This pattern is a popular one, which involves;
- A login system
- Some form of user-specific data capture
- Some form of user-specific data access, to view what has been captured
- Security concerns
It's a foundational pattern for;
- Social sites where users create a profile, which are perhaps viewable by others
- Auction and classified sites, where some users create "listings", and need to be able to access, edit, and delete them, while other users might "follow" listings or place bids
- Content-purchase sites, where you can purchase and access user-specific content long-term
- Loyalty sites, where you need to track activity and "points" for each user
Approach
Challenges
Webflow isn’t an app-building platform, so you need to solve.
- How to identify the user, uniquely
- How to get that unique identifier, when you need it
- How to save CMS data with that ID
- How to load CMS data with that ID
- Security
The first 2 are relatively easy, with Memberstack.
The 3rd requires automation, either Logic or a 3rd party solution like Make.
The 4th is messy and does not scale well at all as users and data volume increase.
The 5th is mostly-impossible on a Webflow-hosted site. Everything is exposed, since all content must be delivered to the browser before you can filter it.
Tools
Memberstack or Webflow User Accounts will give you the login capability. Memberstack is better at exposing that data to you, which you’ll need to save with your CMS data.
To build something like this on a Webflow-hosted site, you’re probably better off using Wized for the login and UX logic, and possibly Xano for the data storage.
Or else, choose a platform that’s designed for app-building like Bubble.
