How to build classifieds and directory sites with WordPress: What’s a Marketplace Site Why Marketplace Sites What’s Inside Marketplace Sites How to Implement Content Submission? How to Display Custom Content How to Implement Content Search How to Code Your ‘Application Logic’ User Accounts and Payments

1. Techniques for Developing
Directory and Marketplace
Sites with WordPress

2. Amir Helzer
● Founder, OnTheGoSystems
○ WPML, Toolset
● Heavy WordPress user
● Developer (but not PHP)
● Windsurfer
pictures goes here

3. What’s a Marketplace Site?
A site where some members post and others find.
Post and find what?
● New and used items
● Services
● Work for hire
● Information

4. Why Marketplace Sites?
Marketplace sites are the basis
for many businesses.
● Ebay
● Uber
● Odesk
● Airbnb
● Craigslist
Marketplace are like the
middleman (making money).

5. How Did I Become Such an Expert?
We created Toolset
Classifieds - a “do it
yourself” classifieds site
framework.

6. What’s Inside Marketplace Sites?
● Content submission
● Content display
● Content search
● Content organization
● Application logic
● User accounts and payments

7. Content Submission
● Members submit new
content.
● Members should also be
able to edit their
content.
● Content goes into the
WordPress tables (posts,
postmeta).

8. How Content Submission Works
You need to map form-
fields to content-
fields.
Remember:
● Create / edit / delete
● Data validation
● Notifications

9. How to Implement Content Submission?
● General ‘form’ plugins +
extensions
○ GF with ‘GF + CPT’
● Dedicated front-end content-
editing plugins
○ CRED
● Directory themes
○ Classipress, ET-Estate

10. Content Display
You will need to design:
● Single-item pages
● Item lists
● Category tree
● Search
…
Basically, all template
files in a theme.

11. How to Display Custom Content
● API of custom field plugin
○ ACF, Types
● Content-display plugins
○ Loopbuddy, Views
● Find a nice theme and hack it

12. Content Search
Visitors need to find
items by:
● Custom field values
(price < 100)
● Taxonomy
(category=’shirt’)
● Text search (‘polo’)

13. How to Implement Content Search
Coding a custom search is a lot of work.
● Most ‘directory’ themes have a custom search
● Views plugin allows to create custom searches

14. Content Organization
● Set-up categories in the
WordPress admin
● Put content in categories
● Display a hierarchy of
categories
● Display items per category
Use ‘custom taxonomy’ for
categories.

15. How to Implement a Front-End Categories Tree
● Directory themes display nice category trees
● Code the category looks in PHP
○ Nested loops for top-level and child taxonomy, with posts count
● Use plugins
○ WP-dTree, Custom Taxonomies Menu Widget, Views

16. ‘Application Logic’
The ‘application logic’ is what makes each site unique.
When this happens, do that:
● “Create a PDF of recent 5 articles”
● “Invite to open auctions”
● “Find properties in a 30-Km radius”

17. How to Code Your ‘Application Logic’
● Find a ‘hook’ that runs at
the right event
● Write your PHP that
implements the required
action

18. User Accounts and Payments
● WooCommerce
provides both the
payment processing
and user-account.
● You can customize the
account to include
your items.

19. Connect WooCommerce with Forms Submission
1. Create a WooCommerce
product for ‘paid ad’.
2. After submitting an ad,
before it goes live, ‘sell’
the WooCommerce
product.
3. Once paid, the ad goes
live.

20. Summary
● Yes, you can create great Marketplace sites with
WordPress.
● No, there isn’t one “right” way to do it. I presented
the way I know, but there are other ways too.
● A good theme or framework will handle 95% of the
work for you. The remaining 5% can still be a lot and
often requires custom development.

21. Try Yourself in the Workshop
Join me and Dario at 2pm in
the workshop room. All you
need is a laptop connected to
wifi.
Build a fully functional
classifieds site from scratch
on discover-wp.com.

22. Questions?
Your turn...