Purchase Single Services – Paypal

Greetings!

I’m trying to figure out if I can use S2 Member Pro for my press release website. I need the ability for anyone to visit my site, create free user account, and sign up for 1 of 3 press release services (as a 1 time buy now) single quantity service, additionally being able to access their account when we post the finished press release or update the user account based on their project.

I’d like this to be able to work in one of two ways in the sign up/ purchase step.

1) Without purchasing a service, anyone can create a user account.

2) Or I’d like customers to be able to click on (1 of 3) purchase buttons. This would then direct them to the “create an account page” first. They would then create the account, and on their way out
(payment value passed from original purchase button), they would pay offsite with PayPal.

I really hope that I can do this with your plug-in, and anyone’s feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks :-)

Josh McCoy

Hi Joshua,

Yes, you can certainly do this.

For the Free Registrations, you can create a page that contains a Free Registration form (see Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Pro Forms -› Free Registration Forms). Then on the Login Welcome Page you can use a conditional (see Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Scripting -› Simple/Shortcode Conditionals) to check if the user is a Free user and then show PayPal buttons to make a purchase. Those can either be buttons that upgrade their Free account to a specific membership level (Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Buttons -› Subscr. Modification Buttons) or buttons that simply allow the Free user to purchase a Custom Capability (see Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Buttons -› Capability (Buy Now) Buttons) that will indicate the user has purchased a specific product.

If you’re using s2Member Pro, you can also use the Pro-Form version of the Upgrade/Downgrade form (Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Pro Forms -› Billing Modification Forms) and the Capability Buy Now form (Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Pro Forms -› Capability (Buy Now) Forms). The Pro-Forms do not require PayPal Pro; you can configure them to simply allow the user the checkout and pay on PayPal.com.

Hello, and thank you for the detailed response. I understand a little bit about what you’ve written, but have more details that could help you better help me. :)

I only want to use the basic subscription level (for everyone other than me; admin). For example, a new visitor lands on my homepage. They will then be presented with three purchasing options. If they click on one of those three purchase options (buttons), I want the website to redirect them to a page where they are forced to create a new account. In that page, I would like it to explain the verbiage that they need to know in order to purchase after their account is created. After they create the account, they will then need to confirm email. The only requirement for purchase is that they create an account, and log in. They can then choose one of the three services for purchase, either checking out on site or off-site.

How would I achieve this exactly?

Thanks

Josh

Josh, you can use the free registration pro-form so they create an account, or just the regular WP registration form. Either way, the user will now have a free account.

For email confirmation you can disable custom passwords, so on registration a generated password will be sent to the user and he will have to get it from his email before being able to login. [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› General Options -› Registration/Profile Fields -> Custom Passwords[/hilite]

Then in the Login Welcome page, you can show them the buttons to upgrade their account. [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› General Options -› Login Welcome Page[/hilite]

Does that help?

@Cristián @Raam,

Yes this helps. However, I’m not sure what you mean by the “free registration pro-form”. Could this be a short code that I can place anywhere in my site, and style it accordingly? If so, what’s the code?

About the login welcome page: I would like this to be the homepage. I’m wanting to put my (3) three services on that same homepage. But when a new user that (hasn’t made an account) clicks on one of the services, I want that user to be taken to a page where they have to create an account first.

So, are you saying that upon clicking the activation email link, I can take them back to the same homepage that my same services are on, and they can purchase one of those services?

Here is the link that I’m trying to build this on. you will see an example of the three services that are on the homepage. I basically want them disabled until the user account is created, then they will be taken to the shopping cart/checkout.

http://getmypressrelease.com/

I really appreciate your help. :-)

Thanks.

Josh

Josh,

You can find the Free Registration forms at Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Pro Forms -› Free Registration Forms.

What you can do is create three pages for each of your three services, then protect them to Level 0 (i.e., Free Subscribers). Then, you can link to those pages from your home page and if a non-logged in visitor clicks one of those links, s2Member will redirect them to your Membership Options Page (see Dashboard -› s2Member® -› General Options -› Membership Options Page), where you can describe that they need to create an account first. You can also show them the Free Registration Pro-Form on this Membership Options Page.

Then, if you want your home page to be the Login Welcome Page, that’s fine, but there are a few things you need to keep in mind. You’ll need to set the Login Welcome Page to the URL of the home page in Dashboard -› s2Member® -› General Options -› Login Welcome Page using the Special Redirection URL at the bottom of that section.

Then you’ll probably want to use some conditional code on your home page to check if the person viewing the home page is logged in (see Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Scripting -› Simple/Shortcode Conditionals). If they are logged in, you can show them the purchase buttons.

Or you could skip the use of conditionals altogether if you wanted and just leave those original links there, because once the person logs in, those links on the home page will now take them to the actual purchase pages instead of the Membership Options Page (since they have access to Level 0 now that they’re logged in). However, from a usability standpoint, you might want to make it obvious that to your newly logged in user that those links actually go somewhere other than the Membership Options Page, so that’s why I mentioned using conditionals.

