Free & paid members access ext mysql db info

Hi there,

i´m an absolute s2member fan and have the pro upgrade.
Have done many things with s2 – just everything regarding content access and restrictions along payments.

Now i´m about to build a new site on top of wp + s2member and the questions is if i could handle some details with s2 or not (would be very comfortable as i´m not a coder and s2 let me achieve almost anything without touching code)

-> I have an external mysql db where user data is collected
-> Have 2 membership levels (free + paid)
-> display external db data for every user
-> display external db data general data (combined and averaged user data)

The question is:

Should i dive into custom fields etc..? (e.g. giving every external db field a wp custom field.. but to be honest i don´t know anything about custom fields and how they are used properly..)

Can s2member be helpful in retrieving external db data and display? (e.g. fetch field entry XY from ext mysql and display that entry for user A)

Or should i look more into API etc..?

Thank you for any advice or giving a direction!

Hi Thomas.

i´m an absolute s2member fan and have the pro upgrade.
Have done many things with s2 – just everything regarding content access and restrictions along payments.

Thanks for the kudos! :)

Should i dive into custom fields etc..? (e.g. giving every external db field a wp custom field.. but to be honest i don´t know anything about custom fields and how they are used properly..)

Yes, you could use the custom profile fields to store the data, instead of a separate database. To import the values you already have, you can use the User Import tool. [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› Import/Export -› User/Member Importation[/hilite]

If the separate db is working for you, though, it may be best to continue with it and find how to tie it with WP.

Can s2member be helpful in retrieving external db data and display? (e.g. fetch field entry XY from ext mysql and display that entry for user A)

Not s2Member, but if you install a PHP execution plugin, you could have your own PHP queries right in the page/post where you need them.

Or should i look more into API etc..?

s2Member has the Notifications API that may be useful to send data to your script to store in the db. To retrieve data you’d have to use your own queries, or API calls, if your script has an API for data retrieval.

I hope that helps. :)

Thank you Cristián,

..for your helpful reply. I knew that s2member has such a huge amount of possibilities.. but were not sure about all this API stuff etc..

Thank you!

Glad I could help. :)