Some ideas for websites relying on donations

[openmtbmap]

Thanks a lot for this plugin, works really great and the setup is straight forward and well documented (though not easy, but well the subject is pretty complex - so it's not your fault that one will need a few hours to set it all up - I'm currently using the basic, but would go pro if a better interface for the "customer" would be available).

However it really seems to be made for shops to sell stuff, or for publishers which want recurring payment schedules. If like me, I depend on donations, and want to give my users the amount to donate that they whish to donate, it gets pretty complicated.

1. Really the first thin is that it would be nicer to have some menu where the user can enter the amount he want to spend, and then he gets shown what he gets for it (like you setup in the background 20€ 1 year, 30€ 2years, 40€ 3years, 50€ lifelong -- 5€ minimum giving you 1day access). Thats much better than having to install plenty of buttons for it.

a) What I really wanted would have been a page like this one here:
http://forum.bytesforall.com/awcoding.p ... ent&sid=ds

I think that one is much more professional than the buttons. I would like first an open field for comments and whishes that the people have when donating,
then field to enter amount and currency (I wouldn't need many currencies, just CHF, EUR, USD would be fine)
well and then if it were the s2memberpro, a field to select the payment processor.

Below there should be a field telling him what he will get as subscription in return.


b) If the above structure is not doable, then something like an option (I don't know if paypal supports this) to click on a button and there is only a minimum money value attached to it. Say click here and it's 5€ minimum but users can enter more on paypal, but as said for services/donations buttons don't do the job, and a field where you select how much you pay, enter a goal, note, or whatever, there is a simple updating of the subscription length you get, would be much more appropriate).


Besides the integration into wordpress is really great, and I think for all the work that must be behind, a little better interface than plain buttons should not be much to add (also to s2member standard plugin).

Also I noted, that for someone inscribing to a 1year plan, plus recurring, there is not EOT date set. It would be nice if there was so I could easily distinguish from those people who buy lifelong access. Currently I only see the option of putting people who pay lifelong into level2 instead of level1 (which might be wiser anyhow.


2. What would be really cool besides, if there would be an easy possibility of sharing the logins with a forum. I'ld actually like that everyone who donates more than 20€ on my page, not only gets the possibility to write comments, but also post into a forum, using the same login. But that's much less important to me, than 1a).


3. I would like to have an easy way to have links working differently for people logged in, vs people not logged in (whithout creating different content). Idea is that for my map download page, when someone logged in clicks on download, he gets directly to the download. Everyone not logged in, gets to an intermediary page asking him to donate money, before he can download the content. Note the content is on a different server, where I have no more than ftp access, as I cannot handle the >100TB of map downloads every day - so it's on a university server that is donated - which means I cannot put this stuff into a special download folder on my own server. (I know people can look directly at the ftp server, and bypass the donation intermediary page, that is no problem, I just want them to be aware that a donation is appreciated - I have 3000-5000 people visiting my site daily, around 800 downloading maps, but only 0.5 donating money, so I would need to increase the moral obligation to pay 10-20€ a year ).

[Cristián Lávaque]

I'm glad you like s2Member. I'll try to help with your questions:

1) If you were just changing the amount it'd be easier, but based on that he'd be given a different kind of membership. I can think of two options: use JavaScript to change other values in the form based on what they donate before submitting it, or submit the donation to a custom script of yours where you work with the values a bit and then send it to PayPal from there.

If you don't know how to achieve that, you can post a job to hire a freelance developer. viewforum.php?f=37

2) With the above in place, you could add a custom capability to those that donate more than 20€ and then check for this capability with conditionals before displaying the comments interface. WP Admin -> s2Member -> API / Scripting -> Advanced Conditionals and Custom Capabilities

The forum login integration is independent of s2Member, you'll need to bridge your forum choice with WordPress. At the moment you can't control what happens in the forum with s2Member, although a future release may allow it, it's not the case with the current one.

BuddyPress, since it's a WordPress plugin, is something you could control using s2Member's URI Restriction. Other forums that work inside WordPress as plugins would be controllable too. WP Admin -> s2Member -> General Options -> URI Restrictions

3) You could change the links the person gets based on his login status, or membership, or capabilities he has in his account. You'd do this with conditionals in your post/page. WP Admin -> s2Member -> API / Scripting -> Using Simple Conditionals

Some related videos you may find helpful:
http://www.s2member.com/api-scripting-overview-video/
http://www.s2member.com/advanced-conditionals-video/
http://www.s2member.com/custom-capabilities-video/

I hope that helps.

[openmtbmap]

Thanks for your reply.

1. Well I know it's possible to do with Javascript (though for me it would take ages I assume) - but it would be nice if this were part of the core plugin (as I said, I can't imagine it being hard in comparison to all the rest implemented already).

2. I didn't know Buddypress has a usable forum implementation, will check it out (looked at it quite a few time ago, when it didn't have forums).

3. Thanks, I hope I'll manage.

[Cristián Lávaque]

1. There are so many more things we're trying to implement.

2. I understand it does; haven't used it myself, though.

3.