s2member blog farm (possible bug)

[imaginonic]

Hello all, we are planning to buy the network version of S2Member but are a little skeptical because of some bugs we found.

Basically what we intend to do is this, our typical use case scenario would be this:

We have a Multisite installation, the main site (owned by network admin) is the site where our homepage is hosted people can register (buy) for an account there.

1) Users need to pay for creating a Site.

2) Based on the membership plan, users have restrictions on the number of sites they can create.
For ex. Bronze = 2 Sites, Silver = 5 sites, Gold = 10 Sites.

We would also love to have restrictions on the number of pages they can create, but this is not an immediate requirement. We're OK with restrictions just on the number of sites.

What we did (steps to reproduce the bug):

1) Installed the S2 Member plugin
2) Patched the four files (automatically)
3) Added the MULTISITE_FARM = true.
4)Configured the four membership levels (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum)
4) Created a new Subsite title "Test Site"
5) Created a new user named "testuser" under the Gold Membership level.
6) Logged into the subsite as "testuser" and found no options to edit/add new posts or pages. I can't create new sites. The option to create new sites has been removed by S2member. When I visit mysite.com/wp-signup.php while logged in as testuser, the error I get is "You are logged in already. No need to register again!"

Also we don't want our members to use the s2member plugin or offer membership systems for their users.

Investing $600 is no big deal for us, but if the system is going to have bugs, then we are kind of lost..

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for reporting this important issue.
I've seen this in the past, and it usually has to do with configuration. Can you please paint me a picture of your installation. What other plugins are you running in concert with s2Member on your Network?

[imaginonic]

Hi Jason, thanks for the quick reply, I'll send you a PM containing a screenshot of the list of plugins we've installed. But I think I can help you with fixing this bug.

The Scenario:

S2Member settings (on the Network Admin screen) has 3 options:

1)Disable Registration through wp-signup.php.
2)Allow Anyone to Register for an account (username) through wp-signup.php.
3)Allow anyone to Register for an account and Get a free blog through wp-signup.php.

Now go to the Main Site settings (mydomain.com/wp-admin/network/settings.php) as a network Admin

There are four options:

a)Registration is disabled.
b)User accounts may be registered.
c)Logged in users may register new sites.
d)Both sites and user accounts can be registered.

The Bug:

When I enable 1) and check my main site settings, I see a) enabled.
When I enable 2) and check my main site settings, I see b) enabled.
When I enable 3) and check my main site settings, I see d) enabled.

The option c) is never enabled on any of the plugin settings and I think this is the issue. The plugin is supposed to allow creation(registration) of new sites by logged in users (users who have "Purchased" a membership plan (username)) and restrict their creation of number of blogs based on the membership. I think it makes sense where the bug lies as option c) is never enabled.

Hope you solve this issue. Thank You.

Looks like there's already a member who has this bug:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6370&p=14826

P.S - We have the exact requirement as this member (see ink above) has too.

[Jason Caldwell]

Thank you. Investigating now.

[imaginonic]

Hi Jason, Thank you for taking effort to investigate this bug, but will it be possible for you to let us know of an estimated time frame within which this bug will be resolved? We are kind of stuck now because, we've made some development progress using this plugin and it would be difficult/near impossible to shift to another solution/platform. We will be able to resume development only after this bug is resolved. We really want to buy the network support package, but a few bugs like these give us a hard time deciding on the plugin. We hope you understand our situation.

Thank You.

[Jason Caldwell]

I should have a reply to this issue shortly. Thanks for your patience.

[craigjb12]

Has this been resolved?

[imaginonic]

Hi Craig, they said they'll keep me updated regarding this bug, but I'm yet to hear from them. However, I'm still waiting knowing that development will take sometime and when they release a new version they'll hopefully fix it. What about you? Are you in the same situation as me?

[craigjb12]

Thanks for the update imaginonic, I am having the same problem - inability for users to be able to create their allotted sites after signing up.

Thanks for taking the time to detail the issue above.

This would seem like a pretty critical function for users who have paid the full price for the blog farm option.

[imaginonic]

You're most welcome Craig, I believe we both share the same problem. I wouldn't have minded paying $600 for this plugin if it had really worked. I have a LIVE site that is pending development due to this bug and am still clueless. At this point in time I can't even think of an alternative because of the amount of code development we have already input into the site. Have you bought the plugin already?

