Site sign-up button no longer goes to registration page

[hoopinstructor]

Hi:

I upgraded to the new version 3.2.4.2, and now the Sign-up button in the header of the site only goes to the front page, not to the registration page:
http://www.hoopinstructors.com/signup/

I'm really worried, as I haven't done anything else, and the sign-up button is what most people will use.

I'm not fluent in php, but if you can tell me what to fix, I can cut and paste if I know where to put the code.

Thanks!

[Jason Caldwell]

Hi there. Thanks for the excellent question.

I just took a look at this page, and it loads up OK for me:
http://www.hoopinstructors.com/signup/
I'm assuming this is your Membership Options Page
( working as expected )

However, I also noticed that the "Signup Button" on your site is pointing to the BuddyPress registration page, which is fine, but if you want that form available to public visitors, you'll need to enable Open Registration. See: s2Member -> General Options -> Open Registration.

If Open Registration is turned off ( it is by default ), then the only way access will be granted, is after a successful checkout has occurred through PayPal; at which time, s2Member WOULD allow access to the /register/ page, allowing the paid Customer to register one time.

So it looks like there is some confusion between:
/signup/
and /register/

/signup/ is open ( that's your Membership Options Page )
/register/ is locked ( if Open Registration is turned off )

If this behavior changed slightly after the upgrade, it could be a reflection of improvements in the way s2Member detects and deals with security. There were subtle improvements in this area with the latest version of s2Member. For example, another thing that's been reported lately, is the Home Page being restricted after upgrade. This happens in newer versions of s2Member, where a site owner configured their Login Welcome Page, as their Home Page. s2Member v3.2.4+ is smart enough to protect Special Redirection URLs as well. So if you typed in a Special URL as your Login Welcome Page ( your Home Page for example ), s2Member will automatically protect that special Page as well ( as intended by s2Member ).

That being said, if you've been operating with s2Member for awhile, these subtle improvements can cause slight behavioral issues that lead to confusion. We sincerely apologize for that.

Please let me know if this clarifies things, or if I've completely missed something. ~ Thanks.

[hoopinstructor]

Hi Jason:

You are so fast! Thanks so much: we're going into soft launch on Friday and I'm a bit panicky as this is the first community site I've built.

my responses below:

just took a look at this page, and it loads up OK for me:
http://www.hoopinstructors.com/signup/
I'm assuming this is your Membership Options Page
( working as expected )

Okay, that's strange that it loads up find for you - I think I'll put that fact aside for the moment and just proceed with documenting what's happening for me.
I cleared the cache on my browsers:
Firefox 3.6.8
Chrome 5.0.375.127
Safari 5.0.1 6533.17.8 (which I haven't used at all till now)

When I open hoopinstructors.com, I still get the front page, although, for a brief moment, the url says 'www.hoopinstructors.com/register'. but then it goes to the home page.

1. So then I thought there might be a plugin problem. here's what I did:
2. I recently installed Link Juice Keeper:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/link-juice-keeper/
This plugin helps you to keep the link juice by redirecting all non-existing URLs which normally return a 404 error to the front blog page using 301 redirect.
and I thought that might be interacting with something.
3. So, I deactivated it.
4. I checked S2 Member Multisite Registration Config, to make sure it's set to 'No, (do not allow Open Registration) on my main (and only) site. it is set correctly.
5. I also checked General Options to be sure that my Membership Options page is 'Join Hi!'. That's fine, as well - this is the page that the Sign-Up button should go to.
6. I logged out of the dashboard and checked again to see if any of this was the problem.
7. Now I'm really confused: when I log in with hoopinstructors.com, I get a registration page <http://www.hoopinstructors.com/register/> instead of the Home page. It's an old page that doesn't have the PayPal buttons - so that's a problem. From reading what you've written below, this is actually the page that people will come to after they pay via the Join Hi page: is that right?
More on that in a moment.
8. I clicked Home, then clicked the Sign Up button, and I get the same wrong registration page.
9. I log into the dashboard to find the page and get rid of it, but I can't find a page called Registration.
10. I'm stumped.

What I'd like to do is:
1. Make sure hooopinstructors.com goes to the front page, just like http://www.hoopinstructors.com does. I think the plugin might have been handling that;
but, at the same time:
2. The Sign-up button should go to the Join Hi! page, not the Registration Page, since everyone will need to pay before they register.
3. The Registration page should be moved into the right part of the flow: it shouldn't be visible unless the PayPal process is completed, since we are not allowing open registration (if I am understanding you correctly).

