New subscribers not getting added to Aweber list

[pwallin]

I've appreciated previous input on helping me get set up with my membership site. I think it's almost ready to launch.

Still one problem - new Level 1 subscribers are not getting added to my Aweber list. I've watched the video. Set up aweber for the Paypal parser.

Specified the name of the aweber list in s2Member API / List Servers / Aweber listserver integration. Made sure that it was entered for Level 1.

Made sure that the list name entered in S2member matched up with that in Aweber.

A friend went through the signup process for Level 1. She got a confirmation from Paypal and a confirmation with username and password from S2member. She went to our website, registered and left the box checked that said "send me email."

She was supposed to receive a message from the Aweber list, but never got it. It was not in her spam filter.

When she signed up for the Level 0 (free) membership, she immediately received a confirmation request from the Aweber list set up for level 0.

I compared the Aweber setup for the 2 lists, side by side. The only thing that differed was that the Level 1 list didn't have the personalization branding info filled out.

NOTE: For Level 1 we have a free 3-day trial when someone subscribes. Since at that point their payment to Paypal is zero, might that explain why their name and email have not been sent to the Aweber list?

I don't think that would make a difference (if the name and email is sent from S2member, not Paypal) but I can't think of any other reason.

[pwallin]

I'm still having trouble getting new Level 1 subscribers subscribed to a designated aweber list.

In our tests, some made it and others didn't.

For those that didn't, I asked them to check their spam folders. They didn't find any confirmation requests from aweber.

I called aweber on the phone, to see if confirmation requests had been sent to these people. There was no record. Thus, aweber is not receiving names and email addresses to which they would send confirmation requests.

It's puzzling as to why some subscribers do get sent over to aweber, while others don't. All have left the "send me email" box checked at our website member registration page.

Please help troubleshoot this.

Thanks.

Pauline

[Jason Caldwell]

Investigating now.
Thanks for your patience.

[Jason Caldwell]

So far I've been unable to reproduce this.

Are you aware of the 12 hour rule?
This can cause some confusion, particularly during heavy testing against a similar set of email addresses.
Please see: http://www.aweber.com/faq/questions/184 ... Message%3F

Since I can't reproduce this, I have to assume at this point that it's something server-specific. For instance, is it possible that your hosting provider can provide you with access to your mail queue? It sounds like some emails are being sent, and others are failing.

Is it possible that your installation of PHP is configured to use an external SMTP server? If so, are some of your outgoing mail requests sent via wp_mail() timing out for some reason?

Is there any pattern you can identify within the email addresses themselves? For instance, it is only @yahoo.com addresses that are failing? Or is it only addresses that are local to your server which are failing? For instance, are addresses with your own domain name failing
( i.e. a scenario like this one )?

[Jason Caldwell]

The 12 hour rule.

there is a 12 hour period where no additional confirmation message can be sent

In other words, if you have registered on your site via s2Member within the last 12 hours, the confirmation email won't come to you again, even though you registered again. This a security restriction imposed by AWeber in collaboration with ISPs.

[pwallin]

I will try to find out what's going on with our mail server. I do know that one tester with yahoo mail did get a confirmation request from aweber, while another with yahoo mail did not.

But there seems to be a problem with S2member as well.

Yesterday we had a tester sign up for Level 1 at our website. She went through the Paypal window, and got a confirmation (I also got a copy) that her subscription went through. She also got a username and password from S2member, and registered at our website.

She did then receive a confirmation request from aweber, but it was for the wrong list - it was the list that is designated for free, not paid members.

I checked our user files within Wordpress, and indeed she was listed as a Level 0 subscriber. She could not access any of the Level 1 pages.

I asked her if she signed up for a free membership in addition to the paid membership, and she said No.

In summary, this tester registered as a paid subscriber; somehow got listed in S2member as a free subscriber; and thus her contact info was sent to the aweber list designated for free subscribers.

BTW I double-checked that the aweber list integration was set up properly.

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for the follow-up.

So it sounds like the problem here is that s2Member is not recognizing the User as having paid for Membership through PayPal. In other words, during registration, s2Member should identify the User as having paid for access to a specific Level, and the entire registration process is tailored to match that, including the Level of access granted.

So if you're seeing that the User's account inside WordPress is at Level #0, and AWeber integration was also processed at Level #0, that's correct. However, we need to figure out why the User was not identified as having paid for access to Level #1.

s2Member identifies a paying Customer through four encrypted cookies which are given to the Customer immediately after checkout. If for any reason they don't get them immediately after checkout, the link sent via email to the Customer will also set those cookies.

So perhaps there is a cookie issue on your installation?
For your reference, the encrypted cookies are named as follows:

Code: Select all

s2member_subscr_gateway
s2member_subscr_id
s2member_custom
s2member_level

* Also, please be sure that you've configured a Security Encryption Key for s2Member. You'll find this in your Dashboard, under: s2Member -> General Options -> Security Encryption Key. The encrypted cookies are encrypted with this Key.

[Jason Caldwell]

I would also run these tests with and without other plugins enabled. It is always possible that another plugin is conflicting with s2Member in some way, which may prevent this processing from being completed as expected. If you're able to identify a particular plugin and/or theme as being the cause of a conflict, please let us know so we can work to resolve the issue. Either within s2Member itself, or through collaboration with the plugin developer.

[pwallin]

If it were a plugin, wouldn't the problem show up consistently rather than intermittently? We haven't added any plugins recently.