Thank you for the reply. However, I am still a little bit confused about the next steps. As you see here: http://getmypressrelease.com/ , I have got a registration and sign in link that go to the sign-up page here: http://getmypressrelease.com/sign-up .

I’m not really sure what the next step is. When I tried to login on the sign-up page, it says my PayPal configuration is not complete yet. Do I have to actually configure PayPal or a payment gateway configuration in order to get new registration? I’ll show a screenshot for you to show what it looks like when I try to sign up from a browser that I’m not logged into :

http://getmypressrelease.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Screen-Shot-2012-12-02-at-4.09.44-PM.png

Is there anyway I could use s2member pro with another payment gateway?

Thanks

Josh

Hi Joshua,

You can check out the list of supported Payment Gatways under Dashboard -› s2Member® -› Other Gateways. You will want to change the Pro Form to whatever payment gateway you select.

To use PayPal, you will need to fill in Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Options -› Account Details and configure your Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Options -› PayPal® IPN Integration and Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Options -› PayPal® PDT Integration.

Thanks, but my questions are still unanswered. :)

1) So, do I have to use an S2Member Pro payment gateway selection in order to make the registration form work on my website?

2) How customizable will it be to use the PayPal pro buttons for buy now? Will I be able to use a short code button like the ones in my WP theme?

3) Will I be able to use other plug-ins that are for payment gateway with S2Member Pro?

Basically the only function (for now) I want S2 member Pro to do is force the user to create an account, hide selected links on a specific services page until successful account creation (free) or login, and send email links with welcome message and password. The links that I would like S2 member Pro to hide are going to be links that are going to be used with another payment gateway plug-in system.

Thanks

Josh

1) So, do I have to use an S2Member Pro payment gateway selection in order to make the registration form work on my website?

Yes, that’s correct. You must set up a payment gateway within s2Member to use the Pro Forms. These Pro Forms correspond to the payment gateway that you created them for.

2) How customizable will it be to use the PayPal pro buttons for buy now? Will I be able to use a short code button like the ones in my WP theme?

Using the PayPal standard buttons for buy now, instead of Pro Forms, offers the ability for users to sign up and pay for access to your site through an external PayPal checkout page. You can change the image that is used using the details outlined in Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Buttons -› Shortcode Attributes (Explained). These buttons should be created through Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Buttons, with a Shortcode.

3) Will I be able to use other plug-ins that are for payment gateway with S2Member Pro?

You will not be able to charge users for access through s2Member with another payment gateway.

—

Based on what you outlined in your post, I suggest creating a free registration form via Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Pro Forms -› Free Registration Forms, and set up email notifications in Dashboard -› s2Member® -› General Options -› Email Configuration.

You can then use the shortcodes within Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Scripting -› Simple/Shortcode Conditionals to protect the links you need protected for s2Member Level 0 / Subscriber.

Hi Bruce,

Thank you for the quick response. Allow me to clarify my second question that you have block quoted…

I have a button short code (theme shortcodes) that allow me to place a link inside the button. Can’t I just place the generated link for that button?

Also onto the third question…

I’m not wanting to use another gateway, I’m just wanting to use an additional plug-in that has a few more features for e-commerce. I still want to use PayPal… So couldn’t I theoretically allow registration for new users, and not do anything with payments and S2 member Pro? Couldn’t I just use s2 member Pro for user access and rely on another plug-in for the payment process?

Thanks

I have a button short code (theme shortcodes) that allow me to place a link inside the button. Can’t I just place the generated link for that button?

No, this is not possible because the data given to PayPal from the buttons is not passed through URL, but through PHP POST variables. This allows s2Member to pass the necessary data dynamically to PayPal, and also verify that transactions that are recorded by s2Member were originally processed by s2Member.

I’m not wanting to use another gateway, I’m just wanting to use an additional plug-in that has a few more features for e-commerce. I still want to use PayPal… So couldn’t I theoretically allow registration for new users, and not do anything with payments and S2 member Pro? Couldn’t I just use s2 member Pro for user access and rely on another plug-in for the payment process?

You could potentially allow another plugin to process payment. However this plugin would also need to create the user’s new account, or upgrade the account separate from s2Member. As mentioned above, s2Member only handles transactions that were originally sent to PayPal from s2Member.

Therefore if you wanted to use another plugin for transactions, s2Member would only control whether users could access content, not give access to content.

Joshua, if you create PayPal buttons over at PayPal, there is a way to integrate them with s2Member as explained in this article: Knowledge Base » Using PayPal created buttons.

If you manage to add those variables to the other plugin for the PayPal transactions, maybe it’d work with s2Member granting that access to the user.

The buttons explained in the article, though, only work for new users, existing users would not be upgraded because their account is not referenced in the transaction, which would be the case if you used the s2Member shortcode for the button.

If you look at the full code for the button s2Member generates, you’ll see all the variables it sends to PayPal on submit. [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Buttons -› Membership Level # Buttons -> Resulting PayPal® Button Code[/hilite]

Also, you have the option of using the proxy key, as explained here: [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Options -› PayPal® IPN Integration -> IPN w/ Proxy Key[/hilite]

I hope that helps. :)