Customer Portal

Hello,

I have read most other posts and watched videos related to creating what amounts to basically being a user portal with s2Member. I understand that this is probably not what s2Member was originally designed for, but is possible with some tweaks.

Here is my basic need:
I will have an area of the site that is open to all paid members. This will be a set of pages consisting of instructional videos, etc. That seems pretty easy since I believe that is what s2 is designed to do. Although, I am not sure if I will be able to have an option to show the pages in my menu only to logged in users and not show the menu items when a user is not logged in. Basically, can I show one menu to logged in users and another menu for users that are not logged in?

My other need (probably most important need) is to be able to create pages that are available ONLY to a specific user. My members will have the option to purchase customized instructional videos created just for them. I will need to be able to embed the custom video that we will create for them on a page that ONLY they will be able to access. This is in essence, a customer portal similar to what a school might offer, or something along those lines. In addition, there will need to be a way for the user to access this custom page and possibly others that we create for this user, from their “My Account” page. So there would need to be links to the page that the user can easily click to see their custom content. At this point, I don’t mind if I need to create these user specific pages manually, I just need to be able to do it. Maybe some day there can be an automated way to create the user specific pages. These pages would also need to be hidden from search engine spiders.

So is there any practical way to accomplish this? I sure hope so….
FYI, I did come across another plugin (wp-client) that creates user/client portals where I can create user specific hubs and portal pages. But there were way too many other limitations with this plugin so I decided not to use it. I am quite sure that I would not be able to use that plugin in conjunction with s2 however.

Any help and support on this would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

Steve,

I am by no means an expert in s2member but you may find the thread on this post interesting “Updating page meta data” http://www.s2member.com/forums/topic/updating-page-meta-data/. I hope it helps.

Thanks Andrew, I appreciate the help. After reading that post thread, I think I still have the same questions I indicated in my original post. I just wish there was a very practical way of creating user specific content and then having an easy way to link to those pages from that user’s account page. So when they login I still want them to go to their account page, but from there they should have links that easily take them to the page or pages that have been created just for them. I think I can achieve most of this manually, but it may be a ton of work if my user base grows the way I hope it does.

I dont know how many different areas you are going to want to direct them to. But if say it’s books, film, music, video a list within reason then I would use a template page to create my membership page then in the body of the template select the links dependant on custom capabilities (or you could use wordpress tags I suppose) so you would say Andy has ccap of music, books, audiobook and make visible those three links on his page and protect the music page with ccap as well.

Not sure if this suite your vision or helps but best of luck. I agree you don’t want to be doing things manually.

Hi Steven.

I am not sure if I will be able to have an option to show the pages in my menu only to logged in users and not show the menu items when a user is not logged in.

See: [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› Restriction Options -› Alternative View Protection[/hilite].

My other need (probably most important need) is to be able to create pages that are available ONLY to a specific user. My members will have the option to purchase customized instructional videos created just for them. I will need to be able to embed the custom video that we will create for them on a page that ONLY they will be able to access. This is in essence, a customer portal similar to what a school might offer, or something along those lines. In addition, there will need to be a way for the user to access this custom page and possibly others that we create for this user, from their “My Account” page. So there would need to be links to the page that the user can easily click to see their custom content. At this point, I don’t mind if I need to create these user specific pages manually, I just need to be able to do it. Maybe some day there can be an automated way to create the user specific pages. These pages would also need to be hidden from search engine spiders.

This video talks about that: Video » s2Member (Client Portals?)

You’d be using custom capabilities to protect the pages, so the page is protected with ccap “john-doe” for example, and John Doe would have that ccap in his account, so he’ll be able to access that page. No one without that ccap will be able to access it (except for the admin).

You can also protect files with that ccap: [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Scripting -› Custom Capability and Member Level Files[/hilite]

The protected pages won’t be crawled. Spiders are guests to the site, and don’t have access to the protected content, so they’ll be redirected to the Membership Options Page if they try to load them.

Thanks Cristian,

Yes, I have seen the video you referenced.

I created a new page and added a ccap to the page and then gave the user the ccap on his profile in the backend of wordpress. That user was able to see the page and another user was not, so that is good. I will have to figure out a more automated way to create these pages for users and I will also need an easy way for admin to find the page for a given user in order to add the custom content for that user. Additionally, I will need to have a link to this page on the user’s account page. Any way to accomplish this?

also, when I update the content on this page, I will need to notify the user that their custom portal page has been updated. Is there any easy way to accomplish this?

Thank you.

I will have to figure out a more automated way to create these pages for users and I will also need an easy way for admin to find the page for a given user in order to add the custom content for that user. Additionally, I will need to have a link to this page on the user’s account page.

I’d stick to the username, which is unique to that user and available to you to quickly figure out his page’s URL or the ccap. If the username is [hilite mono]john123[/hilite], then the ccap would be [hilite mono]john123[/hilite] and the page’s slug [hilite mono]john123[/hilite].

That way, knowing the username, the admin can quickly type his page’s URL and can be linked to very easily in the account page. For example:

[hilite pre_code]
My Page
[/hilite] [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Scripting -› PHP/API Constants[/hilite]

also, when I update the content on this page, I will need to notify the user that their custom portal page has been updated. Is there any easy way to accomplish this?

You could look for a plugin that lets you email users, then after updating his page, you go email him.

Or you’d need to create a hack that monitors these user page edits and emails the user automatically using the page slug to figure out what user and from that his email address.