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Sean
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Am I correct in my assumption that we can set up Pro Sites packages that can be automatically assigned to a new member at signup with the membership plugin?
If so does that mean that we can eliminate user Pro Site package selection altogether along with a user's ability to upgrade or downgrade using Pro Site directly?
I would like to have users only have to choose a Membership package and get both Membership & Pro Site defined benefits. Ideally they should be able to select or change all their benefits that are given by both the Membership and Pro Sites plugin by only changing their Membership.
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I could be wrong, but my understanding is that your access to being able to use the membership plugins functions is subject to your pro sites subscription (not the other way around). Basically if you're paying for the correct pro sites level, you can create membership sites using the membership plugin. I don't think changes in the level of membership can affect pro sites, or that pro sites can effect your membership level (only backend access to the plugin).
19 pointsCommunity rank #3102SophomoreJust Getting Started
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After browsing a bit through the manual (I would have been interested in doing something similar) the membership plugin seems to only be capable of blocking front-end content.
You could always try a clever workaround like having multiple protected website creation pages that would only be accessible to certain membership levels.
For example page 1 is visible to non-members and anyone who creates a website from it would be put on a free pro sites level
Page 2 is visible only to level 1 members and anyone who creates a website from it would be put on a level 1 pro sites package at signup
Page 3 is visible only to level 2 members and anyone who creates a website from it would be put on a level 2 pro sites package at signup
That's assuming it's actually possible to assign pro-sites packages this way (which may not be the case, I'm trying to figure that out).
I might try using this plugin and editing the HTML of the page so that instead of the user choosing their blog type, the form would automatically assign them a blog type. Each different blog type would be associated with a different level of membership. This would allow me to customize what they have access to in the backend (via easy blogging) but it wouldn't integrate into pro sites.
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DEV Diva
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Hi Sean
Hope you're well :)
I have to say; quite an advanced setup that you would like to create. It would require planning and a very good understanding of the two plugins and their functionality to pull this together, but I believe it can be done.
@surpassweb has raised some interesting questions and discussion himself. And I think his last post provides a clever way of pulling this together.
I hope that more members will provide input to your question and that you will get this project nicely planned.
All the best!
Gina
Hope my response is helpful. Appreciate a thumbs up if it is. If it's not, please let me know how I can serve you better.
Thank You Surpassweb and GinaB. I will probably attempt doing it because the idea of controlling all the possibilities with available Membership and Pro Sites with a one Membership Subscription is very appealing.
Integrating Membership with Pro Sites to allow Membership to bypass Pro Sites sign up and payment gateway and control the Pro Site package selected with just Membership would be great as a native feature.
Sean's original post is EXACTLY 100% what we would like to implement over at Middle-earth Network.
Will be following this thread for future updates.
We basically also want the ability for our users to select a certain membership level and have certain Pro Site features enabled or disabled depending on that membership level.
This would also have the benefit of meaning that no longer would a "Membership" user and "pro site" user on our network have to create 2 payments.
Ideally, ONE payment should be able to take care of giving a member upgraded Membership AND Pro Site status.
I agree with Sean that this being a native feature would be ideal.
I've been thinking on this topic more this evening and am wondering if this idea may work:
What if within Pro Sites we were to create several levels of Pro Site that cost 0.00
Then within Membership plugin we give various different Membership levels access to a menu item that sends them directly to the signup page for the appropriate 0.00 priced Pro Site signup form.
Is this a workaround that could feasibly allow for Membership subscribers to be allowed to create "free" Pro Site blogs based on their Membership plugin level?
It's pretty late, so I might just be thinking a bit fuzzy too ;)
Middle Earth you made a great point. It is something I was aware of but did not address. Thanks for pointing it out.
Besides not having to hassle with another signup the member will only have one charge. This is important for a number of reasons and even more so when they are subscription based memberships:
1) Avoids member confusion seeing more than one charge for the site
2) avoids unnecessarily worrying or upsetting members
3) Reduces the number charge backs from confusion
4) Reduces questions needing to be answered before and after sales
5) Avoids activating potential security or fraud protection by processors
6) Saves money on per transaction cost
Imagine some of your price points are the same or close:
$19.99 per month for a Basic Membership
$19.99 per month for a Silver Site
The customer gets two identical monthly bills from you, and we all know how non-descriptive monthly statements can be. So it is easy to under stand the poetical for confusion.
These are precisely the reasons why a deeper integration of Membership and Pro Sites is in my opinion a absolute MUST have feature.
I am extremely nervous about attempting to double-charge our members, which is what would have to happen if we continued selling upgraded blogs via Pro Sites, and "Donation" subscriptions via Membership Plugin.
There has GOT to be a better way to handle this than the workarounds we've been tossing around this thread?
I am very eager to hear from some of the incredibly helpful WPMU folk :)
Middle Earth, your idea of setting up multiple free Pro Site options and being able to select which Pro Site Level that Members get by their Member Level is what I had in mind too. As long as you can turn off the direct sign up for Pro Site.
I am thinking that the "turning off" direct sign up for pro site may have to be a custom hack until the WPMU folks can possibly add it into the next version.
