Creating a user directory, part 1: changing user contact fields

This is the beginning of a three-part series on building a user directory.

Part 1: Changing the contact fields on the user profile pages
Part 2: Building the user directory page template
Part 3: Building author templates and linking them in the directory

First, we’ll add some new fields: Twitter username, phone number, and job title. Then, we’ll remove the built-in fields we don’t want (all the IM handles). Finally, we add the filter that makes it all work. Here’s the code:

// change user contact fields
function change_contactmethod( $contactmethods ) {
  // Add some fields
  $contactmethods['twitter'] = 'Twitter Name (no @)';
  $contactmethods['phone'] = 'Phone Number';
  $contactmethods['title'] = 'Title';
  // Remove AIM, Yahoo IM, Google Talk/Jabber
  unset($contactmethods['aim']);
  unset($contactmethods['yim']);
  unset($contactmethods['jabber']);
  // make it go!
  return $contactmethods;
}
add_filter('user_contactmethods','change_contactmethod',10,1);

Put that in your theme’s functions.php file and have your users fill in the new fields! In the [link id=”2715″]next installment[/link], we’ll build the page template that displays the information.