registration process 4 free members and paid

I tried the pay pal pro form for free membership registration as an experiment. i tried looking around and piecing stuff together – and i am not seeing the whole picture – i read this “http://www.s2member.com/forums/topic/subscriber-registration-after-paypal-complete/” as well

I wondered if there was a complete tutorial / video specifically on the recommended set-up for registration in s2members –

I would like people to register for free as a “registered user” of the site
I would like people to be able to register for paid membership levels with incremental access (i.e. student, teacher, school, club owner, franchise), have multiple credentials, as well as register for approval of other membership credentials, such as certifications, competitive versus recreational,

the most important memberships for me right now are one year – january to dec 31, (although after october a member can register until the next dec 31st)
I like the paypal pro login widget
I would prefer to use a free version of paypal.
I have used pages and a menu to recreate the experience of register, edit profile

Could someone outline the ideal user experience as it applies to best fit the s2membership framework, settings pages etc….i feel like i am reinventing a whell or reverse engineering something that is already widely known :)

I am a bit confused – does a free member register and then get membership options page or do they see that first, does a person paying for membership, pay first and then fill out personal info, do i use paypal pro forms at all if i am using a free payapal business account,

of most concern is the flow – visitor arrives at site – option to register for site for free – comments etc allowed,
would i create a page with a button for reach type of membership as each requires a different set of extra questions, or membership options page with many buttons that return you to proper form to fill out (although i think maybe filling out the form first is best? i.e. someone registers that needs to be of a certain age – if they pay first and enter birthdate later -= manual correction?)

does a returning member fill out only new button info?

help :)

• This topic was modified 4 years, 4 months ago by  Jason eH.

Hello Jason,

Here are my answers below:

I wondered if there was a complete tutorial / video specifically on the recommended set-up for registration in s2members –

Not really, you can check all of the videos and there you have it, but not just 1 video will explain it to you.

I would like people to register for free as a “registered user” of the site

This is perfectly simple, you would simply use the http://www.yourwebsite.com/wp-login.php?action=register URL, or the free registration pro-form, which you can find under Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Pro Forms -› Free Registration Forms.

I would like people to be able to register for paid membership levels with incremental access (i.e. student, teacher, school, club owner, franchise), have multiple credentials, as well as register for approval of other membership credentials, such as certifications, competitive versus recreational,

I believe you could achieve this using levels and ccaps, or only ccaps, but in any way you would need an advanced usage of ccaps and some coding done for this (for the approval of other memberships etc.).

the most important memberships for me right now are one year – january to dec 31, (although after october a member can register until the next dec 31st)

This is possible, but in a manual way, s2Member doesn’t currently have a way of calculating the amount of days the user should be registered to only be a member until December 31, this would have to be custom coded.

I like the paypal pro login widget

Good, you can check this article if you need more info about it: Knowledge Base » s2Member® Login Widgets

I would prefer to use a free version of paypal.

Please check this frequently asked question: Pre Sale FAQs » To use s2Member® Pro Forms, will I have to use PayPal® Pro?. Please also make sure to check this article: Knowledge Base » PayPal® Services / A Quick Comparison

I am a bit confused – does a free member register and then get membership options page or do they see that first, does a person paying for membership, pay first and then fill out personal info, do i use paypal pro forms at all if i am using a free payapal business account,

The membership options page is where users go when they tried to access content they didn’t have permission for, so of course they see it before they pay, unless as soon as they visit the website they pay. ;) Although most probably, the best way to go is to put your PayPal buttons here, in the membership options page.

If they use PayPal buttons, they pay the membership, then fill-out the info, if you use PayPal pro-forms then they fill-out the info and pay almost at the same time. Please check this article for more info about what PayPal version you need: Knowledge Base » PayPal® Services / A Quick Comparison

of most concern is the flow – visitor arrives at site – option to register for site for free – comments etc allowed,
would i create a page with a button for reach type of membership as each requires a different set of extra questions, or membership options page with many buttons that return you to proper form to fill out (although i think maybe filling out the form first is best? i.e. someone registers that needs to be of a certain age – if they pay first and enter birthdate later -= manual correction?)

You would probably be most interested in s2Member conditionals for this, you can find an article about them here: Knowledge Base » s2Member® Conditionals. For the age checking script, I’m afraid this would have to be coded in, check under Dashboard -› s2Member® -› General Options -› Registration/Profile Fields in order to add this field.

Hope this helps. :)

“the most important memberships for me right now are one year – january to dec 31, (although after october a member can register until the next dec 31st)”
This is possible, but in a manual way, s2Member doesn’t currently have a way of calculating the amount of days the user should be registered to only be a member until December 31, this would have to be custom coded.

Memerbship year is important – at the very least can someone register for 2012?

this would be a wise capability if not already.

is there a workaround if not – like can i change the mailout and all affected documents and paypal to say you are registering for 2012, and then december 31st, end all memberships manually.

or just change the amount of time every month on the button – 10 months, 8 months, in october 14 months

what level of custom coding would be required to program this? if it is a few lines that isone thing…

any direction is appreciated – almost a dealbreaker… :( definitely a feature request…

Hello Jason,

Well this functionality is certainly not something of too many lines, but it isn’t something simple either. It would simply be some conditions that output a different button shortcodes depending on the amount of time that’s left.

You could update the buttons every day, week or month, probably the best would be each month.

Hope this helps. :)

thanks for reply – i will consider working with it (although I want to try to avoid creating monthly jobs in the future :) ) …you know i have been looking at event managers…it might seem that the membership could be treated more like an event with start and end dates – do you recommend any particluar event manager that might work well with s2member pro?

also consider my need a feature request for upcoming releases – end of member ship date, or period based on calendar not on calculated months or days

I’m afraid I haven’t worked with any event managers in the past so I can’t recommend any. :/

I’m sure Raam, Jason or Cristián are gonna read this, so I’m sure your feature request will be taken into account. ;)

i appreciate it…looking at event manager – none seem to allow multiple paypal accounts, gravity forms and s2members both have a workaround i believe – but are ntot event management ticketing type solutions