multisite j- members only network site?

I have a WordPress multisite network sub-domain installation running right now with a number of websites on it. Many even use their own domain names by using the domain mapping plugin.

I am running WordPress 3.5.1 in network mode sub-domain setup.

What I want to accomplish:
1. I have a storefront on one of my sub-domain network sites.
2. I want to sell a subscription so that when a customer purchases the product, they also get a subscription to a corresponding network blog site for as many months as they pay their subscription fees.

So Scenario goes like this.
Customer visits network blog
Customer purchases a product ‘xyz’ that also includes support for that product for as long as they pay their monthly bill
Customer is given access to the xyz.mysite.com support site, if they do not pay their bill and they try to visit the xyz.mysite.com then they are directed back to the store product page telling them it is for paying members only.

Basically instead of trying to protect a single page, post, post-type, category, etc… I am trying to protect an entire network site.

Is this possible yet with your plugin?

Anything that is on that site can only be viewed by people with permission. Everyone else is directed to the page to purchase the product that gives them access.

*I have come to s2members and asked this same exact question every 6 months or so for years now and every time, I am told that ‘it is coming soon’….

**I can do this easily with amember, and in fact I am using amember right now for this same project, but I would much rather use s2member if I can so that I don’t have to maintain a separate user table.

Scenarios where this works great

1. I put on a lot of conferences where people pay to attend an in person event for a weekend or an entire week.

Each time someone purchases their pass to the conference they are also given a packet with training materials, video dvds, questionnaires, pictures, etc…

I have found it much easier to maintain if I simply give them access to a website that contains all the materials for the conference so that they can read and watch at their own leisure.

Problem:

I don’t want to have to build a separate website for each and every conference. That makes managing the software side of hundreds of websites a nightmare. My member base is spread all over the place between websites, and because they are truly separate websites, it is hard to notify current members of one conference about upcoming events at other conferences.

Solution:

Using WordPress multisite (network mode) Then I can simply have 1 directory site that lists all of my conferences. Each conference can have its own information page and registration page.

Now when a customer pays for the conference, they are simply given access to the corresponding network site which includes all the paid information that they expect to have. It is very simple for them.

Other Benefits

Customer can access all of their conference sites and materials that they have paid for over the months or years in one central location.

The customer can easily find out about other conferences because all information is centralized.

The webmaster has a much easier time as they only have to maintain one installation of WordPress and tasks such as emailing all the different conference groups becomes easy as there is only one site to maintain.

Bottom line:

It is MUCH EASIER for the site admin to protect an entire network site vs. having to remember to protect individual posts, pages, snippets etc.

We simply need the ability to assign the read capability of a site to a custom group and then have the ability to assign that custom group to registered/paid members via s2members.

Another Scenario:

Sites that sell plugins and themes often have support websites that go along with the plugin or theme.

Sadly due to the nature of WordPress, especially most forums for WordPress such as bbPress, it is virtually impossible to assign just a single forum to paid members.

We see where if a customer purchases a theme or plugin that they are given access to the entire bbPress, or other forum instead of being granted access to just the forum that belongs to that product.

The same goes with documentation and help videos.

It becomes to difficult to separate out everything, so once a customer makes a purchase they have access to all documentation on the site instead of just the documentation that belongs to that one product that they purchased.

Why is this really bad?

Well in todays world, it is easy to get your hands on virtually any software, and WordPress being built on php, it is just as easy to de-obfuscate and null the themes or plugins (s2members included).

What I have found is that customers are smart. They will purchase a product ‘properly’ just to receive good support. So many times a customer is going to purchase a single product from my stores, only to turn around and download all my other products for free. They have access to my support forums, and depending upon their illicit source, they may even have virtually instant access to my upgrades.

so, a single purchase gives the customer unfettered access to my entire support system and I really loose out.

I could always go the jv route and put each product on its own dedicated site, but there are so many reasons not to do that as my time is going to be wasted just trying to maintain that many sites.

It would be much easier if s2members would simply allow me to assign an entire network site to a particular product. I’ve been waiting for s2members to do this for what seems forever so I am writing this huge pre-sales post in hopes that I make a good enough argument that everyone will jump on board and request this if it is not already possible and easy to do with s2members.

Thank you for your inquiry. We appreciate your patience. :-)

I’ve put in a refresher request for this feature in a future version of s2Member. In the mean time, you will need to use s2Member’s Advanced PHP Conditionals to handle this. You should be able to do this with the WordPress get_current_site() function as well as s2Member’s current_user_can() function.

See: Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Scripting -› Advanced PHP Conditionals

You might do something like this:

<?php
$subsite = get_current_site();
if($subsite->ID === 12 && !current_user_can('access_s2member_ccap_test')) // Assuming you have a subsite with the ID of 12 that requires Custom Capabiliy "test"
wp_redirect( // ... Redirect to your Membership Options page

That’s about as far as we can go with custom code. If you need further assistance, we recommend http://jobs.wordpress.net, or another freelance web site where WordPress® experts are offering their expertise through a bid on your project.