Have I completely muddied the waters? I'm so hoping that you understand it: it's likely I've done something wrong, but I have no idea what it is...

help (in a very small voice)

Terri

[Jason Caldwell]

Hi Terri. Thanks for reporting back.

I think the majority of the confusion here, is with the BuddyPress /register/ page. In most BuddyPress themes, the "Signup" links ( i.e. the /register/ links ) will be disabled automatically whenever Open Registration is disabled. However, there are many BuddyPress themes that just assume registration will be open ( because that's normally how BuddyPress is used ). In your theme, the Signup Button remains, even when Open Registration is off.

So, here is what I suggest.
One of two things:

1. Modify your BuddyPress theme, by changing all references to /register/ over to /signup/. Thereby pointing the Signup Button to your Membership Options Page.

2. Alternatively, you could go into the BuddyPress plugin file:
/buddypress/bp-core/bp-core-signup.php

Find these lines:

Code: Select all

   /* If the user is logged in, redirect away from here */
   if ( is_user_logged_in() )
      bp_core_redirect( $bp->root_domain );

   /* If signups are disabled, just re-direct */
   if ( !bp_get_signup_allowed() )
      bp_core_redirect( $bp->root_domain );

And change them to this instead:

Code: Select all

   /* If the user is logged in, redirect away from here */
   if ( is_user_logged_in() )
      bp_core_redirect( S2MEMBER_LOGIN_WELCOME_PAGE_URL );

   /* If signups are disabled, just re-direct */
   if ( !bp_get_signup_allowed() )
      bp_core_redirect( S2MEMBER_MEMBERSHIP_OPTIONS_PAGE_URL );

( make sure Open Registration = off before you test against this change ) Unfortunately, there is no Hook in BuddyPress for this, so s2Member can't do it for you. You'll have to modify the source code directly, as shown above.

Now I'm really confused: when I log in with hoopinstructors.com, I get a registration page <http://www.hoopinstructors.com/register/> instead of the Home page. It's an old page that doesn't have the PayPal buttons - so that's a problem. From reading what you've written below, this is actually the page that people will come to after they pay via the Join Hi page: is that right?

Correct. On a default installation of BuddyPress, it would work like this:
- Open Registration = off
Your BuddyPress theme would detect this, and automatically disable all Signup Buttons/Links.
You would place a link to your Membership Options Page into the navigation bar somewhere instead.

In your case, your theme ( it would appear ) is not detecting that Open Registration is off. So it's creating a confusing situation, where there are links pointing to both /signup/ and to /register/. The /register/ page is locked whenever s2Member has been configured with Open Registration = off.

[hoopinstructor]

Hi Jason:

thanks for this: I just tried modifying the code (because you told me which BP file to change) and the same thing still happens: going to hoopinstructors.com brings me to that pesky registration page.

I'm going to try to figure out where 'register is in the theme and change it to signup - will report back.

[hoopinstructor]

sigh. no, replacing the word 'register' with the word 'signup' on the parent document: 'register.php' didn't work.

I am going to grab the troubleshooting info you gave me and try to get some answers from WPMUDev, whose theme it is. I will report back.

if you happen to have any other suggestions, though, I'd appreciate it.

I'm going to turn the Link Juice Keeper plugin back on, because at least it keeps the loose registration page from showing up.

thanks,
Terri

[hoopinstructor]

take that back: I turned Link Juice Keeper off, because hopefully the WPMUDev people will look at the site and come up with a solution. just fyi

[hoopinstructor]

Hi Jason:

Okay, here is the theme designers response:

@Terrintokyo: Scholar uses exactly the same method as the default theme - if you can get it to work in that and not Scholar I will happily look at if there is an issue in Scholar. I think you will find perhaps though that the plugin developer is a little misleading in claiming it's normal when they suggest you edit core BuddyPress files - not exactly the theme

However, that doesn't help you much really. Therefore I suggest you test using the default BuddyPress theme and get back to me about the results on that and we take from there. I understand when someone blames a theme so lets work through this here as much as we can without having you bounced between us and them. Sound good?

so I guess what I need to do now is:
backup up the entire site.
choose Buddypress.
see if the same problem happens.

is that right?