[craigjb12]

I have, and I've put a lot of development hours into integrating it as well.

I think I just assumed this part would work out of the box and left it towards the end of the process.

If this can't get resolved quickly I'd imagine I'll have to put in a site request form for qualifying users and have an admin create the site for them.

[imaginonic]

Thats terrible Are there any other plugins (paid/free) that can achieve this? Just askin...Even if it is pricier, I'll probably go for it, because thats how desperate I am to get this working. Lets just hope we hear from one of these developers soon, I guess thats all left for now.

[Jason Caldwell]

So sorry for the delay on this. We had two issues like this that were similar, one of which was corrected for BuddyPress integration in the release of s2Member v110815, and it looks like we skipped this one by mistake. Very sorry.

So let's go back to your submission here:

The Scenario:

S2Member settings (on the Network Admin screen) has 3 options:

1)Disable Registration through wp-signup.php.
2)Allow Anyone to Register for an account (username) through wp-signup.php.
3)Allow anyone to Register for an account and Get a free blog through wp-signup.php.

Now go to the Main Site settings (mydomain.com/wp-admin/network/settings.php) as a network Admin

There are four options:

a)Registration is disabled.
b)User accounts may be registered.
c)Logged in users may register new sites.
d)Both sites and user accounts can be registered.

The Bug:

When I enable 1) and check my main site settings, I see a) enabled.
When I enable 2) and check my main site settings, I see b) enabled.
When I enable 3) and check my main site settings, I see d) enabled.

The option c) is never enabled on any of the plugin settings and I think this is the issue. The plugin is supposed to allow creation(registration) of new sites by logged in users (users who have "Purchased" a membership plan (username)) and restrict their creation of number of blogs based on the membership. I think it makes sense where the bug lies as option c) is never enabled.

OK, Option (c) in this example would never be checked off inside the Network Settings screen, because the only time option (c) would be allowed, is when a conditional routine processed against a specific User/Member succeeds ( i.e. based on your s2Member configuration, and based on the Member's Level # ). So this is the expected behavior.

However, what you've found IS a bug, because current releases of s2Member are not running the required conditional routines against Members inside the Dashboard. In the latest release of WordPress v3.2, a Site Admin on a Multisite Network may now create new sites from their Dashboard, instead of only through /wp-signup.php. So the problem here is that s2Member needs to be modified to allow for this to occur. We'll get right on this, hopefully ready in the next release.

Until then, you can work around this bug by sending Users/Members directly to the /wp-signup.php file on your Main Site, where they WILL be allowed to create X number of Blogs, based on your configuration, and based on their Membership Level on your Main Site. So perhaps you can create a link to the /wp-signup.php file inside their Dashboard, or perhaps on the Login Welcome Page for your Main Site.

[imaginonic]

Thank you for your timely response, Jason, much appreciated!

Will keep you updated.

[craigjb12]

Thanks!

I'll dive in and report back

[Jason Caldwell]

However, what you've found IS a bug, because current releases of s2Member are not running the required conditional routines against Members inside the Dashboard. In the latest release of WordPress v3.2, a Site Admin on a Multisite Network may now create new sites from their Dashboard, instead of only through /wp-signup.php. So the problem here is that s2Member needs to be modified to allow for this to occur. We'll get right on this, hopefully ready in the next release.

Until then, you can work around this bug by sending Users/Members directly to the /wp-signup.php file on your Main Site, where they WILL be allowed to create X number of Blogs, based on your configuration, and based on their Membership Level on your Main Site. So perhaps you can create a link to the /wp-signup.php file inside their Dashboard, or perhaps on the Login Welcome Page for your Main Site.

Thanks for the follow-ups. OK. Just to update this thread. I can confirm this has been fixed in the development version of both s2Member and s2Member Pro. So any release after s2Member v110815 will include a fix for this issue, thereby eliminating the need for the workaround that I mentioned.

[craigjb12]

The wp-signup.php page seems to be working just fine, thanks for the update!

[imaginonic]

Thank you very much Jason.

[webamin]

Thanks for giving us the work around for this bug. Would it have to do with not having enough cloud storage? While this works, it is a bit time consuming and frustrating. Do you know when the next release will be? Are you currently working on modifiying this so that it works properly?

[webamin]

Never mind. I just continued reading the thread above and see that this issue has been fixed! Disregard my first post! Thanks!

[Eduan]

The version 110815 has already been released.
The current version is 111105.