When nōvi came with Control to Culture briefing, it was meant to be just a simple landing page to register people to the event. After the event, the scope started to grow, and so we initiated the first iteration on the site, which would soon become their platform to bring together all people and content involved in each semester class.
Nōvi needed to manage the registration for people interested in the course, approve them and manage access to the content, restricting those classes materials to the respective people of that class. The simpler the better, so I started to think how to achieve this the way they would have least steps to accomplish.
First things first — the registration process
So, to people get access to the content, they first needed to submit a registration and, if approved, be included in their class. Of course I could expend hours developing this solution by my own but hey, Gravity Forms is a pretty neat way to solve this, and the User Registration add-on would fit perfectly, so I suggested nōvi to purchase it and take a shortcut (money and time-wise speaking).
Now to the classes
As said, GF would make a nice shortcut, but we’re only halfway the process. Besides the registration, people might be approved, get notified about it, and at the same time, be placed on its correct class.
Ok, now what?
People should clearly be somehow classified by their class (named after its semester — 2023.1, 2023.2, etc.) and the straight-to-the-point way was User Roles. Also, besides their own class material (which should be restricted to class students and mentors) they also needed to have access to content that would be general to all students. So, the scope for now was:
- People register on form
- nōvi crew approve them
- People are placed on their respective class to access restricted content to their class
- People are also placed on a broader user role, to access restricted content to all alumni
Custom needs require custom solutions
With that in mind, I started to develop a custom WordPress plugin to Control to Culture website. The plugin is responsible for the two main features: create a class (user role) and restrict content access (class taxonomy) with a press of a button.
Under the hood, the plugin compare the viewed item class taxonomy and current user role and, if they match, the user is free to access the content; if not, they’re redirected to a login page. With this block happening at server-side, it’s virtually impossible to a non-authorized user get access to the content. The plugin also restricts search engine bots access to the content.
Besides the open area of CTRL > CLTR site, the restricted area also had some work to be done. People approved to the classes also gain a profile page, which come filled with person’s name, but also has space to add the company, a photo and a short description. While the person doesn’t provide a profile photo, I’ve built a quick placeholder using JavaScript that resembles a profile picture, based on project’s visual identity.
Every time the profile is loaded, a new profile picture is built using identity blocks.
The restricted area has two main sections for students: the repository, open to all students, and the classes, accessible only for their students. The repository collects every document, links, videos, presentations, etc, related to the core of Control to Culture formation, while the classes bring together people and material crafted for that lessons.