access to a specific user's page

Is it possible to upon payment for a unique user post/page to be created for that user? Our business will be selling access to a widget for the customer’s website. The users who purchases, say a level that provides “one widget at $10/month,” would then have access to this unique post/page on which would the specific information for his widget (it’s number, embed code, and the page on his site which it will be authorized for.

If this is too complicated or wasteful, another approach would be that such a membership would provide access to a universal “one widget at $10/month” but the customer’s registration would include specific additional fields that would be passed to this page whenever this customer accesses it. In other words, his purchase of the “one widget at $10/month” level would give him to access the “one widget at $10/month” page, which would contain fields specific to him when he accesses it. Those fields (widget number, host page URL, etc.) would be provided from his profile as filled in at registration and access at every login.

Thanks for this great question

The way I would recommend setting this up would be not to create a new Post/Page for each user, as this can lead to significantly slower loading times for your site, especially if you have many users.

Instead I would recommend something along the lines of your alternative solution here:

If this is too complicated or wasteful, another approach would be that such a membership would provide access to a universal “one widget at $10/month” but the customer’s registration would include specific additional fields that would be passed to this page whenever this customer accesses it. In other words, his purchase of the “one widget at $10/month” level would give him to access the “one widget at $10/month” page, which would contain fields specific to him when he accesses it. Those fields (widget number, host page URL, etc.) would be provided from his profile as filled in at registration and access at every login.

s2Member provides most of what you’ll need here. You’ll want to check out Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Scripting -› Simple/Shortcode Conditionals for info on grabbing this info.

s2Member already requires the creation of a Login Welcome Page (sometimes referred to as the “My Account” page) which you can use to display this info. Users are automatically redirected to this page when they log in, which is the functionality I believe you are looking for.

Alternatively, you can create a page protected at level 0/1 and link to this page from the Login Welcome Page just as easily.

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If you’d like to provide more information on how the “widget number, host page URL, etc.” is generated, I’d be happy to give you more information on this.

Wow, this is incredibly helpful. I have to get an OK from my partner to purchase, so I’ll not ask more questions while still a free-loader :-) … but I will take you up on your offer:

If you’d like to provide more information on how the “widget number, host page URL, etc.” is generated, I’d be happy to give you more information on this.

I’m evaluating S2 for selling subscriptions to professionally curated streams of content (to help website owners keep their sites fresh). You can see examples of the stream players as used for news here: pdx.nozzl.com but what we will be selling are streams on specific topics — diabetes, orchids, cricket, you name it. We are currently using Authorize.net as the payment processor, but that might change. I plan to start with only one level: a subscription that allows the subscriber to display a stream player on his site, payable monthly with the first month as a free trial. In the future we may add a yearly subscription level, possibly levels for more than one stream player monthly & yearly.

The “stream player” price is not set yet, but let’s say 20 bucks/month, with the first month free (a free trial; no billing if he cancels within 30 days). Thereafter he is billed recurringly until he cancels or his card fails. To get the code for the player, the subscriber would have to register and do the credit card setup, and I believe Authorize and other payment processors can verify but NOT charge until the end of the 30-day trial, right?

What the subscriber would see on his account page would include all the usual stuff, plus three additional fields:

• the stream he wants
• the URL of the page on his site where he intends to display it
• the stream player embed code (provided by us after he submits the other two)

If he comes to the registration page from the catalog page (the normal route) where he probably has selected a stream, that stream-name would come with him (via a session variable?) and so it would already be displayed on the registration page if it exists. If not, fine. Time for this in the next step after he gets approved and has an accounts page.

After registration, his accounts page will have either have the stream-name filed populated, or it will be blank, ideally a pull-down with an empty option selected); thus he can populate it from the pulldown or he could go back to the catalog, select, and on his return to his account page find it filled in (or selected from the pulldown).

The second field, his page URL, he enters before he can get his embed code. Submitting/updating his accounts after filling in his intended page URL, would return the page with all three fields populated. And now, all this data are also stored in his database record.

Bottom line, before he gets an account/membership page and the ability to submit it with more information (his page URL) in order to get his unique embed code, he must first be OK’d by Authorize.net. His accounts page will then have all the information (only last four digits of his card) to Authorize.net, and possible an already selected stream-name.
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A note on the Registration Page: I want the subscriber’s username to be his e-mail address; thus the register form would not ask for a username, but instead use WordPress’s dual-entry e-mail verification to get the e-mail and the system would use it also for the username. (There are plugins for this if it’s not something working in S2.)

Thanks for the follow-up.

You said here:

What the subscriber would see on his account page would include all the usual stuff, plus three additional fields:

the stream he wants
the URL of the page on his site where he intends to display it
the stream player embed code (provided by us after he submits the other two)

Because you’re setting a custom field dynamically, based on what the user inputs (or whatever else you’re needing to set up after the user registers), I would recommend using the information provided here on dynamically generated Profile/Registration Fields:

Video » s2Member (Custom Fields Dynamically?)

This will require some additional processing on your end to get this set up correctly.

I believe Authorize and other payment processors can verify but NOT charge until the end of the 30-day trial, right?

Correct. Authorize.net will require credit card details but will not charge the user until the trial period has been reached.

His accounts page will then have all the information (only last four digits of his card) to Authorize.net, and possible an already selected stream-name.

s2Member uses Dashboard -› s2Member® -› Authorize.Net® Pro Forms -› Billing Update Forms, which do not function this way. You may want to check out the processes within s2Member Pro’s source code to find out how to get the necessary information here. Specifically the files within /s2member-pro/includes/classes/gateways/authnet/.

A note on the Registration Page: I want the subscriber’s username to be his e-mail address; thus the register form would not ask for a username, but instead use WordPress’s dual-entry e-mail verification to get the e-mail and the system would use it also for the username. (There are plugins for this if it’s not something working in S2.)

This isn’t something that’s supported by s2Member, or WordPress. The processes behind username validation within WordPress wouldn’t allow a username to be an email address.

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As far as the processes go for creating the streams and allowing users to create these streams go, this is outside of s2Member’s processes. I would recommend only using s2Member’s Profile/Registration Fields only for getting the neccessary data to generate what you need, and use your own processes to handle your other details.