It would require (I imagine) removing the calls to add the "Your account" links in the blog dashboard area in the core PHP files. And perhaps also password protecting or "Membership gating" the http://www.site.com/pro-site page.
Hopefully this can simply be a toggle box in an upcoming release :)
Maybe one of the WPMUdev staff members can push this over to the Feature Suggestions & Feedback section and notify the developers working on Membership and Pro Site.
It might not be a too difficult feature to add. It seems that there would be a use for it. Combining the two in this way would probably put WPMUdev's Membership plugin far ahead of any competing membership plugin.
Beyond this there is one more level of Membership control that would be the icing on the cake:
You set up Pro Site options and then you have Membership levels that assign those Pro Site Levels...
Now create a membership script that allows you to create memberships on multiple WP installs. So you turn off the direct membership creation for each separate WP install and access to each (site or network) with a sign in and membership creation script or master WP install. By master WordPress install I mean an installation thats only purpose is managing members.
So imagine you have three two WP networks and a BP network:
Master WP install controls a Global Membership with a modified version of the Membership plugin. It allows the selection of which Membership Level to join in any number of other WP or BP sites or networks.
Now beyond the "Master Membership" could automatically create memberships or accounts with other non WordPress web applications or services. Membership information could even be stored in such a way to allow you to connect and import new member information into desktop programs like Quicken or Quickbooks.
By controlling things with one Membership then WPMUdev can focus primarily on gateways for one product/plugin. This way would have the option to use set ups with gateways not available on the other plugins yet still have the features of those plugin. In some cases it may get help those trying to get payed using one Paypal account.
15 pointsCommunity rank #3812SophomoreJust Getting Started
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(joined May 2012)
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All-
I stumbled across this thread yesterday.. I'm trying to do the same thing many of you have said you're doing.. effectively, integrate Membership & ProSites with one reoccurring monthly payment to hit my members.
The approach Sean & Middle Earth mentioned sounds doable in theory (e.g. members sign up & pay through Membership, then we only show corresponding membership levels in ProSites, so members get the ProSite functionality appropriate for their member level).
Have any of you actually done this? Are there any snags you've run into? Any other plugins you've used? Any further wisdom into this approach (or any alternative approaches / plugins)?
Responses (16)
Member (joined March 2012) Likes (0)
I could be wrong, but my understanding is that your access to being able to use the membership plugins functions is subject to your pro sites subscription (not the other way around). Basically if you're paying for the correct pro sites level, you can create membership sites using the membership plugin. I don't think changes in the level of membership can affect pro sites, or that pro sites can effect your membership level (only backend access to the plugin).
Member (joined March 2012) Likes (0)
After browsing a bit through the manual (I would have been interested in doing something similar) the membership plugin seems to only be capable of blocking front-end content.
You could always try a clever workaround like having multiple protected website creation pages that would only be accessible to certain membership levels.
For example page 1 is visible to non-members and anyone who creates a website from it would be put on a free pro sites level
Page 2 is visible only to level 1 members and anyone who creates a website from it would be put on a level 1 pro sites package at signup
Page 3 is visible only to level 2 members and anyone who creates a website from it would be put on a level 2 pro sites package at signup
That's assuming it's actually possible to assign pro-sites packages this way (which may not be the case, I'm trying to figure that out).
I might try using this plugin and editing the HTML of the page so that instead of the user choosing their blog type, the form would automatically assign them a blog type. Each different blog type would be associated with a different level of membership. This would allow me to customize what they have access to in the backend (via easy blogging) but it wouldn't integrate into pro sites.
DEV Diva (joined February 2012) Likes (0)
Hi Sean
Hope you're well :)
I have to say; quite an advanced setup that you would like to create. It would require planning and a very good understanding of the two plugins and their functionality to pull this together, but I believe it can be done.
@surpassweb has raised some interesting questions and discussion himself. And I think his last post provides a clever way of pulling this together.
I hope that more members will provide input to your question and that you will get this project nicely planned.
All the best!
Gina
Hope my response is helpful. Appreciate a thumbs up if it is. If it's not, please let me know how I can serve you better.
DEV Diva (joined February 2012) Likes (0)
Greetings @surpassweb
Thank you for a very thorough post and excellent way of thinking how to use the Membership plugin.
Greatly appreciate your input on the forum and wish you all the best!
GinaB
Member (joined June 2011) Likes (0)
Thank You Surpassweb and GinaB. I will probably attempt doing it because the idea of controlling all the possibilities with available Membership and Pro Sites with a one Membership Subscription is very appealing.
Integrating Membership with Pro Sites to allow Membership to bypass Pro Sites sign up and payment gateway and control the Pro Site package selected with just Membership would be great as a native feature.
Member (joined February 2012) Likes (0)
Sean's original post is EXACTLY 100% what we would like to implement over at Middle-earth Network.
Will be following this thread for future updates.
We basically also want the ability for our users to select a certain membership level and have certain Pro Site features enabled or disabled depending on that membership level.
This would also have the benefit of meaning that no longer would a "Membership" user and "pro site" user on our network have to create 2 payments.
Ideally, ONE payment should be able to take care of giving a member upgraded Membership AND Pro Site status.