I so wish there was a quick fix for this...

thank you,

[hoopinstructor]

Hi Jason:

Okay, it doesn't seem to be a problem with the theme: the theme designer suggested I activate BuddyPress default to see if the same thing happens, and it does. Detailed notes below of the action I just took:

1. BuddyPress Default activated
2. clicking the Sign Up button (in a different browser with cache cleared) leads again to http://www.hoopinstructors.com/register
3. entering the url: hoopinstructors.com leads to http://www.hoopinstructors.com/register instead of to the home page
4. entering http://www.hoopinstructors.com leads to http://www.hoopinstructors.com/
5. clicking Join Hi leads to: http://www.hoopinstructors.com/signup/? ... evel_req=1

just to recap (as much for myself), what should happen is:
a. person pays for registration via http://www.hoopinstructors.com/signup/: they choose their registration level and are sent to PayPal.

b. after a successful checkout has occurred through PayPal, they get access to:
http://www.hoopinstructors.com/register/ where they finish the registration process. This page should never be seen at any other time in the process.

c. they get their confirmation email and sign into the site

So, since this is a default BuddyPress problem too, it looks like it's not the theme.

help very much appreciated.

thanks,
Terri

[hoopinstructor]

Hi Jason:

Just to update you: I got this note from the theme designer after I tried the BuddyPress default theme:

@Terrintokyo: Unfortunately if the steps the plugin developer provided you were both done and still didn't work you may have to go back to them to at least inform them the default BuddyPress theme is also experiencing this one. My thoughts are perhaps it's the version of BuddyPress - is it updated to the latest one?

Sadly I was sort of hoping that it wouldn't work in the default theme as the plugin developer was hinting at this - you'd assume they'd have tested in that If it is then it is configuration or an issue with the setup / compatibility. Sorry to suggest you ask them but we do need clarification if you've tried their steps. I would perhaps suggest you try their steps with the default BuddyPress theme - have you?

We need to launch on Friday, and I am hoping there is something else that you can suggest to settle the problem.

thanks in advance,

Terri

[Jason Caldwell]

Hi Terri. Thanks for reporting back.

Let's do this. Please send me a Dashboard login, and I'll have a look for you. If it's an issue that can be resolved quickly ( I suspect it is ), then I'll handle it for you and send you a list of things that required changes.

Please use this private contact form:
http://www.s2member.com/contact/

One the investigation is completed, I'll post the results here for the benefit of other readers.

[hoopinstructor]

Hi Jason:

Thank you so much!

I'm sending you the info now.

best,
Terri

[hoopinstructor]

Hi Jason:
I'm assuming that you haven't had a chance to look at things, and wanted to just quickly bring you up to date: I'm working with the theme developer to just change the Sign up buttons link so that it goes to the right place. Here's what I'm asking her:

Here's the problem:
http://www.hoopinstructors.com

1. In the header, there are 2 Sign Up buttons, 1 at the very top in the Admin bar, and one under that.
2. When someone who is not logged in clicks either button, I want them to be taken to the sign up page, which is this one: http://www.hoopinstructors.com/signup/
3. Right now, clicking either of those buttons takes the person to either the home page (if the redirect plugin is on): http://www.hoopinstructors.com/
4. Or, they are taken to the registration page (if the redirect plugin is off): http://www.hoopinstructors.com/register
5. So, what I wanted to do is edit the url that the Sign up buttons link to and have them both link to:
http://www.hoopinstructors.com/signup/ regardless of anything else.

If she explains to me how to do that, then that solves the problem. One concern I have is that I want to be sure that S2Member will send people to the registration page within the process, but the client themselves signed up and it did, so that should work okay.

If you do have a chance to log in and look around, please let me know. I've slowed the soft launch down to a trickle but need to pick up the ball asap...

thanks again!

best,
Terri

[hoopinstructor]

Hi Jason:

Little by little I'm getting there. the good news:

1. using some code that the theme developer had me put into the theme includes 'members-box', the big sign up button now goes to the right page!
yayy!

2. can't say the same for the admin bar Sign Up link, so I am working now on a suggestion she made, to actually edit the config.php to change the Register page slug to www.hooopinstructors.com/signup

I'm puzzling out how to do that now.

3. My one concern with all of this is that it won't stop S2 Member from accessing the Registration page after leaving PayPal. As long as that's set, then no one will see the Registration page otherwise, which is as it should be.

