Hook your Fields: Use the BuddyForms Hook field extension to hook your field

Posts to Posts: If you want to make post relationships, you can use the BuddyForms Post to Post Plugin to create relationships between posts and let the user create connections between posts or users.

Attache Groups: Create a group for every post submitted and redirect the post to the attached groups

Tip for Designers

You can create templates for the new post type archive, taxonomy, single view... For this you need to create a copy of the template you like to modifier and add the new post type slug. Example: archive-{your post type}.php or single-{your post type}.php See the WordPress documentation for more information.