Specific post download link

Hi Guys

I have a 6 level membership and all works great. However, I now want to sell downloadable pdf files to non members as a single purchase. I watched the videos on restricting access to specific posts/pages and then create paypal buttons, so far so good.

I created a post, added its ID number in the list and… Here starts the problem. If I now try to access that specific post as a visitor, I get redirected to my subscriptions page. I added a paypal button (through the correct video procedure) and still I get redirected to the subscriptions page, I don’t want people to subscribe, I want them to pay “On the page” and then download the pdf.

Obviously I am doing something wrong but have no idea what and your videos are not complete on the subject. When protecting content on ordinary posts, I add a code to cover that content but this is for membership levels, do I need to add a specific code to protect the links?

Can you help?

http://landscapephotographymagazine.com

Hi Dimitrios.

So you protected the page with the Specific Post restriction and then generated a button to sell it, right?

Could you post the URL from the address bar when redirected to the Membership Options Page? [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Scripting -› Membership Options Page Variables (MOP Vars)[/hilite]

If you generate a link to it and try it, do you get sent to the Membership Options Page? [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Buttons -› Specific Post/Page Access Links[/hilite]

Hi Cristian

I’m afraid you lost me there. It is the procedure that i need to take that I don’t understand. Generating a link manually is when there might be a problem with one of the customers and besides, where am I supposed to add this link?. I could do with a full explanation on how to go about creating a custom post for selling a downloadable link. I have created one post and here is the link… http://landscapephotographymagazine.com/2012/coming-soon-in-issue-15/

Of course, this will send you to the subscriptions page (as per default?). I can give you the username/password to have a look at the post from the back end if you wish.

In all honesty, I am completely lost with this system, I go so far and then I hit a brick wall.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by  Dimitrios Vasileiou.

Generating a link manually is when there might be a problem with one of the customers and besides, where am I supposed to add this link?

I meant that just to test the restriction, not to give to the customer.

I added a paypal button (through the correct video procedure) and still I get redirected to the subscriptions page, I don’t want people to subscribe, I want them to pay “On the page” and then download the pdf.

I just re-read that and wanted to make sure I understand. You want to sell access to a page, without requiring the user to register an account? And when you say you don’t want someone trying to access the protected page to be sent to the Membership Options page (which you seem to be calling the Subscriptions page).

If that’s so, then it would not be possible in the protected page itself, since the page is restricted with the Specific Post/Page restriction and anyone trying to access it will without the access link, will get sent to the Membership Options page.

What you can do is change the content of the Membership Options page if the person tried to access a post/page protected with that restriction. The Membership Options page vars would have that info, which you can use in your conditionals.
[hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Scripting -› Membership Options Page Variables (MOP Vars)[/hilite]

So, are you saying I can’t sell a product (downloadable pdf) to someone who visits a certain page, without the need to ask them to subscribe for a membership level? I thought that the idea of this function was to keep those pages independent from membership and allow you to sell extra things to anyone and as you wish.

Hi Dimitrios,

It sounds like the problem is that you’ve protected Page X with a Level Restriction and then you’re also trying to sell access to that page with a Specific Post/Page Buy Now button.

As per the note in Dashboard -› s2Member® -› Restriction Options -› Specific Post/Page Access Restrictions:

make SURE that you’ve NOT already protected any of these Posts/Pages with Member Level Access Restrictions. In other words, if you configure s2Member, in such as a way, that a Post/Page requires Membership Level Access, you cannot sell that same Post/Page through Specific Post/Page Access. Doing so, would create a conflict. Customers that purchased Specific Post/Page Access, would be unable to access the Post/Page – without also having a Membership. Not good. So please be careful.

If the page is protected with a Membership Level restriction, then non-members will always be redirected to the membership options page.

Could you please double-check that you haven’t restricted the Specific Post/Page that you’re trying to sell with a Membership Level Restriction?