I'm interested in your take on this fix and if you see any potential problems develping: we've started the soft launch, but if there's a big issue we need to deal with, better to know now.

thanks,

best,
Terri

[Jason Caldwell]

Hi Terri. Thanks for your patience.

I just took at look at the Dashboard login you sent over, and it seems that it's expired. I was unable to log in. That being said, I can see that you've been busy; so I'll comment on what I've read in your latest update.

1. using some code that the theme developer had me put into the theme includes 'members-box', the big sign up button now goes to the right page! yayy!

Perfect.

2. can't say the same for the admin bar Sign Up link, so I am working now on a suggestion she made, to actually edit the config.php to change the Register page slug to http://www.hooopinstructors.com/signup

That link should go away automatically when Open Registration is off. Be sure that Open Registration is off, and that you're NOT logged in when testing this. If it still shows up, that would indicate to me that something was modified from the original BuddyPress default. So in that case, you would need help from a developer, possibly your theme designer - to modify the code so that Signup link is disabled as it should be. A theme should NEVER display "Signup" links of any kind, when Open Registration is off.

That being said, you MUST test this as a public User, and NOT when you're logged in.
* Open Registration must be set to off in order for this to work as you expect it to.

3. My one concern with all of this is that it won't stop S2 Member from accessing the Registration page after leaving PayPal. As long as that's set, then no one will see the Registration page otherwise, which is as it should be.

If Open Registration is off, BuddyPress will automatically protect the /register/ page, and s2Member will automatically turn Open Registration back on ( dynamically ) after a successful purchase. This is how s2Member integrates with BuddyPress, and this works nicely.

No changes to s2Member, or to BuddyPress should be required. I don't like blaming ANY other developer, I'm just pointing out that the conflict here is specifically with "links" appearing within your theme that lead to the BuddyPress registration page. So this is either caused by you not having Open Registration off, or it IS off, but your theme is not detecting that.

* NOTE, the default behavior of BuddyPress, is to redirect back to your Home Page, should a public User make an attempt to access the /register/ page when Open Registration is turned off. So even if your theme is displaying "Signup" links, BuddyPress won't allow them to work when Open Registration is off.

This code sample taken from BuddyPress illustrates this:

Code: Select all

  /* If the user is logged in, redirect away from here */
   if ( is_user_logged_in() )
      bp_core_redirect( $bp->root_domain );

   /* If signups are disabled, just re-direct */
   if ( !bp_get_signup_allowed() )
      bp_core_redirect( $bp->root_domain );

Now... after a purchase is made, s2Member will kick-in, and modify this behavior for that specific Customer, so that they WILL have temporarily access to the registration form, even if Open Registration is off ( s2Member allows the Customer to register ONE time only ) because they paid for it.

Please report back if you can. If you have any other questions/concerns, please let me know.

[hoopinstructor]

Hi Jason:

I'm happy to see you! I just upgraded to the newest S2Member, just in case.

I totally hear you about not blaming other developers: I also have to note that you are much more clear in your responses than they are able to be, I suppose. that's why I'll be a happy S2Member buyer in a week or so.

In any case, we just started soft launching, finally, and I think I may have come up with a partial fix, but I need your help to work out the thinking.

I just sent you another log in - sorry about the expiration, I don't hold on to the dev accounts for long unless I know I need to.

Phase 1: restating the problem
just to recap:
1. Adminbar Sign Up links go to http://www.hoopinstructors.com/register. Instead, it should go to: http://www.hoopinstructors.com/signup/

2. S2Member is set to 'no do not allow open registration' - actually, we never did allow it on this site. see att just to reconfirm.

3. Something is going wrong either within BuddyPress or within the Theme. I can't afford to hire a developer to fix it, at this point.

4. One suggestion from the theme designer was to change the wp-config.php url slugs: http://wpmu.org/daily-tip-customize-the ... omponents/, to redirect http://www.hoopinstructors.com/register. to http://www.hoopinstructors.com/signup/
Two reasons I didn't do this:
a. I couldn't figure out how to actually express the url in the config file. do I actually write in a url?
b. I didn't know if the redirection would happen at an inappropriate time, IOW, after the user has paid via PayPal.

Phase 2: where things are now

I did a lot of research to see what solutions might exist (updated buddypress and the parent theme, turned off all plugins except S2Member to see if there was some conflict, etc). No results.

i. I found this redirection plug in: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/redirection/

ii. I set it so that http://www.hoopinstructors.com/register is redirected to:
http://www.hoopinstructors.com/signup/
it works halfway: if you use the Admin Bar sign up link, you go to the correct page.
If you use the graphic version in the green header bar, you still go to the wrong page.

