Using s2Membership with Google Analytics API

Hi, I’m investigating the viability of using s2Member with a plug-in for Google Analytics API functionality. I have a client who wants to convert his site to a membership site and offer his customers access to a basic GA dashboard regarding their own sites that my client builds and/or manages.

Would s2Member be appropriate for this?

Also, have you had other customers do or attempt this and what worked best?

Also, do you know of a good Google Analytics API plug-in for the job or would I need to write my own, and can you foresee any hurdles working with s2Member? I’ve been reading up on the GA API documentation.

My programming skills and experience are solid, however I’m new to web programming and have been drinking a lot lately from the fire hose.

Thanks. Any input appreciated.

-Jeff

Hi Jeff,

s2Member is designed to restrict access to front-end WordPress content, not back-end WordPress administrative features. If the dashboard you’re referring to will exist on a WordPress page/post and not on the WordPress Administrative side, then yes, s2Member can be used to restrict access to that post/page.

I don’t personally have any experience with the Google Analytics API or know of any WordPress Plugins for it. You may want to try searching Google.

Thanks, Raam. Yes, the dasboard will indeed exist on the WordPress page. I would change it to a simplified 5 choice menu page and from there to a static dashboard page. Security would also be important.

As for the GAPI, I’ve downloaded some samples from Google and am currently working through them. From the above and the limited view I’ve provided so far, do you see any other issues?

Thanks again.

-Jeff

As for the GAPI, I’ve downloaded some samples from Google and am currently working through them. From the above and the limited view I’ve provided so far, do you see any other issues?

Then the GA dashboard is something you’d embed in a WP page, correct? If so, you’d protect the page with s2Member, which would protect the dashboard itself. The embedded dashboard will most probably work fine once the page can be accessed, if I’m not mistaken.

Since each user will have his own GA ID, you can have that ID as a custom profile field and then use PHP or a shortcode to populate that in your GAPI code in the page.

[hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› General Options -› Registration/Profile Fields[/hilite]
[hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Scripting -› PHP/API Constants[/hilite]

I hope that helps. :)

Yes, the GA Dashboard would be embedded in a WP page protected by S2Member. Thats the plan. I was considering an expanded schema with additional tables to facilitate users GA info and possibly multiple domains. After checking out your ref to custom profile fields, I can see where that might be a simpler, and superior, approach for at least release 1 of my project.

I envision a pretty simple static dashboard display returned from the Google API. There is obviously a lot I don’t know yet, but my understanding is that I couldn’t use the GAPI for interactive access to the Google Analytics system. And thats fine, because this client, and their users, need only a simple, static display at this point. So, as you stated, and if I understand you correctly, I’ll store the Google Account and profile ID (s) for each customers in custom profile fields. The user will log into s2Member, see a small menu of choices, one of which is a GA Dashboard, and be able to click on it to see their dashboard.

If you think I have any of that wrong, please correct me. And thanks, Cristian!

That sounds okay. :)