Memberships with different downloads limits

Hi,
Could you, please, help me to know how I could implement this?
I just purchased the s2m-Pro. I am trying to make Paypal buttons, but I don’t see how I’ll be able to implement what I intend to offer.

For example, how would I set up the Paypal button and ccaps if I want to offer this:
Level 0: 30 downloads every 30 days
Level 1: 1 day non recurring – $5 – with only 5 downloads per day.
Level 1: 1 week non recurring – $15 with only 40 downloads per 7 days.
Level 1: 1 month non recurring – $30 with unlimited downloads per day
Level 1: 1 month recurring – $20 with unlimited downlads per day
Many thanks.

Any reason why you wouldn’t just use multiple levels instead of 1 level with different purchase amounts?

With Pro you can create as many levels as you want. Then just use the example in the s2member guides for adding your protected downloads.

Then just create your paypal buttons, one for each level with the payment amount you want for that level.

Hope that helps.

Dave

If I understood well, the levels are dependant to each other. I mean, when you are Level 3, you are also level 2 and 1 etc… So, a higher level is an upgrade from the previous level.
In my case, levels are just choices.
I’ve seen a video from Jason which explains that it is possible to only have one paid membership (level 1) and build all the rest from there. That’s the schema I’m trying to use.
So, I want Subscribers (Level 0) and Paid Memberships (Level 1).
And then in Paid Memberships, I want to distinguish the sub-levels according to:
– recurrent or non-recurrent payments
– allowed number of inline access to files per period
– allowed number of file downloads per period
– content freshness: a good level could access inline files or download files as soon as they are placed on the website, while for example, another level would have to wait 14 days to get to those files.
That creates some kind of incentives to people who would see the advantage of using recurrent payments for example.
The sub-levels of the Paid Membership do not need to be dependent to each other.
Hope you can help me to implement this concept.
Thanks.

Hi Simeon,

Unfortunately the downloads feature relies on the Membership Level to set different download limits. There is not currently any way to configure a Custom Capability that gives specific restrictions on downloads. (See Dashboard -› s2Member® -› Download Options -› Basic Download Restrictions; only Membership Levels can be used there.)

The scenario you’re describing would rely heavily on Custom Capabilities to separate out different users within the same level (e.g., Level 1 user with ccap1, Level 1 user with ccap2, etc.). However, since your ‘groups’ are offering different types of download access, you cannot use Custom Capabilities without adding custom code that adds such a restriction feature to Custom Capabilities.

Thanks Raam.
I could create levels with different downloads limits, but the problems with levels is that they are hierarchical.
Do you have any idea of the type of code I would need to use in order to determine the downloads limit to a category of users?
The same problem refers to the freshness of content, I suppose.
When I watched Jason’s video, I was delighted because I thought this concept of unique Paid Membership level would allow me to do what I had in mind. That’s why I jumped to pay for the Pro in order to implement it.
Please, as you are more experienced, could me give me some suggestions?
Thanks.

Simeon,

If you need to use multiple membership levels but you don’t want higher levels to have access to lower level content, then you need to use Custom Capabilities in addition to the levels.

For example, you would restrict all Level 1 content to both Level 1 membership and a Custom Capability called level1. Then you would configure your Level 1 signup form or button to automatically assign the level1 Custom Capability to anyone who signs up for Level 1.

You would repeat that process for each of the levels, restricting content to both a membership level and a Custom Capability and configure your signup forms to also assign a Custom Capability specifically for that level.

Then, when a Level 2 member logs in, for example, he won’t have the level1 Custom Capability, so he won’t have access to the Level 1 content.

Thanks Raam, for the reply.
Unfortunately, I have the impression that there is an important part in my concept which you didn’t catch, and which was the reason for my support request:
The content is the same for everyone, whatever level he is on.
What differentiates them is:
– when they can access that content: some can access the content as soon as it is posted on the website, others have to wait 2 weeks in order to accerss it.
– how often they can access the content: some can have unlimited inline downloads, others can have downoads limits per given period
– mode of payment and chosen length of period: recurrent or non-recurrent.

So, if you are at a sub-level 2 for example, and you only can access inline downloads of 5 files, you can choose whatever files you want to access, and when the counter reaches 5, you won’t be able anymore to access files until the required number of days is reached. With the same example, the one at sub-level 3 might have unlimited inline downloads and won’t be bothered at all.

Hope someone will be able to help. Can you, please, ask Jason what he thinks and how I could handle this? I suppose he might be able to suggest a way around.

Can you, please help me to implement according to the way I described? I’ve been waiting and I can not go further at the moment.
My deadlines are past and I still hope to be able to get the requested advice.
Please, help.

Dear Raam and the rest of the Support team,
I am stuck.
May I, please, ask you to do your best in order to offer me guidance and advice which would allow me to set up un-hierarchical levels or sub-levels according to my description above?
As it appears, my main issue is that I want everybody to access the same content on the website, but reward some levels (or sub-levels) with access to more fresh content and the number of items on the website they can view, listen to or downoad.
Please, ask Jason if he has an idea of what I should do.
Thanks.

Hi Simeon.

– when they can access that content: some can access the content as soon as it is posted on the website, others have to wait 2 weeks in order to accerss it.

You can use conditionals to drip the content based on his level and time. [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Scripting -› Content Dripping[/hilite]

– how often they can access the content: some can have unlimited inline downloads, others can have downoads limits per given period

If you’re talking about files protected with s2Member, you can protect copies of the files at different levels, and then configure how many downloads the level gets. [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› Download Options -› Basic Download Restrictions[/hilite]

– mode of payment and chosen length of period: recurrent or non-recurrent.

