invitation-only?

Hi, can I use s2Member to build an invitation-only site? We want to have three levels of membership. All of them will be free to start but they can’t be open to the public. I’m comfortable editing php files and I will be using the pro version. Is this possible?

Thanks
James

Hi James,

Yes, this is possible. You’ll want to turn off Open Registration (Dashboard -› s2Member® -› General Options -› Open Registration) and then protect the pages where you place your registration forms. What method you use to protect them will be up to you.

You could write some simple PHP code that requires the URL to the page be called with a special code, or you could get elaborate and maintain a database of codes that give access to the registration pages. The point is, how you restrict access to the registation pages is entirely up to you.

If you protect all your site content with Level 0 or higher, then all visitors will need to be logged in to view the content. If non-members attempt to access restricted content, they will be redirected to the Membership Options Page (Dashboard -› s2Member® -› General Options -› Membership Options Page). On that page you can either place your registration form, or a simple message that indicates the site is invitation-only.

I was also looking for similar solution. If I may ask bit more in this thread.
Can we send invitation via email. If yes how.
Can we send paypal payment link directly since we are not displaying payment details/paypal buttons on Membership options page?

Manish,

You could disable Open Registration (Dashboard -› s2Member® -› General Options -› Open Registration) and then generate a Registration Access Link Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Buttons -› Registration Access Links) and email that to your potential customers as invitations (you’ll need to generate a separate link for each person).

If you want to create a PayPal Payment link, you can generate the PayPal button shortcode and then change the output=”” attribute to output=”url”. When you put the shortcode on a page and then view it, s2Member will turn the shortcode into a link that you can then use in an email or wherever you like. See Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Buttons -› Shortcode Attributes (Explained) for more information on shortcode attributes.