CCAP and Subscription Amount

I’m frustrated by the custom capability and membership level integration – likely through ignorance. I have yet to decide how best to package what i offer and understand the following:

1) Only one subscription can be associated with a member – typically at the member level
2) An unlimited number of custom capabilities (ccap) can be created but requires use of php to administer
3) If a ccap is associated with a level as long as you are a member of that level you can access it – when membership level expires so does access to ccap – any and all ccaps at that level
4) S2 has talked of adding this functionality – recurring charges for ccap but no firm plans as yet… although I do see it different – I see it as increasing and decreasing the membership level fee rather than having multiple recurring fees….

So my question is – if I offer specific ccaps to a membership level, and a user adds one, does this affect the recurring subscription fee, or is it processed as a one time charge in addition to the existing subscription fee?

What would it take to optionally add the ccap charge to the periodic recurring fee for subscription -and of course remove it should the user drop the ccap? PHP I suspect but has anyone done this so I can assess how complex it might be for someone who is NOT a php programmer – me…

1) Only one subscription can be associated with a member – typically at the member level

Partly correct i would say. Any member will have a level, whether it is a free subscriber or a paid one.

2) An unlimited number of custom capabilities (ccap) can be created but requires use of php to administer

Partly correct. You can use an unlimited number of ccaps, but you can use them with shortcode conditional, the ccap box OR php conditionals.

3) If a ccap is associated with a level as long as you are a member of that level you can access it – when membership level expires so does access to ccap – any and all ccaps at that level

You dont need to associate a ccap with a level. You can use either one. using both for the same thing is a bit redondant i would say (but i am not a support person, so maybe it is used in some cases). I am not sure if all the ccaps are lost. I think it is, but dont quote me on it. Someone might confirm or infirm that info.

4) S2 has talked of adding this functionality – recurring charges for ccap but no firm plans as yet… although I do see it different – I see it as increasing and decreasing the membership level fee rather than having multiple recurring fees….

You can already have recurring fee for a ccap. I use that myself for my site. However, you cannot have simultaneous memberships. In my case, i offered a bundle of membership 1 and membership 2 into a membership 3 and used a PayPal® Pro Billing Modification Forms so instead of JUST getting the Membership 2, those who have Membership1 had the option to “add membership 2”. And i used a conditional to make sure that the pro-form appears ONLY to those with membership 1.

Hope it helps. Maybe from here, you will have other questions? Dont hesitate to ask.

Hi Ian.

I’ll add some comments to what Cassel kindly replied.

1) Only one subscription can be associated with a member – typically at the member level

Right, subscriptions can only be sold for levels, ccaps can only be sold with buy-now transactions. You could sell the ccaps together with a level, in which case you could say the subscription pays the ccaps, even if you’re actually using the level to do it.

3) If a ccap is associated with a level as long as you are a member of that level you can access it – when membership level expires so does access to ccap – any and all ccaps at that level

ccaps aren’t associated with levels beyond the possibility of selling them together. Even if the user purchased level 1 with ccap video, having one wouldn’t give access to content protected by the other. So if someone just purchases level 1 without ccap video, he wouldn’t have access to content protected with ccap video.

Yes, demotion would change the level to 0 and remove all ccaps, unless you modify the EOT behavior code so ccaps are not removed. This behavior can be a problem if someone subscribes to level 1, then purchases ccap video and then ends the subscription, which would remove the ccap which he should actually keep.

4) S2 has talked of adding this functionality – recurring charges for ccap but no firm plans as yet… although I do see it different – I see it as increasing and decreasing the membership level fee rather than having multiple recurring fees….

Right, we plan to make it possible to have multiple subscriptions, and be able to subscribe to ccaps, and make demotions specific to access and not general.

But being able to have recurring charges for different ccaps, wouldn’t modify a single subscription, it’d most probably be separate ones, since a subscription managed by the payment gateway can’t have the amount modified. It’d only be possible if the subscription were managed by s2Member itself, but that’d require storing credit card information, which has a ton of security implications we won’t go into.

So my question is – if I offer specific ccaps to a membership level, and a user adds one, does this affect the recurring subscription fee, or is it processed as a one time charge in addition to the existing subscription fee?

No, it wouldn’t affect the subscription fee. Independent custom capabilities can only be sold with buy-now transactions, independent of an existing subscription.

What would it take to optionally add the ccap charge to the periodic recurring fee for subscription -and of course remove it should the user drop the ccap? PHP I suspect but has anyone done this so I can assess how complex it might be for someone who is NOT a php programmer – me…

Modifying the ongoing subscription isn’t possible, but it could be ended and a new one started. The user would have to enter the payment info again, which would be normal if he were paying buy-now anyway. Pro-forms would probably be best for this.

You’d also need to make any adjustments to the subscription, so you don’t charge again for whatever time the user had left from the previous payment. You can use the initial/trial term for this adjustment. Knowledge Base » Using variables in a shortcode

You can test these things with live, 1 cent transactions and see if you get it working the way you want.

---

I hope that helps. :)

Just as an added note, since demotion currently removes all ccaps, i took a habit of adding, in the notes for each member, what was purchased (with the ccap) and when. So if something happens and datas get corrupt, or deleted, i can go back and have specific information on what what purchased and when, or when the member got demoted, or asked for a change, etc.

Another form of logging could be to have the payment notification set up to email you, then you can search your email for notifications related to that customer if you want info on past payments. [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Notifications -› Payment Notifications[/hilite]

Also, if you want to make s2Member leave ccaps untouched when demoting the user, you can hack the auto-eot code. http://www.s2member.com/forums/topic/question-about-ccaps-recurring-payment-and/#post-30257