Here’s how things should be set up to sell downloadable things on a one-time basis:

Page 1: Purchase Page (unrestricted, public access; contains Specific Post/Page Buy Now button; must not be restricted by anything, including Membership Level Restrictions)

Page 2: Download Page (this is the page you restrict in Dashboard -› s2Member® -› Restriction Options -› Specific Post/Page Access Restrictions and the page you select when you generate your Specific Post/Page Buy Now button; this page is restricted from public access and can only be accessed when someone makes a purchase through the button you generated. They will receive an email with a special link that gives them access to this page, which is where you can give them a link to download the product.)

It’s important that your purchase button exists on a publicly accessible page (Page 1 above; this could also be your Membership Options Page, since that is always publicly accessible, but it could also be any other public page). If the purchase button isn’t on a post/page that’s public, then only members would be able to access it.

If a non-member tries to access the download page (Page 2 above) without using the special access link that they receive in their email after purchasing (i.e., if they try to access the page directly), they will be denied access and sent to the Membership Options Page (this is normal behavior; anyone denied access to any content protected by s2Member is redirected to the Membership Options Page; if you want to detect what people were trying to access and then redirect them to a page different from the Membership Options Page, please see this thread).

Ah, I see, I need to create 2 posts for each of the purchase, one public for the button and one non public for the link.

It makes sense now, thank you Raam.

Glad I could help, Dimitrios! :)

OK guys, we have come far enough but still not there yet.

I managed to figure out how the system works, I created a specific post, found the ID and added it in the specific post/page access restrictions box and then I generated the paypal button for my public page. Everything works great, I even went through Paypal test and all works great.

Here is the problem. When I visited the protected page (as a buyer), I could not download the pdf file. The problem is that I have no idea how to create a downloadable link. I read the shortcode attributes explained part and I am none the wiser, any combinations I tried failed. Can you give me an idea of how a link download shortcode should be like please? All I want is one buyer to download one file (for 3 days as by default) and of course, no ability to pass the link to someone else, as simple as that.

Here is what I tried so far (and failed), don’t ask me why, I am not very knowledgable.

[s2File download="file_name.pdf" rewrite_base="http://landscapephotographymagazine.com/downloads/" check_user="1"/] then I tried…[s2File download="file_name.pdf" check_user="1"/] and finally I thied…[s2File download="file_name.pdf"]

They all failed

Help

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by  Dimitrios Vasileiou.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by  Dimitrios Vasileiou.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by  Dimitrios Vasileiou.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by  Dimitrios Vasileiou.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by  Dimitrios Vasileiou.

If you’re selling a Post/Page using the Specific Post/Page Buy Now buttons, then your customer will not have an account on your site. They will only have the special link to access your download page. However, Basic Download Restrictions are dependent on the Membership Level of the person trying to download the file. Since your customer isn’t logging in when viewing the page and clicking the download link, he’s denied access (s2Member sees that the user doesn’t have any Membership Level and stops right there).

So, to get around this, you’ll need to use Dashboard -› s2Member® -› Download Options -› Advanced Download Restrictions. Here’s an example of what you could use:

[s2File download="file_name.pdf" download_key="true" /]

Every time the user accesses your download page using the special link in their email, the download link they see will be good for 1 day. If they copy that link and try to access it 2 days later, it won’t work. Since your Download Page link in the email is only good for X number of days, the file download link they can get on that page will never last longer than length of time Download Page link is good for + 1 day.

Hi Raam

Understood.

Now, i did what you said and placed your code on the page (with the appropriate file name of course). However, instead of a active link to download the file, here is what I get…

http://landscapephotographymagazine.com/?s2member_file_download_key=3740ef1e352c5d7a64a3a208e77298b5&s2member_file_download=/file_name.pdf

(Where file_name.pdf I have added the right file of course, the above is for illustration only)

I get this as you see it. Now, if I add this to my browser that I am logged-in to the site as admin, I can download the file but if i add it to a browser that I am not logged-in to the site, then I get…503 ( Invalid Key ): Sorry, your access to this file has expired. Please contact Support for assistance. I suppose the system works fine.