Is there a list of plugins that have caused problems with S2member?

[Jason Caldwell]

If it were a plugin, wouldn't the problem show up consistently rather than intermittently? We haven't added any plugins recently.

Not necessarily. The nature of PHP itself is very dynamic. So although many conflicts might be consistently reproducible, there are often times whenever a certain circumstance can change everything; and that might be a good place to begin looking. For instance, do you have any plugin that is dependent upon email address, does email validation of some kind; or do you have any plugins that are dependent upon geographic location, the data entered into a registration field, cookies, etc?

Is there a list of plugins that have caused problems with S2member?

At this time, the only ones we're fully aware of are:

Theme My Login ( conflicts with s2Member )
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/theme-my-login/

CKEditor ( the last version we tested did not handle Shortcodes properly )
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ckeditor-12/

TinyMCE Advanced ( the last version we tested did not handle Shortcodes properly )
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tinymce-advanced/

Some caching plugins cause problems.
I recommend Quick Cache if you're going to cache.
( I developed Quick Cache, and it's been tested against s2Member )
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/quick-cache/
WP Super Cache also works nicely.

If you have a list of other plugins you're running, please feel free to post them.
We'll take a quick look to see if anything jumps out at us.

[pwallin]

Sorry, I missed your message about the cookies.

Where would I find these cookies to make sure they are correct?

We do have an encryption key. However, we recently moved our website files from a parked subfolder to the the public folder. Would that affect our encryption key?

[Jason Caldwell]

Cookies are set on the client-side. So the only way to test for these cookies, is by inspecting within your browser. I'm outlining a set of instructions for you here; please use Firefox to complete this test.

1. Log into your Dashboard, and go to:
s2Member -> PayPal Buttons -> Registration Access Links
( generate a Registration Link to test with, make sure testing123 is a UNIQUE code each time )

2. In Firefox, click the link that is generated.
( this will set the cookies automatically in your browser )

3. Now, in Firefox, go to: Tools -> Options -> Privacy -> remove individual cookies
( search for all cookies that start with: s2member_ )

[Jason Caldwell]

However, we recently moved our website files from a parked subfolder to the the public folder. Would that affect our encryption key?

Not likely, but possible. If something in your configuration is preventing cookies from being set and/or read from the new location. For instance, inside your /wp-config.php file, do you have anything like this? http://codex.wordpress.org/Editing_wp-c ... kie_Domain

Also, please make sure that your /wp-config.php file contains the proper WordPress security keys as well.
http://codex.wordpress.org/Editing_wp-c ... urity_Keys

[pwallin]

Thanks, Jason. The more snags I hit, the more I learn.

The cookies do match up with what you posted earlier.

[pwallin]

I disabled all plugins except for:
Akismet
CalendarPress
Exclude Pages From Navigation
S2member
Shockingly Simple Favicon
The Events Calendar
Wordpress Database Backup

We are using the Twenty Ten theme.

I removed S2member cookies from my computer. Then signed up my husband (I had done this before but removed him.) His Paypal transaction went through, but he never got a confirmation from S2member with his username and password. It was not in his spam folder either.

BTW I used a different email address for him than previously. It was from a local ISP. I checked with the ISP and they do not have any messages from our S2member site either blocked or in the queue.

I thought that if I removed cookies, S2member would treat him as a new subscriber, especially since his name was attached to a different email address.

[Jason Caldwell]

Thank you VERY much for reporting back.
If this continues and you'd like to send me a Dashboard login, I'll have a look for you.
Please use this contact form; once we diagnose the issue, I'll update this thread for other readers.

[pwallin]

Jason, I filled in the contact form last week - any idea when you'll be checking into the problem?

[Cristián Lávaque]

Hi Pauline,

Jason is quite immersed in the code right now, getting the new release ready, so he's not looking at email or forum very much these days.

That said, I've looked at the emails and couldn't find the one you mention having sent last week, it's possible it didn't get to us. I did see one from yesterday, but it didn't have the data Jason asked for because it assumed he got the previous one. Did you send both giving the same email address or were they different?

[pwallin]

If I resend the login data, will you have a chance to investigate in the next 24 hours?

[Cristián Lávaque]

No, only Jason does that, but it'll be there for him to see it in case he checks his email in the next 24 hours.

[pwallin]

Thanks for letting me know. I sent the info again. I much appreciate all the time and energy you've both given so far.

However, we really need to start promoting our website. I've checked and double-checked our settings, and am stuck.

If Jason is busy and won't have time (which I completely understand) to look into our problem with signups please let me know, so that I can start looking at other membership module options.

Thanks for all your help!

[Cristián Lávaque]

You're very welcome, Pauline.

I can perfectly understand your urgency. I can't give you the day Jason will come out of his Ivory Tower, but it should be soon. You can look at other membership solutions if you want, I do think this one is the best, though, and we'll find the solution to this problem you're having as soon as we can, it won't go unaddressed. I'm very sorry it overlapped with the coming new release.

[Cristián Lávaque]

Update: I just saw an email Jason sent me last night. He may be catching up with email tonight or tomorrow.

[Jason Caldwell]

Dashboard information received.
Investigating now.
Ivory tower? LOL

[Jason Caldwell]

FYI: The next release of s2Member and s2Member Pro will NOT be compatible with WordPress 3.0. The next versions will absolutely require WordPress v3.1 or higher.

Investigation report on next page.