You could determine this checking for the EOT time in his profile. When it’s a subscription (recurring payments) the time is not set before the subscription is ended, while buy-now transactions will set the EOT time right away (unless the access is unlimited).

I hope that helps. :)

Dear Christian,
I see you are just reacting to the explanations I gave to the other Support Rep because it seemed he had not well understood what my problem was. My problem is how to set up the Paypal buttons and achieve what I described.

Could you, please, refer to my initial posting on 23rd Sept and tell me how to implement that.

For example, how would I set up the Paypal button and ccaps if I want to offer this:
Level 0: 30 downloads every 30 days
Level 1: 1 day non recurring – $5 – with only 5 downloads per day.
Level 1: 1 week non recurring – $15 with only 40 downloads per 7 days.
Level 1: 1 month non recurring – $30 with unlimited downloads per day
Level 1: 1 month recurring – $20 with unlimited downlads per day

I could add other sub-levels to deal with the fact that the accessed files are fresh or archives…

Please, Cristian, it is urgent for me.
Thanks.

Hi, Cristian, Raam and other friends from the Support team,
Can I hope to get some guidance by to-morrow morning, please? I will be very grateful if I can generate the Paypal buttons and start directing clients to the payment gateway.
Please Jason, I am confident you can suggest the best way of implementing this.
Best regards,
Simeon.

Could you, please, refer to my initial posting on 23rd Sept and tell me how to implement that.

For example, how would I set up the Paypal button and ccaps if I want to offer this:
Level 0: 30 downloads every 30 days
Level 1: 1 day non recurring – $5 – with only 5 downloads per day.
Level 1: 1 week non recurring – $15 with only 40 downloads per 7 days.
Level 1: 1 month non recurring – $30 with unlimited downloads per day
Level 1: 1 month recurring – $20 with unlimited downlads per day

I could add other sub-levels to deal with the fact that the accessed files are fresh or archives…

The current Download Protection doesn’t allow that. You can control the number of downloads per level, but there’s nothing to modify them based on the kind of payment plan the user picked for that level. [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› Download Options -› Basic Download Restrictions[/hilite]

What you can do is have each one of those options as a different level, then you can specify the download limit for each. If you protect the content at Level 1, then users at Level 1 or higher would still have access to it.

You may want to add more levels if the default aren’t enough. [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› General Options -› Membership Levels/Labels -> Unlimited Membership Levels[/hilite]

Dear Cristian,
You are just repeating to me what had been said earlier. Please, Cristian, it seems that my earlier explanations are just being ignored or you didn’t have time to go through them.

As I wrote at the very beginning, the problem is that the levels as they are now are hierarchical. That means, they depend on each other.
I mean, when you are Level 3, you are also level 2 and 1 etc… So, a higher level is an upgrade from the previous level.
As it is now, if I set up levels 1 and 2 for example, I have to determine content for level 0 only, content for level 1 only (who also have access to content of level 0) and content for level 2 only (who also have access to content of levels 0 and 1). And that’s what I want to avoid.

In my case, levels (or sub-levels of one level) are just choices. Content would not be protected by level as it seems to be the rule here. Once a user is at ANY paid membership level, I want to allow him/her to go anywhere on the website and access any available protected content, but limit how long he can access that content, how much of that content he can download and determine if he can only access old (archive) content or not.

Please, can you be clear? Is that scenario impossible with s2member Pro? And if that is possible, how can I implement it?

It’s just that you’re trying to do something that the Download Protection can’t handle. If you go to the Basic Download Restriction panel you’ll see what it allows, and that’s all it allows to determine the number of downloads, it’s based on levels. [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› Download Options -› Basic Download Restrictions[/hilite]

One thing you can try to remove the incremental access that levels give, is edit the s2Member Level roles to remove the capabilities to access the content for lower levels.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/user-role-editor/
Knowledge Base » Locking s2Member Roles/Capabilities

Thanks Cristian for being patient,
So, there is even no possible code which could say:
if ccap=’abcd’ then set download limit to 5 per day
if ccap=’efgh’ then let user only access content where [today MINUS creation_date >=14]
I sincerely had hoped that Jason would be able to come up with something for me in that direction! I am a bit frustrated by this.

One furher question, please:
Let us say I have Level 0, 1 and 2.
User 1 chooses Level 1: a monthly subscription of say 10$/month
User 2 chooses Level 2 :a yearly subscription (for the same content) of say $80/year.
By taking a yearly subscription, user 2 saves $40 compared to user 1 who pays monthly, and that is an incentive in order to promote longer subscription periods.
What happens when user 2 decides not to renew the subscription?
I assume that he should just be automatically reverted to Level 0 instead of being downgraded to the level 1.
Is that correct?
The question is: Does any end of subscription period downgrade the user to subscriber (level 0)? or to the level preceding the one the user was on.
The answer will help me to restructure my levels taking into account what you have suggested.
Thanks.

I assume that he should just be automatically reverted to Level 0 instead of being downgraded to the level 1.
Is that correct?
The question is: Does any end of subscription period downgrade the user to subscriber (level 0)? or to the level preceding the one the user was on.

Yes, that is correct. When a user reached EOT (End of Term), s2Member will either Demote or Delete them (see Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Options -› Automatic EOT Behavior). If they are Demoted, they will be demoted to Level 0, regardless of what level they are being demoted from.

Ok. That’s great.