So that's problem #1: I wonder if there's a way to get the redirection to work for both Sign up buttons. If you can suggest how to do it, then problem solved.

iii. When I read your note above, it seems as if S2Member will send people to http://www.hoopinstructors.com/register after they've paid, no matter what buddyPress or the theme dictates. Is that right?
if so, then once the green header bar Sign up issue is fixed, then this problem is solved.

but:
because I am putting a plugin bandaid on a problem that shouldn't exist in the theme or buddypress, I wonder:
would it make sense to create a http://www.hoopinstructors.com/registration page, a clone of http://www.hoopinstructors.com/register, and direct PayPal to that instead?

and if you think it's a good idea how would I do it? I don't see an option to set the Registration page in S2Member, so I'm assuming my client will have to set it in PayPal: is that right?

I hope this all makes sense - sorry if not. We're in soft launch mode, so I'm especially concerned to get it patched up quickly...

hopeful,

Terri

[Jason Caldwell]

Hi Terri. Thanks for your patience, and for reporting back on this topic.
~ I just received the login details for your Dashboard and was able to get in this time.

I must have missed this along the way somewhere, but I noticed that you're running BuddyPress/s2Member on a Multisite Network installation. After some further investigation, I believe I've found the problem. There is a conflict that exists between BuddyPress/s2Member, but ONLY on a Multisite Network. It has to do with a bypass on the Filter (pre_site_option_registration) which is pulled directly from the database by BuddyPress ( only in Multisite mode ), by this function: bp_core_get_site_options().

Fortunately, BuddyPress provides an additional Filter inside this function, so I was able to create a workable solution to this conflict within s2Member, which can be applied to Multisite installations.

I'm attaching a development version of s2Member that includes this fix. You'll be the first to test against this resolution, so please report back on your results. OR alternatively, send me an FTP login to your /wp-content/ directory and I'll make the update for you, along with a report back on success.

s2member-v3.2.6-gamma-3.zip

(5.47 MiB) Downloaded 18 times

Upgrading to the latest version ( quick tutorial ):
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=247

* NOTE * I de-activated the redirection you had in there for /register/ -> /signup/
That won't work well, It creates a conflict with the registration process after checkout.

[hoopinstructor]

Jason, thank you - I'm uploading the new S2Member folder into ftp now, and will get right back with you on the results.

[hoopinstructor]

Okay, I thought it would help if I document what happens as I do it.

1. activated data saving
2. plugin (S2 folder only) uploaded via ftp
3. I forgot to deactivate the plugin before I removed the old version, so I
4. activated S2M Multisite patches automatically
5. S2M Multisite registration:
-Membership only - not offering blogs
-Allow open registration: no (do not allow open registration)
options were successfully saved
6. check to see whether the sign up buttons go to the sign up page now (not logged in; using Google Chrome with cache cleared): Admin sign up button and member-box graphic button sign up still goes to http://www.hoopinstructors.com/register/

now I'm checking the General Options, to see if there's anything I need to reset. will report back right after I do that.

[Jason Caldwell]

Hi Terri. I can confirm this is working in s2member-v3.2.6-gamma-3.zip
~ tested with the default BuddyPress theme on WP 3.0.1 with Multisite networking.
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=653#p3081

If you continue to have trouble, please send me an FTP login to your /wp-content/ directory so we can test with your theme to see if any additional conflicts exist on your installation.

[hoopinstructor]

Hi Jason:

I still get the same problem in Chrome and Safari -it's the craziest thing: maybe I installed it wrong? do I need to turn off multisite somehow? we don't need it now as our members will not have blogs (but that could change in the future so I guess it's better to troubleshoot today).

I will send you the ftp log in now. thank you again - we're starting to get more soft launch testers so I'm hoping you can find the problem.

thank you again!

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks Terri.

Everything is working good now.

I just updated you to v3.2.6-gamma-3, which includes the fix for BuddyPress w/Multisite Networking enabled. This fix will be added to the next official release of s2Member, so please feel free to continue with automatic upgrades of s2Member in the future. Thanks for your assistance in tracking down this elusive bug, and let me know if you require further assistance.

[hoopinstructor]

Jason, you rock - thanks so much! glad to help with bugs when the plugin is so great!

[Elizabeth]

Closed