Thanks for the great questions.~ and thanks for the KUDOS, much appreciated!As far as membership levels go, I had originally thought I could give both Level #0 and Level #1 (paid) access to 'all' under pages categories, posts, and tags; then on January 1 restrict Level #0 to specific pages and posts. Will this work? Is there a better/easier way to do this?
Yes, you're on the right track. Membership Levels provide incremental access. So, if you protect content at Level #0, then all Level #0 and Level #1 Users/Members will have access to it. In Janurary, you can change this configuration a bit. Instead of protecting content at Level #0, require Level #1. Of course, you could still protect *some* content at Level #0, but that would be optional of course.
( click screenshots to enlarge )
And what happens when a Level #0 customer accesses the site on January 1? (Will they be redirected to the Membership Options Page for the restricted content, even though they are already registered? Ad s2Member will automatically update their membership level in their existing user account after their completed PayPal transaction? I *think* so, please confirm?)
Yes, you are correct in both cases.
I'm helping a client (and friend) morph her weekly newspaper into an electronic only edition. Her plan is to roll out the electronic version in November, and require registration, offering free access to content until the end of 2011. Then, require everyone to pay for an annual, calendar year subscription. (We've already talked about how a user can register on March 10th, and get access until March 9 of next year, and this is okay.) It would be nice, though, to collect some cash prior to the end of this year for 2012.
However, if I set up a Level #1 PayPal button now, everyone who wants to pay now won't have a calendar year 2012 subscription period. I gather we can edit their EOT date manually, which won't be a problem as most people are accustomed to sending in a check for their 'paper' subscription (we will create these users manually), and I don't expect a huge number of PayPal transactions. Is this a viable solution? Or will PayPal not 'know' their real EOT date is 12/31/12? Or is this also handled nicely by s2Member, because it won't go to PayPal to charge their renewal until 12/31/12?
Well, it sounds like you're leaning toward offering folks a completely free registration option, where they don't go through PayPal at all. If that's what you decide to do, then you'll simply enable
Open Registration with s2Member, and allow folks to signup at Level #0
( e.g. they become a Free Subscriber at Level #0 ).
Then, in Jan 2012, you can introduce a new paid option, and provide existing Level #0 Free Subscribers with a PayPal Modification Button, generated by s2Member ( see:
s2Member -> PayPal Buttons -> Subscription Modification Buttons ). This way Free Subscribers can become Level #1 Members in Jan 2012, and gain access to content protected at this higher Level.
Or, another option would be to allow a "Free Trial" period from now until the end of 2011. Instead of enabling Open Registration, prepare a PayPal Subscription Button for access to Membership Level #1. If you want all billing to begin on an exact date in the future, that's not something s2Member or PayPal does by default. However, there is a way to hack through this, using a code snippet like the one shown below.
- Code: Select all
<?php
$now = strtotime("now");
$fixed_time = strtotime("31 December 2011");
$days_until_fixed_time = round(($fixed_time - $now) / ($seconds_in_one_day = 86400));
?>
[s2Member-PayPal-Button ... level="1" ta="0.00" tp="<?php echo $days_until_fixed_time; ?>" tt="D" ra="24.95" rp="1" rt="Y" ... /]
* So in this example, I calculate dynamically the number of days between now and the end of this year. I give the customer this many days free, so that billing for all customers begins on the 1st day of Jan 2012.
In order to put this code snippet in a Post/Page, you will need a PHP Execution plugin, so that PHP code is parsed properly. See: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/php ... on-plugin/Also, to fully understand all of s2Member's Shortcode Attributes, please check your Dashboard here:
s2Member -> PayPal Buttons -> Shortcode Attributes ( Explained )Related articles:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2878&hilit=non+recurring+EOT#p9025viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2878&hilit=non+recurring+EOT#p33412viewtopic.php?f=36&t=1604
