Registering application users
The administration panel is a built-in WordPress framework that allows us to login through the admin screen. Therefore, we have a registration area which can be used effectively to add new users by providing a username and e-mail. In web applications, registration can become complex compared with the simple registration process in WordPress. Let's consider some typical requirements of a web application registration process in comparison with WordPress:
- A user-friendly interface: Applications can have different types of user roles. Until the registration is complete, everyone is treated as a normal application user with the ability to view public content. Typically, users are used to seeing fancy registration forms inside the main site rather than a completely different login area like WordPress. Therefore, we need to explore the possibilities of adding the WordPress registration to the frontend.
- Requesting detailed information: Most web applications will have at least 4-5 fields in the user registration form for grabbing detailed information about users. Therefore, we need to look for the possibility of adding new fields to the existing WordPress registration form.
- Activating user accounts: In some applications, you will be asked to verify and activate your account after successful registration. WordPress doesn't offer this feature by default. Hence, we need to see how we can extend the current process to include user activation.
These are the most common requirements of the registration process in web applications. Complex applications may have more requirements in this process. Therefore, we need to extend the WordPress registration process in order to cater for varying requirements. In the next section, we are going to address the issues mentioned here by creating a WordPress registration from the frontend.