More Membership Levels?

[martonic]

Hi Jason,

Is it possible to configure s2member to support more than 4 Membership Levels - 5 or 6, for instance?

Thanks!

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for the great question.

s2Member can be extended well beyond the default Levels [0-4].
But first, I should explain that the concept of "Levels" are really NOT that powerful all on their own. Don't get me wrong, they work wonders in lots of cases, and they're really simple to work with. However, they're not easily extended for complex situations, and thus, have become an outdated way of handling on-site permissions that require lots of complexity.

In other words, even if we designed s2Member to support up to 100 Levels, or even unlimited, that still would not resolve common problems ( limitations ) associated with Levels.

The best way to extend s2Member is through the application of Custom Capabilities.
Please see s2Member's section on Custom Capabilities under:
s2Member -> API / Scripting -> Custom Capability Packages.

Using Custom Capabilities, you can apply special permissions for different packages, while using just ONE, or possibly TWO of s2Member's built-in Levels. This is the same concept that WordPress® Roles/Capabilities are based on, and is the main reason why the concept of Levels is slowly being deprecated.

[martonic]

Hi Jason,

Thanks very much for your answer. Maybe we don't really need more levels, but custom capability is not the answer, either - I need to set this site up as a CMS for non-programming people to use forever after.

What they REALLY WANT is a set of check-boxes after you click EDIT -> Visibility -> Edit where they can check off a box for each custom level (It should read: Limited, Youth, Premium, Sponsor) in order to assign visibility for each post or page.

EDIT - CORRECTION: it should be a drop-down list (a "select" field) with numbers from 0 to 4, defaulting to 0, to represent the minimum level that can access the given page/post.

I explained that they can add each page/post id to the s2member access restriction lists - but - THEY HATE THAT.

Is it possible for me to add a HOOK or something to do it the way they want it done?

Thanks in advance for your answer.

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for reporting back.

Yea, you're not the first one to request this feature. Based on previous requests ( along these same lines ), the ideal solution would be a panel in the Post/Page editing stations, allowing a site owner to protect specific content as they're publishing it.

@C/TODO :: P :: I'm pushing this up on our priority list.

In the mean time, yes. You could script this into the functions.php file for your theme. You would need to add a panel to the Post/Page editing station ( as I described above ) and have it update the s2Member options dynamically. Keep your eyes open for the next release. I'll do what I can to get this in.

[martonic]

Hi Jason,

Thanks. I don't quite follow this. Is there a hook whereby I can use functions.php to make the editing page execute more code?

[Jason Caldwell]

EDIT - CORRECTION: it should be a drop-down list (a "select" field) with numbers from 0 to 4, defaulting to 0, to represent the minimum level that can access the given page/post.

I was referring to this request. I just meant that it is *possible*. The WordPress framework makes it possible for developers to integrate their own panels into the Post/Page editing stations.

Actually doing it... will require some additional coding; which is what we'll be attempting. I'd like to get this into the s2Member v3.1.5 release. There is no Hook/Filter you can just "turn on" to get this working.

~ Sorry for the confusion.
Please stay tuned for s2Member v3.1.5+

[Jason Caldwell]

@COMPLETED/TODO :: P :: I'm pushing this up on our priority list.

This topic was addressed in the release of s2Member v3.2.

- New Feature. s2Member now provides a small panel ( aka: `meta box` ) inside your Post/Page editing stations. This new panel makes it possible for you to restrict access to a Post/Page, or even a Custom Post Type ( on-the-fly ) without having to go back to your General Options panel all the time. Starting with s2Member v3.2+, you can also tell s2Member to require Custom Capabilities on a per Post/Page basis. So now, s2Member ( if you prefer ) can handle Custom Capabilities for you! Whenever you edit a Post/Page, you can tell s2Member to require certain Custom Capabilities that you type in, using comma delimited format. In other words, you will need to type in some of the trigger words that you used whenever you created your PayPal® Pro Forms and/or Standard PayPal® Buttons. This way your Members will have the proper Capabilities to view different kinds of content that you offer. All of this is optional.

[martonic]

Thanks for working on all these new features and other improvements!

[Jason Caldwell]

You're very welcome.

[ontariosolar]

Hi Jason,

I've read through some of the documentation and watched the first several video tutorials (very very helpful).

We also would like to add additional levels of membership. Although nearly every single level will have the same Web access, there are a lot of off-site features we'd like to segment (newsletters, discounts, etc), and we'd like to have a one-stop-shop for all payments…..so we'd need to have more than 4 different paypal buttons on the "Become a Member" page. Each button/level would confer the same Web access, but because of the various off-site functions, each button would be a different price and level.....5 or 6 in all.

Is there a way to do this? Can we increase the membership level to 6?

[Elizabeth]

Hi,

The best way to extend s2Member is through the application of Custom Capabilities.
Please see s2Member's section on Custom Capabilities under:
s2Member -> API / Scripting -> Custom Capability Packages.

Using Custom Capabilities, you can apply special permissions for different packages, while using just ONE, or possibly TWO of s2Member's built-in Levels. This is the same concept that WordPress® Roles/Capabilities are based on, and is the main reason why the concept of Levels is slowly being deprecated.

[ontariosolar]

thanks elizabeth.

i'm not a very technical person - i just breezed through the CCP that you referenced. is it possible to create more than 4 paypal buttons (each with its own price and "capabilities") using custom capabilities? I couldn't easily find this information.

Basically, what we need is the following:

Free Registration......restricted web access (level 0)
Bronze - $1....complete web access (level 1)
Silver - $2.....complete web access (and we'll send you gift #1 via post....this is an offiste transaction, but because you paid for a higher membership level, you deserve this extra gift) (level 2)
Gold - $3.....complete web access (and we'll send you gifts #1 and #2 via post) (level 3)
Platinum - $4......complete web access (+ gifts 1, 2, 3) (level 4)
Diamond - $5......complete web access (gifts 1, 2, 3, 4) (level 5)

in actuality, we won't be sending real gifts. each additional level of membership brings little perks (discounted advertising in our newsletters....extra tickets to events....etc....all off-site...but we would like the payment (for all 5 levels) to happen via the web page. all levels (except for 0) give unrestricted access to the protected pages. the only real difference between silver and gold is off-site.