It is increasingly common to use WordPress as a framework to build applications on it. One of the most common cases I come across is the development of a corporate intranet. In fact, this last year has represented more than 20% of my projects. Let’s see their strengths!
private wordpress
To begin with, we must be clear about the intranet concept. To understand each other, it is a kind of “control panel” in which it can only be accessed through a user code and password, so that the content is completely protected from any user without access. Unlike a web, in which the content is public, the content of the intranet is private.
WordPress can be used as a public website (in fact that is its default behavior)but we can “close it to the public” in several ways, so that we can only access it or, in the case of the intranet, company workers.
There is also the possibility of making a mixed model, in which there is a public part and a private part. Let’s give an example, which always helps. Suppose we have a language school, and we are developing an intranet. We would have certain content available to everyone (information about language courses)and a private part (data on students enrolled in each course).
User Management
WordPress already comes from the factory with a powerful user manager, and certain predefined roles. Why waste months programming something similar, when it works perfectly? We can manage users through the control panel easily. Add, delete, or modify in a few clicks.
Certain roles come to us by default (subscriber, collaborator, author, editor, administrator). This makes some sense in web development, but perhaps not for an intranet. But no problem, we can eliminate those roles that we don’t want to use, and create our own roles through the capabilities, which are a kind of “abilities” that are given to user profiles.
Following the example of the language academy, we can create the role “course director“, and train it so that it can add or remove courses and edit the content of the courses, but cannot assign the students enrolled. And then create another role called “Student Manager”, so you can create and assign students to existing courses. That way, each can do their job without interfering or burdening the other’s work.
Custom post types
Custom Post Types are the panacea. They come to be a kind of “entities” that can be created in WordPress. I say “entities” even though it may be a bit ambiguous, but it really is a very broad concept. It can encompass any type of “self-informed” element.
In our language academy, those entities could be the ones already mentioned “courses” either “students“, each one with their own information. In the case of the courses we would have the dates, the agenda, the notes, etc. And in the case of the students all their personal information; telephone, address, checking account, etc. But we could create many more (teachers, exams, languages…)
Even (and here the power of WordPress) we can relate to each other. For example, assign students to courses, courses to teachers, or exams to students. And always have cross lists of all of them: What courses does that teacher teach? What exams has such a student taken? How many students does this course have?
Intercommunication
Another key point is that of communication between staff. We can use all kinds of tools to promote dialogue between workers, or between teams, the most common systems being:
- chat: Internal chat to facilitate quick communication, with historical record.
- Forums: To resolve doubts between students or teachers.
- Inbox: For private conversations between two users.
- General notices: Notices that are usually placed at the top of the entire intranet about urgent issues.
All these tools are essential for large companies, or remote and virtual companies. Perhaps it is not so necessary if it is a small company, in which all internal information can be verbal. But sometimes it is very interesting to have everything registered, for internal consumption at the reference level.
Personalization
This is the most important point of all, without any doubt. There is a lot of software for less than €100 for sale that you can install on your computer or on your network to carry out all these internal procedures. But none of them will adapt 100% to your needs. You will always end up filling a “various” field with information that should have its own field, or you will have fields that will always be empty.
Thanks to WordPress you can create a completely personalized intranet according to your needs and those of your company. Exactly what you need, no more, no less. The fair courses, the necessary options and the menus that you want where you want them. And not only that, but also, like everything in this world, it can evolve. In other words, you can add functionalities as you need them or as your business evolves.
Even at the design level, the entire intranet can be customized to suit the consumer. Menus, options, buttons, dropdowns, etc. Everything according to your personal preferences, to maximize the user experience. As if it were a website.
Accessibility
Unlike a client application, which is installed on a specific computer, an online intranet is accessible from any browser. Regardless of the operating system, and the platform on which you consult it. You can even access it through mobile devices such as phones or tablets.
Being able to access all the data regardless of where you are, and from what device you do it with is a strong point whether you are a small self-employed person, always on the road, or if you are a large corporation with workers spread all over the world. And at the security level, in the event that your computer or device is lost, stolen or damaged, you do not lose a single piece of data. Everything is stored on a server that is regularly backed up. What more could you want?
How do I do it?
In the event that you are not very technical and you want to be guided step by step for the development of an intranet with all these characteristics, take a look at the .
There you have all the plugins and video instructions, step by step in real time, and my technical support. And also you will also have access to the rest of , with already more than 6044 available.
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