Good afternoon,
I’m fiddling around setting up a members area - which is the best way to do so?
a) Wix offers a build in members area, of which the login site can be amended using Corvid. However, as far as I noticed, I found it fairly difficult to merge this user area afterwards with other databases as well as my dynamic pages.
b) I could skop the build in solution and set the pages up myself.
Which route shall I take? I sthere any general advice? Does the existing solution by Wix enable me to still build in fields that allow the members to add e.g. their location (longitude etc.)?
Also, which option would be advisable, if I afterwards aim to have option of member messenger service?
Many thanks,
Constantin
You can easily have the Wix Members app on your website which gives you your Members pages automatically, along with the Members/PrivateMembersData collection.
https://support.wix.com/en/site-members/setting-up-a-members-area
https://support.wix.com/en/article/corvid-wix-members-privatemembersdata-collection-fields
The Wix Members app collection has the permissions of site member author only, which means that only the specific site member can see their own data in that collection.
However, you can bypass that by using code and the Wix Data Options to suppress those checks.
https://www.wix.com/corvid/reference/wix-data.html#WixDataOptions
Plus, you can not add any additional fields to this Wix Members app collection, so any additional fields that you need for site members will need to be setup as custom fields in your Contacts list on your Wix Dashboard.
You can also add this seperate Wix Members Profile tutorial as well onto your site, where you can add any user inputs you want onto this dynamic page setup and save it into the dataset from the tutorial, which you can also query on your site if needs to instead of using the Wix Members collection.
https://support.wix.com/en/article/corvid-tutorial-building-your-own-members-area
I have done that myself on sites and simply don’t use the Wix Login Bar anywhere on my site. So, the only way that members can log or sign themselves up is through the members page with my Corvid lightboxes for login/signup.
https://support.wix.com/en/article/about-the-member-signup-form
With regards to messenger, you could simply have the Wix Chat app on your site, which gives you the opportunity of having public messages for all your website visitors and also a members chat section where members can talk between themselves or they can message another member personally.
https://support.wix.com/en/ascend-by-wix/wix-inbox-and-chat
Hi @givemeawhisky , many thanks for your reply. Based on your reply, setting up a user profile’s best practice is using Wix’s member area. However, to merge my requirements, e.g. I have a custom build edit profile page that stores data in a seperate database, I struggle quite a bit. Is there any chance I can use my own form and store data in the Wix Member database? I couldn’t see any new database created when settin up the members area. I therefore also can’t store data in any.
Hope I could express myself in a clear way.
Many thank,
Constantin
note: I’m having (a) one site that is used to upload/ edit content
(b) ony dynamic showing user content (that was entered via (a)).
To merge those pages with WIX’s members area, I either should connect it to that new database (but none is shown), or make these two pages become member pages. However, I could move them over to the members area.
When you add the Wix Members app to your site it will set up a new collection in your dataset area in your site structure on the left hand side of your Wix Editor. It will be listed under the Members heading.
This collection can’t be added to as it is read only and will only show the collection data to each specific user only, so a site member will only be able to see their own data.
If you want to do a custom form, then you are still better off doing it through the seperate Wix members profile tutorial.
https://support.wix.com/en/article/corvid-tutorial-building-your-own-members-area
Remember that you don’t have to keep it as a profile page, you can change the user inputs to whatever you want to put on the page and design it to how you want it to be setup etc.
@constantintrautmann In my opinion, the best way to achieve this is to use an hybrid solution on top of Wix private member collection:
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Add the member Area
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Add a “customMembersData” with a reference field “member” to “Members/PrivateMembersData”
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Use wixData.query(“customMembersData”).eq(“member”, wixUsers.currentUser.id ).include(“member”) to query information from “customMembersData” for the logged user.
You’ll have the benefice of both world.
On top of that use the CRM to update basic information on your user https://www.wix.com/corvid/reference/wix-crm-backend.html#updateContact . That way every information is available in the member dashboard.