Add ccaps to existing member EOT?

HI, I want to offer to existing paid members some additional content which I think will work best using ccaps so that it is linked to their account.

I have level 2 members that have already paid once for 1 year access. If I create a Paypal button for level 2 for $49 with the ccap of “extraclass” how will that affect their existing membership? I don’t want to change their EOT date.

If I make the upgrade button a one-off payment for 1 year – will that extend their membership to 1 year from date of purchase, effectively extending their membership?

How can I add a ccap to an existing membership without changing anything else except adding the ccap to their record?

Thank you!

Hi Michelle,

If you don’t want to change their EOT date, you cannot change their subscription unless you do lots of fancy programatic calculations with PHP to determine their EOT date and then set the new subscription to expire after X number of days, where X is the number of days until the current EOT.

However, it sounds like you’re just trying to give someone access to new ccaps. If that’s the case, you can “sell” ccaps on a one-time basis through the Capability Buy Now forms (Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Pro Forms -› Capability (Buy Now) Forms). However, if you want to sell ccaps that change the recurring subscription, you’ll need to use a Billing Modification form (Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Pro Forms -› Billing Modification Forms) and that will change the EOT (the new EOT will be whatever you configured the Billing Modification form for).

If you want to dynamically configure the Billing Modification form so that it automatically calculates the correct length of the new subscription by basing it on the current EOT, you’ll need to use dynamic shortcode attributes.

Raam thank you!

The Capability Buy Now forms are perfect for this situation. I didn’t even realise that existed.

Thank you again for the excellent support.

Michelle, if you want to add a ccap make sure the button is only visible if the member is logged in. If a member clicks the button while logged out, the purchase and the additional ccap will not be associated with the member and will not be added. This is a little annoyance, but easy to work with.

Thanks cassel – I had thought of that, but appreciate the reminder!! So many things to think of with this type of thing.

Can I set this up without it displaying all the form fields? I don’t need the user to change anything on their profile or enter credit card details, just use PayPal to buy the new ccap.

Thanks!

I’ve been doing some research on using Pro-form Templates and it indicates that the user profile fields should prefill when a user is logged in and the credit card and billing fields should be hidden if Paypal is the selected payment option. I’m logged in as a test user and I’ve edited the shortcode so that Paypal is the only payment option.

But I’m still seeing all the fields.

Help please!!! Thanks

Ok – I deactivated all plugins except s2Member, buddypress and maintenance mode and reverted to the default theme.

The profile fields still didn’t pre-fill with the logged in user details.

I also ran the server check script and it passed all tests.

I tried hiding all the fields via a custom template, but the validation script picks up that the profile fields are empty and won’t let me go any further.

So, I’m at a loss – any ideas?

Michelle, the pro-form will only show the custom profile fields for registrations, if the user is logged in, those fields won’t be shown. The fields that are shown will be prepopulated if possible. Billing info (e.g. card number, etc) is not stored by s2Member, so won’t be prepopulated.

Does that help understand how they work?

I understand that – but it’s not working as it’s supposed to. The user is logged in, but the base fields (name etc) aren’t being prepopulated. Is there a setting or something related to pro-forms? I haven’t used them before and I only have Paypal standard – but that should still work shouldn’t it?

As I said, I disabled all plugins I could and changed to the default theme, I was logged in as an admin user and it still didn’t prepopulate.

Hi Michelle,

Can you confirm that you’re using a Billing Modification Pro-Form and not a regular Level Membership or other Pro-Form? I believe the fields only prefill when you’re using a Billing Modification form (Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Pro Forms -› Billing Modification Forms.

Raam, I’m using a Capability Buy Now form.

So – will the member need to fill out the form again, even though it’s only to add a ccap, not change anything else about their membership?

Is there a way I can use a custom template to prepopulate the fields?

Thanks!

Michelle,

I just tested the Capability Buy Now form on my installation of s2Member and the form was pre-populated with the details of the user I was logged in with. If that’s not happening for you, there is likely a plugin or theme conflict preventing the fields from being auto-populated (or if you made any customizations to the s2Member files, that may be affecting it).

I recommend starting with disabling all other WordPress plugins and switching to the default WordPress theme (TwentyEleven). I can confirm that the Capability Buy Now form pre-populates on a clean install.

Thanks Raam, but I already did that – see my message #30833 above.

Any other ideas? Can I pre-populate via the custom template? Or can I turn off the form validation and hide the profile fields?

To confirm – this is the only way to automatically add a ccap to an existing member without changing their subscription status isn’t it.

thanks

Selling an independent custom capability is the way to add a custom capability to a user’s account without changing their subscriptions status.

These sales can only be buy-now transactions, and there isn’t a way to give them for free yet, except editing their profiles manually.

You could create a hack that under certain circumstances, or through a certain trigger, would give the user a certain capability. Knowledge Base » Changing Roles/Capabilities via PHP

I hope that helps. :)

I’ve gotta ask – are you guys actually reading my question? ;) Usually, the support here is absolutely fantastic, but this time you keep telling me to try something I’ve already done, or giving me instructions for something that isn’t related to this issue. :)

So, to review: I want to charge existing members to get access to extra content without changing anything to do with their membership (profile or EOT). I want to do this via ccaps. The only way to do this is to use a Capability Buy Now pro-form. I have set this up on my site, but it isn’t working.

I have disabled all plugins and reverted to the default theme. But it still doesn’t work – the member profile fields aren’t being prepopulated when a user is logged in. I don’t want my members to have re-enter their details just to get access to one extra page.

There is a conflict going on somewhere. I’m assuming it’s a javascript issue most likely related to the theme, but when I change to the default buddypress theme it doesn’t fix the problem. Can you please help me determine what is causing it, or help me implement a workaround?

Thank you!!!

Michelle,

You are correct that it’s most likely a JavaScript issue. I have tested the Custom Capability Buy Now form on my test installation (a fresh install of WordPress + s2Member Pro running the default TwentyEleven theme) and the fields do pre-populate as expected.

Can I pre-populate via the custom template? Or can I turn off the form validation and hide the profile fields?

You might be able to hack the Pro-Form template for the Custom Capability Buy Now form and go from there, but that’s really not the best course of action. As I mentioned above, the feature works as expected in all except your environment, so there’s something in your setup that’s causing this conflict.

To confirm – this is the only way to automatically add a ccap to an existing member without changing their subscription status isn’t it.

Yes, that’s correct. This is the only way to sell a ccap without changing their subscription. If you wanted to simply add ccaps, without charging the user, you could create your own custom feature that does this.

Could you please test this problem with the default TwentyEleven theme, instead of a BuddyPress theme? It’s even possible that BuddyPress itself is causing the JavaScript conflict (in which case temporarily disabling BuddyPress to test that theory would be the next best step).