Registering application users

An administration panel is built into the WordPress framework, allowing us to log in through the admin screen. Therefore, we have a registration area which can be used to add new users by providing a username and e-mail. In web applications, registration can become complex, compared to the simple registration process in WordPress. Let's consider some typical requirements of the web application registration process in comparison with WordPress:

• User-friendly interface: An application can have different types of user roles. Until registration is completed, everyone is treated as a normal application user with the ability to view public content. Typically, users are used to seeing fancy registration forms inside the main site rather than a completely different login area such as with WordPress. Therefore, we need to explore the possibilities of adding WordPress registration to the frontend.
• Requesting detailed information: Most web applications will have at least four or five fields in the user registration form for grabbing detailed information about the user. Therefore, we need to look at the possibility of adding new fields to the existing WordPress registration form.
• Activating user accounts: In some applications, you will be asked to verify and activate your account after successful registration. WordPress doesn't offer this feature by default. Hence, we need to see how we can extend the current process to include user activation.

These are the most common requirements of the registration process in web applications. Complex applications may come with more requirements in this process. Therefore, we need to extend the WordPress registration process, in order to cater to various requirements. In the next section, we will address the issues mentioned here by creating a WordPress registration from the frontend.