Is s2member What I Want?

I’ve got a website for a military-related organization. We have approximately 2,500 members. Dues are accessed and payable once a year (notices sent out around September, with a due date of 1 Jan). Some members do not pay their dues until after the 1 Jan due date, and are therefore delinquent. Due are paid by check probably 95% of the time.

The website lists the current month’s newsletter and the most recent past five issues. I want to restrict access to the current month’s issue to only current members.

We also produce a Members Directory once a year, although it is updated on an as-needed basis. The cost of producing, printing and mailing the directory is getting out of hand. I can get it in PDF format once a month,upload it to the website and then restrict access to current members only. I’d also like to monitor who downloads the directory and how often they do that.

I don’t know enough about access restriction to ask intelligent questions, but hopefully someone will have gone through what I’m facing and can offer me some good thoughts and suggestions.

Hi Dave.

Yes, you could do that with s2Member.

You may want to learn about using conditionals, to show only parts of a post to a user.
[hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Scripting -› Simple/Shortcode Conditionals[/hilite]

To restrict file download for your PDF, you can use the download restriction, which can be either based on the user’s level or a custom capability you gave him.
[hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› Download Options[/hilite]
[hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Scripting -› Custom Capability and Member Level Files[/hilite]

Here’s a video on custom capabilities:
Video » s2Member (Custom Capabilities)

About the access expiration date, if you get your payments by check, you’ll want to set/update that manually in their profile, in the EOT (end of term) field.
[hilite path]Dashboard -> Users -> User edit -> EOT[/hilite]

You can configure the EOT behavior to remove access once the EOT time is up. It’s under the PayPal options, but it’s actually a setting that works independent of the gateway.
[hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› ccBill® Options -› Automatic EOT Behavior[/hilite]

Also from the profile’s page, you’d give or remove access to the user, changing his role or custom capabilities.
[hilite path]Dashboard -> Users -> User edit -> Role[/hilite]
[hilite path]Dashboard -> Users -> User edit -> Custom Capabilities[/hilite]

I hope that helps. :)