Now, the problem is, why do i not get the above on the site as active and be able to click and download? What am I doing wrong?

It’s possible you locked the key to a specific IP Address and User-Agent when you tested it on the logged in browser (taken from Dashboard -› s2Member® -› Download Options -› Advanced Download Restrictions):

Each Key it produces ( at the time it is produced ), will be valid for the current day, and only for a specific IP address and User-Agent string; as detected by s2Member. This makes it possible for you to create links on your site, which provide access to protected file downloads; and without having to worry about one visitor sharing their link with another.

Did you try generating the link and then testing it the first time from a browser where you’re not logged in?

Maybe I wasn’t very clear, Raam. My problem is that the link is there but it’s not an active link, just text on a page, try clicking on it and nothing happens, just like trying to click on your name on an ordinary page.

For instance, if you try to click on all the text I have written above, well, nothing happens. The same with the link, it might appear live in my previous reply but it is not live when added on the page and viewed.

The code you wrote above ([s2File download="file_name.pdf" download_key="true" /]), does it need to be escorted with anything else or should it be placed on a page as it is?

Try this:

[hilite pre_code]
file_name.pdf
[/hilite]

No, it didn’t work, Cristian.

This gave me error 404 page not found. I even went through the Paypal procedure again, the same thing.

Is there a chance one of you to take a look at the back end and see how we can sort it out please?

Could you please send us the site’s info? Please include the page the link is in. s2Member® » Private Contact Form

Hi guys

Any news on this? I have sent you all details via private contact form.

Thanks for sending the info.

I went to the page and in the HTML editor see that it says: [hilite pre_code]lpm_issue_1_lq.pdf[/hilite]

I just changed it to [hilite pre_code]lpm_issue_1_lq.pdf[/hilite] and it worked fine.

I’m guessing that, for some reason, you probably had not entered the name of an actual protected file in the [hilite mono]download[/hilite] attribute of the shortcode, so generating the key would have resulted in a problem.

Anyway, seems to be working fine in my test. I hope that helps! :)

Hi Cristian

yes, we have sorted out the download problem, the file now downloads fine.

However, we are now facing a bigger problem. If someone traces the actual post url, will be able to download all our files in a few simple moves. Here is the url to the post where you can find the download link to that file, you shouldn’t be able to arrive on that post unless you pay, but you do, here is the link… http://landscapephotographymagazine.com/2012/issue-1-single-purchase/

Am I supposed to have the post as private?

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by  Dimitrios Vasileiou.

You were probably logged into your admin account. When I tried the link, I got redirected to the Membership Options page:

http://landscapephotographymagazine.com/subscriptions/?_s2member_seeking%5Btype%5D=post&_s2member_seeking%5Bpost%5D=13829&_s2member_seeking%5B_uri%5D=LzIwMTIvaXNzdWUtMS1zaW5nbGUtcHVyY2hhc2Uv&_s2member_req%5Btype%5D=sp&_s2member_req%5Bsp%5D=13829&_s2member_res%5Btype%5D=sp&s2member_seeking=post-13829&s2member_sp_req=13829

Very strange, I used 3 browsers and I was not logged in in 2 of them and I could see the post. I tried a different computer this morning and I was directed to the subscriptions page how odd. Does the IP address have anything to do with this perhaps?

Anyway, seems fine now, thank you all for your help.

It may have to do with caching, if you’re using a plugin for that (I don’t remember if you had that installed).

Anyway, seems fine now, thank you all for your help.

Great. :)

We are using W3 Total Cache

Ah, that may be it. You may want to refresh the cache.

By the way, make sure you have Object Caching disabled, since it’s known to cause problems. http://www.primothemes.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=6309#p62322

I’m sure I have been advised before and do have it disabled.

Cheers Cristian

Cool. :)