I agree with Sean that this being a native feature would be ideal.
Member (joined March 2012) Likes (0)
I loved reading this post and couldn't agree more! I will be checking back on this thread as well!
Member (joined February 2012) Likes (0)
I've been thinking on this topic more this evening and am wondering if this idea may work:
What if within Pro Sites we were to create several levels of Pro Site that cost 0.00
Then within Membership plugin we give various different Membership levels access to a menu item that sends them directly to the signup page for the appropriate 0.00 priced Pro Site signup form.
Is this a workaround that could feasibly allow for Membership subscribers to be allowed to create "free" Pro Site blogs based on their Membership plugin level?
It's pretty late, so I might just be thinking a bit fuzzy too ;)
Member (joined June 2011) Likes (0)
Middle Earth you made a great point. It is something I was aware of but did not address. Thanks for pointing it out.
Besides not having to hassle with another signup the member will only have one charge. This is important for a number of reasons and even more so when they are subscription based memberships:
1) Avoids member confusion seeing more than one charge for the site
2) avoids unnecessarily worrying or upsetting members
3) Reduces the number charge backs from confusion
4) Reduces questions needing to be answered before and after sales
5) Avoids activating potential security or fraud protection by processors
6) Saves money on per transaction cost
Imagine some of your price points are the same or close:
$19.99 per month for a Basic Membership
$19.99 per month for a Silver Site
The customer gets two identical monthly bills from you, and we all know how non-descriptive monthly statements can be. So it is easy to under stand the poetical for confusion.
Member (joined February 2012) Likes (0)
The list that Sean wrote is spot on.
These are precisely the reasons why a deeper integration of Membership and Pro Sites is in my opinion a absolute MUST have feature.
I am extremely nervous about attempting to double-charge our members, which is what would have to happen if we continued selling upgraded blogs via Pro Sites, and "Donation" subscriptions via Membership Plugin.
There has GOT to be a better way to handle this than the workarounds we've been tossing around this thread?
I am very eager to hear from some of the incredibly helpful WPMU folk :)
Member (joined June 2011) Likes (0)
Middle Earth, your idea of setting up multiple free Pro Site options and being able to select which Pro Site Level that Members get by their Member Level is what I had in mind too. As long as you can turn off the direct sign up for Pro Site.
Member (joined February 2012) Likes (0)
I am thinking that the "turning off" direct sign up for pro site may have to be a custom hack until the WPMU folks can possibly add it into the next version.
It would require (I imagine) removing the calls to add the "Your account" links in the blog dashboard area in the core PHP files. And perhaps also password protecting or "Membership gating" the http://www.site.com/pro-site page.
Hopefully this can simply be a toggle box in an upcoming release :)
Member (joined June 2011) Likes (0)
Maybe one of the WPMUdev staff members can push this over to the Feature Suggestions & Feedback section and notify the developers working on Membership and Pro Site.
It might not be a too difficult feature to add. It seems that there would be a use for it. Combining the two in this way would probably put WPMUdev's Membership plugin far ahead of any competing membership plugin.
Beyond this there is one more level of Membership control that would be the icing on the cake:
You set up Pro Site options and then you have Membership levels that assign those Pro Site Levels...
Now create a membership script that allows you to create memberships on multiple WP installs. So you turn off the direct membership creation for each separate WP install and access to each (site or network) with a sign in and membership creation script or master WP install. By master WordPress install I mean an installation thats only purpose is managing members.
So imagine you have three two WP networks and a BP network:
Master WP install controls a Global Membership with a modified version of the Membership plugin. It allows the selection of which Membership Level to join in any number of other WP or BP sites or networks.
Now beyond the "Master Membership" could automatically create memberships or accounts with other non WordPress web applications or services. Membership information could even be stored in such a way to allow you to connect and import new member information into desktop programs like Quicken or Quickbooks.
By controlling things with one Membership then WPMUdev can focus primarily on gateways for one product/plugin. This way would have the option to use set ups with gateways not available on the other plugins yet still have the features of those plugin. In some cases it may get help those trying to get payed using one Paypal account.
People Person (joined February 2012) Likes (0)
Sean,
I will move this to feature requests and reference an existing request for this in our uservoice system
http://wpmudev.uservoice.com/forums/148158-wpmu-dev-new-development-requests/suggestions/2725129-add-membership-back-end-controls-to-pro-sites
You should go vote and leave your comments!
I'll flag the developer on this :)
Member (joined June 2011) Likes (0)
Thank you Kimberly. I voted and added a quick comment with links to two of my posts related to this topic.
Member (joined May 2012) Likes (0)
All-
I stumbled across this thread yesterday.. I'm trying to do the same thing many of you have said you're doing.. effectively, integrate Membership & ProSites with one reoccurring monthly payment to hit my members.
The approach Sean & Middle Earth mentioned sounds doable in theory (e.g. members sign up & pay through Membership, then we only show corresponding membership levels in ProSites, so members get the ProSite functionality appropriate for their member level).
Have any of you actually done this? Are there any snags you've run into? Any other plugins you've used? Any further wisdom into this approach (or any alternative approaches / plugins)?
Thanks
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