Expiring links without the use of cart?

We use the free version of s2member and love it.

However, we need to give our customers secure links for certain downloads – and these links need to expire.

I have tried the key encrypted downloads, and I’m not sure, but is that key changed to another then the next time they visit that page? If it is, then the PAGE/POST link needs to be protected.

I know how that can be done through Paypal, but we are not charging customers for these downloads (which are actually product upgrades, but need to be protected.

So the question is, is this possible, and if not with the free version, with the paid version? When I say protected, I don’t mean password protected. The link cannot be sharable, whether it’s to the page, or the download itself, and we can’t go through the shopping cart (I see Paypal requires a minimum of a penny to do that)

Thanks

Hi Vincent.

You could protect the download with a custom capability and give that ccap to the users that’d download it. When you want to remove the access, just change the ccap required to download, or remove it from the users. Video » s2Member (Custom Capabilities)

Another one you could do is put the download link inside a conditional that checks the time, and stops showing the link after a certain date. [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Scripting -› Advanced PHP Conditionals[/hilite]

I hope that helps.

Thanks Christian. All of this is quite complex (for me) but I can figure it out after reading over and over again.

What i am NOT getting is how to give a user such a ccap WITHOUT using a Paypal button. (kind of brings me back to my original dilmema of the cart).

….And then, “remove it (ccap)from the users”. I don’t know how to manually add it to that particular user, so wouldn’t know how to take it away :)

I’m sure this is simple, so if you can just clear this part up for me it would be appreciated.

Hello Vincent,

To add the ccap, and to remove it, both are the same way. I believe Cristián would recommend that you do this through the user’s profile.

Go to WP Admin -> Users -> All Users -> user's username and there you will find an s2Member section for the user, there should be a ccap section I believe, and you can add or remove ccaps there manually.

Hope this helps. :)

What i am NOT getting is how to give a user such a ccap WITHOUT using a Paypal button. (kind of brings me back to my original dilmema of the cart).

….And then, “remove it (ccap)from the users”. I don’t know how to manually add it to that particular user, so wouldn’t know how to take it away :)

Right, you can do that from the user’s profile. You’ll find a field for custom capabilities there. :)