Help with sorting and storing data on Wordpress

Question

I want to implement something where users can log in and review products and search for products to see reviews. I want to store multiple attributes to allow for really refined searches. I need things to be very sortable. Ideally, I would connect custom MYSQL databases on my server to Wordpress. I also want to load pictures, etc for the products. I expect there would be thousands of products added. I'm stuck on how I would get the products/ reviews to display.

Is there currently a plugin that handles this type of thing? Is this even feasible through Wordpress and should I spend time trying to create a plugin to do this for me? Is it possible with a new page type? Or would I run into trouble trying to create thousands of pages.

Answer 1

Why do you want to go for a custom MYSQL database altogether? You can simply use custom post types for products. Please check http://codex.wordpress.org/Post_Types You can add images, custom fields such as review, ratings etc.

There are many plugins that can help you create custom post types easily. https://wordpress.org/plugins/custom-post-type-ui/ https://premium.wpmudev.org/project/custompress/

There is another plugin you can use to create a products catalog. Check this: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-catalogue/

Thanks, Faizan