Free Membership Site

[behladesign]

I know that this is not the typical way that users setup S2, but I need to have a member site that is completely free. The only way members can see the site is if they signup with:

1. username
2. email
3. password

I'd like to have a captcha code as well for verification. Is there an easy way to do this S2 so that the users aren't required to enter any financial information and the signup process is as quick and painless as possible? I have S2 member pro as a developer and would like to use that if there are added benefits.

The page should look and function like this: http://www.booktrope.com/user/register

Thank you,
Andrew

[Eduan]

1. Under WP Admin -> s2Member -> General Options -> Open Registration set to YES so that users can sign-up for free.

2. So that it only asks the Username, Password and the Email go to WP Admin -> s2Member -> General Options -> Registration/Profile Fields & Options -> Collect First/Last Names during Registration? set to NO.

3. And then under WP Admin -> s2Member -> PayPal® Pro Forms -> PayPal® Pro Free Registration Forms use the shortcode provided and see if that solves the problem.

Hope this helps.

[behladesign]

Thanks so much Eduan. I did the setup that you suggested. One detail that I need to address is if there is a way to have an admin approve a new user first before they are made active. This site is for educational school trips and we only want to have approved parents and students register. This is important for security. If this is not possible, the only other thing I can thing of is to manually create new users from the admin of wp.

[Eduan]

Wouldn't know... But what you can do is deactivate the confirmation email and send it yourself if you think it's alright, or you can do what you suggested but it would be more problematic.

P.S. If you do the email thingy then I would tell them they will be sent the email only if the qualify.

[Cristián Lávaque]

You could set the content at Level 1 and then your admin approval of the accounts would be to change their role to Level 1, otherwise they'll have the free account but not see the content. Would that work for you?

[behladesign]

HI Cristian, that workflow I think can work. The client also used this plugin in the past that does what they want: http://www.johnkolbert.com/project/absolute-privacy/

It would be cool if S2 could have the functionality built in, although using the member levels is a good workaround, then I can set all of the viewable content to Level 1. I believe the S2 admin email would also get a welcome email and has the cool S2 widgets too boot, yeah, I'm an S2 fanboy!

User Moderation

The plugin also adds new fields to the registration menu which require the registrant to enter their first and last name, and to choose a password. Newly registered members are given a WordPress role created by the plugin called “Unapproved User” and although they are registered and have a password, they are unable to login until approved.

After registering, the newly registered user is sent an email reminding him/her that they will be unable to login until their account has been approved. The site administrator is sent an email with a link to quickly approve or delete the new user. Once the administrator approves the account the user is sent an email notification. To unapprove a user, simply edit their profile and change their “Role” to “Unapproved User”.

A new tab called “Moderate Users” is created in the “Users” area which allows you to quickly view and either approve or delete all unapproved users. If you approve a user not using the moderation tab they will NOT be sent a confirmation email.

[Cristián Lávaque]

Cool.

Yeah, I'm familiar with that flow, but wasn't with that plugin. Well, you can try using it together with s2Member if you want, but I'm not sure if they won't conflict.

I'm glad that what I suggested may work for you too.

Thanks for the kudos!

[behladesign]

Thanks Cristian! The client is wondering if the member can receive a customized email after they have been upgraded to Level 1. The workflow is that the member will signup and be Level 0 (Pending Approval), then the admin will approve them and change their membership to Level 1 (Approved). Is it possible that once the user has been change to Level 1 that they receive an email that their membership has been approved and is now active? If so, can that text be customized? I'm not sure if this would require custom coding or something that is maybe built into S2 (at least I"m hoping).

[Cristián Lávaque]

What you could do is, if you integrated with a list server (AWeber, MailChimp), add that email at the beginning of the autoresponder sequence for Level 1 users.

When you upgrade the user to Level 1 then, if you configured s2Member to handle list changes too, the user will be moved to the list for Level 1 and sent the email. WP Admin -> s2Member -> API / List Servers -> Automate

Would that work for you?

[behladesign]

Thanks Cristian,

We are using the customized email to let people know when they are registered. The next step is that after the user has been approved, the user would received another email, with different text telling them that they can now login to the site. Before their approval, they won't be able to access protected pages that are for approved members only. Do you recommend that I setup S2 to send the first email that tells them that they are registered and will need to be approved before they can login, and then have A Weber, Mail Chimp send the second email sequence after their membership has been approved? The client is using constant contact and I wonder if that has list server integration as well. Is there a link that you can provide that goes over the list server integration?

[Cristián Lávaque]

Yeah, the first email could tell the person that it's pending review, then let the list server send the email when the person gets approved and moved to the new list.

You can most probably create an integration with Constant Contact using the Notifications API. WP Admin -> s2Member -> API / Notifications

http://www.s2member.com/api-tracking-no ... ons-video/

[behladesign]

Thanks, I'll see if that does the trick!