How do you guys suggest we build this? Plugin? Core Hack? Te

[meenainc]

I am building a combat sports (mma fighting) site on the WordPress framework and have run into a confusing situation.

Quite simply, my client wants a "matchmaker" plugin (I use plugin loosely here) that will display who is fighting who in upcoming events on the Upcoming Events page. (duh). Instead of just putting "Joe Fighter versus John Loser" down the line, we want something more dynamic such as the fighter’s picture, his name, nickname, stats, win/loss, brief bio, and etc. with layout controlled by CSS. Since he wants a Fighter Profiles section (or Page) on the site that lists every fighter in his portfolio with images, videos, stats, and etc., pulling information directly from these pages would be ideal to avoid duplicate work.

As for imputing each fighter’s information, we have hit a snag and are unsure how to continue. I want to make it very easy for the client to create and edit fighter profiles so Pages seem the way to go…. we could just put custom fields under the Writing area on the Write Pages Admin page. But how would we create a simple "matchmaking section" in the Admin area?

I envision giving the client an easy to use Admin screen that has multiple rows on it, with 2 columns per row. Row 1 is fight 1, row 2 is fight 2, row 3 is fight 3 and so on; then column A is "fighter A" and bolumn B is "fighter B". Next I envision having drop down menus in each column that lists each fighter. That way the client can go to row 1, column A and put in "Joe Boxer" then go to column B and put in "John Fighter"… and can do this for each fight down each row. Then he hits save.

(Still in my vision…) Once the list is saved, we can use a shortcode such as [matchmaker] to put on the actual Upcoming Event Page to display this list we just created. Through CSS we would design how each row and column would display, and with PHP we could tell it what to display.

MY CONFUSION: Are the steps I outline above the best way to complete the goal? Because I could also see having an Admin screen called "Create New Fighter Profile" that would allow the Client to add new fighters….but how would that info be saved for his Visitors to use? Remember, we want visitors to be able to click on the Fighter’s name and go to his profile to see pics, videos, articles, and more.

To see what a fighter profile would look like, visit : http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Mike-Thomas-Brown-3069

To sum it up:
– visitors need to be able to access a Fighter’s Full Profile through navigation buttons, text links and etc.
– Admin needs easy way to create, edit, update, delete fighter profile information such as articles, images, videos, stats, and etc.
– Admin needs an admin screen allowing him to make his "matchups" that can then be put into the Upcoming Events page for visitor viewing.

Any suggestions, job quotes to complete this for us, etc. are all welcome!!

Thanks guys!

[TheDoc]

The "matchmaker" part is going to be very difficult I think. I can’t particularly see there being a plugin available since it’s such a specific need. Might just have to be your own plugin/hack.

You have the right idea for setting up the fighters though. And using a few custom fields will help in pulling specific information into the "matches" section.

[Author]

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