Building and Automating a Directory Website

Disclaimer: This article, and project described within, was written and built in my own time, using my own resources to expand my technical skill set. It is in no way endorsed or used by my current or prior employers.

Creating a directory website may seem like a challenge for many. But it does not have to be.

WordPress is an excellent CMS for directory sites and many theme/template repositories have prefabricated options available. Some even provide demo content that can be imported to give a Developer a head start. ThemeForest, for example, is a great resource (just be careful to select from the top three themes in a category to ensure frequent updates).

A managed cloud hosting provider is highly recommended for WordPress. The provider can help an admin save time with them applying security updates and setting up the environment to optimize speed. The ability to scale a site as it grows is also a benefit, as well as various monitoring and scheduling tools, etc.

Once a site is configured with a theme and demo content, the next step is to create a 'child' theme, which allows admins to customize a theme without 'hacking the core' theme files. This makes it easier to update the theme, without having to track and reapply changes. The theme vendor can typically assist with this customization at no charge, or at least point you in the right direction... as long as one has an active support package (3-6 months of free support is typically included with a theme).

Plugins can help Developers add custom taxonomy and fields within existing post types for the theme through a UI (i.e. ACF Custom Fields, and CPT UI).

Once the basic structure is in place, a Developer would need to customize the placeholder 'demo' content with their own material. This is where import scripts can be helpful (i.e. WP All Import Pro, with the associated ACF plugin). In some cases (for the more popular themes on ThemeForest), WP All Import Pro also offers theme specific import helpers to speed the process up. If the initial content for the directory will be populated from an Excel file, this can be converted to .csv. A .csv or .xml file can then be uploaded and the admin configures field mapping to the directory theme fields through a UI. Generally speaking, the process is seamless, but occasionally some minor shortcode and/or scripting is required to map everything correctly. Luckily, the vendor behind WP All Import Pro is very helpful and they have sufficient documentation to support customization requirements.

In a perfect world, a directory should be fully automated. This can be done by performing an initial import and opening the site up for community contributions (gamification/incentives can help reward users for contributions), and/or by subscribing to one or more data sources to generate data files and then creating a process to automatically update the site. This is easy to do with out of the box tools and functionality – a process diagram from a prior implementation I worked on can be found below:

Hopefully, this high level overview is helpful to those who have an interest in developing a similar solution. Please feel free to reach out with any questions.

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Curtis Carmichael is a Senior Technical Business Analyst with over eight years of full time business/systems analysis and project management experience for leading global information technology companies. He is a Certified ScrumMaster? (CSM) with over three years experience as a Scrum Master at a leading software company. Curtis has experience with business transformation initiatives, including overhauling a sales and customer onboarding process to increase sales pipeline visibility and enhance communication.