Configuring WP eMember v10.3.3 with WordPress Multisite 5.5

[user724]

Hello,

I have a question on configuring WP eMember v10.3.3 with WordPress Multisite 5.5, and a lot of the previous discussions on this forum came up in my search are several years old (although the discussions and info remain useful!)

So, I figured it was time to post a new question to see how WP eMember works with WP Multisite today in 2020.

My main concern is if WP eMember can be “network activated where all sites see the same membership levels, memberships…“?

I quoted the line above from the Restrict Content Pro plugin page, where they used it to describe one of the ways in which their plugin can be configured with a WP multisite setup.

It made me wonder if the recent updates to WP eMember (and WP in general) have changed anything about how it can be configured with Multisite now?

I know the plugin uses a separate database for users, but I figured if it was used to register the network users than by default that already gives them access to all sites in the network (unless the super admin changes the settings). So I think the main issue now is for the membership levels and restrictions to work all throughout the network.

Also, just to clarify, I do not have any interest in using any payment features now or in the future. I just want to make sure members have access to certain content and that the free membership levels I create are available within every site from one network installation.

Thank you for your time.

[admin]

No. That’s not how WordPress’s multi-site works in terms of how it deals with plugins in general. Some plugins or themes may do a particular implementation for something specific but that’s not how it works in general. The word “multi-site” probably creates the confusion.

Think of each sub-site of a Multi-site setup as separate sites. The main advantage of Multi-site is that the network admin can control which plugins and themes are available in the sub-sites. Once a plugin is available in a sub-site, it will work just like it does on a single site.

If you create a new WordPress post or page in a sub-site, you cannot see it in another sub-site of that install. To edit that post or page, you have to go to the sub-site where it was created and edit it. That same principal will apply for when you create a membership level for example. It will be available only in the sub-site where it is created.

Below is an example use case to show how a Multi-site setup can be useful sometimes:

You can offer multiple different sub-sites to different users. Let’s say you charge John and Jane to have sub-sites on your network. You do the maintenance of the sites, plugins, themes from the network admin. Then they can run their sites independently (without having to understand the really technical things of maintaining a server, site, plugins etc). John can offer one type of membership on his sub-site. Jane can offer a completely different type of membership of her sub-site. They can have their own set of members.

[user724]

I apologize for the late reply to this topic, and thank you for your clear answer.

I understand that this is not the general way that WP Multisite deals with plugins, I think what confused me was that a multi-site installation has one user table for all sites. All sub-sites have several tables for nearly everything else, but in the whole database there is one users table to rule them all (unless a plugin or some other config option changes that), whereas WP eMember creates its own tables so they are unique to the site it was installed on.

So, after reading more into the database structure of WordPress’s Multisite as compared to the single site version, I came to learn that the specific features I was looking to have and content restriction level I wanted is actually already there for me to work with. It’s built in, just needs some settings and minor configuration. Once again, it turns out that for this particular project, I don’t need a membership plugin since WP Multisite will take care of my users, their roles, and permissions, too – with a little custom coding.

In my particular case, I have a network with a public main site where people can register (as subscribers). Then I have several sub-sites with a privacy setting to make them viewable only to “subscribers”.

By default, WP Multisite generally allows main site users to “view” all unrestricted content in the network, but because I locked the sub-sites based on the subscriber role/capabilities, the main site members can’t access that content without getting a specific user level and the capabilities needed for that sub-site. This I can either assign to them manually, or give the users a way to manually subscribe to that sub-site. Once they have that access, by simply logging into the main site, they have access to that and all the network sites they are subscribers of.

This works for me perfectly, as this is a personal, simple e-learning project and has no payment/eCommerce factors attached. I wanted to avoid using an LMS plugin because they came with far more than I needed.

I honestly had no idea WP Multisite had these capabilities or that it could be customized in such a way. It’s good news, as it resolves my issue, but I have to admit I was really hoping to finally have an excuse to use WP eMember for at least one project 😅 (since I’ve purchased it it has been active only on localhost for my test sites 🙄).

I did come across tutorials on how to change the default users tables for all the network sites, and wondered if I could tweak them with the WP eMember tables instead… but right now I figured since the core features – with some customization – deliver what I need then perhaps it is best to stick with it.

Anyway, thanks again for your answer here and all your other articles on WP Multisite. They – and others I’ve found online explaining the WP Multisite database – have really helped point me in the right direction.

[Author]

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