Use s2Member to Sell Course Content?

[gradywriter]

Hi -
I'm using WordPress and BuddyPress for an online course site. I'm currently using Membership from WPMU, only because that's what my developers chose to use. I'm finding it extremely buggy, and investigating using s2member instead. However, I'm not sure I need a Membership plugin at all, but I can't find an ecommerce plugin that works with BuddyPress.

Here's what I need:

- Registration and course payment integrated.
- No free access.
- Users must be logged in to see course content (because the way menus are coded into the theme). Course submenus appear only after students log in.
- Separate content for each course. Not incremental access as in Level 1, Level 2, etc.; instead, Course 1 content, Course 2 content, etc. The content for each course is unique and separate from other levels.
- Content access expires after x days.
- Students can purchase additional courses at any time. Not upgrade, but purchase separate content.

It looks like I can do this with either specific page/post PayPal buttons or shortcodes, but I need users to actually be logged in to see the content; it looks like with specific page/post access, they don't have to be. If I used page/post access, s2Member would take them directly to the course, but they would get an error because they aren't logged in.

So, is this possible? I'm really hoping s2Member can do what I need. I actually suggested it to my developers, but they refused to consider it. BTW, my developer was the "Dummies" expert on BuddyPress. Turned out she had a really hard time getting BuddyPress and ecommerce to work together.

Thank you!

Thanks,
Maria

[cassel]

I dont know about all the details, but i know you can do that with conditionals and ccaps (custom Capabilities). I have one course that is available for members who purchased the course (you dont have to have one purchased for $) but i used some conditionals so that if the user is not logged in, they cannot access that particular content (video or other) and if they are logged in (with the correct Custom Capabilities), then the content is available.

Cristian will surely be back with a more detailed answer and a link!

[Cristián Lávaque]

Cassel, you're right, but right now custom capabilities wouldn't work for her because they don't have independent EOTs yet. If she sells two courses to the same person, when one of them expires, so will the other one even if it wasn't time for the other one yet, or maybe the second one would set a new EOT when purchased and delay the one for the first course. I'm not sure which, but neither is what she wants.

Maria, I think Specific Post/Page would be right. After purchase s2Member generates the access link for the person and sends it via email to him/her. You could have the course navigation as part of the post/pages bodies instead of the website's navigation.

With this the user won't be required to login, but he can still have an account. You could require them to be logged in to view the Specific Post/Pages, you'd do it with a conditional that checks their login status in those pages/posts and require them to login if they aren't when the try to view it. WP Admin -> s2Member -> API / Scripting -> Simple/Shortcode Conditionals

You can't control access to BuddyPress areas with this, though, since the way we have to control that is with URI Restrictions, which work with user levels for now.

I hope this helps.

[gradywriter]

Christian -
Thank you for your detailed response. I have been impressed with s2Member's videos, product documentation, and customer support!

I want to make sure I understand your point about course navigation in the body of the post: are you thinking of links to the next lesson or assignment? While I do that currently, on their own those links just aren't enough. It would make navigating the course cumbersome.

So it is possible to use the Specific Post/Page in combination with the shortcodes to:

1) sell content in post/pages for a specific amount of time and
2) require they be logged in to see the content?

Would there be any restrictions on them purchasing additional posts/pages? That's a big issue with Membership: once users are "Members" they cannot purchase additional courses. They have to create another account, which makes no sense.

Thanks Christian. I am in the process of interviewing developers to complete this process with s2Member, and look forward to using it. I will definitely be donating to the plugin.

Maria

[Cristián Lávaque]

Thanks for the kudos, Maria! We really appreciate it and are very happy you're liking s2Member.

Yes, I meant having the navigation in the body of the pages, but not just a previous/next, it could be a menu on the side, top or bottom, for all the parts of the course.

Yes, you can do that: sell Specific Post/Pages with an expiration time and then check if they're logged in or not with the conditional in those pages.

They can buy any/all of the Specific Page/Posts packages you set up, having an account or not won't affect those.

I hope it helps.

[gradywriter]

Thanks Christian. I like the idea of menus within the body of the post for navigation. I'm going to run out of room on the main menu anyway!

I appreciate your confirmation of using Specific Posts/Pages along with conditionals for logged in.

Have a great weekend!

Maria

[Cristián Lávaque]

Cool! You too!