eMember and eStore plugin integration

[mskalla]

I am stepping into a project using the WP eMember and WP eStore plugins to manage user subscriptions and purchasing of memberships and digital content. The client wants to have a ‘free’ level membership. This ‘free’ membership signup occurs at the path: /register

This is handled by the eMember plugin and works well, in that users are able to register for a ‘free’ membership, and upon completion they have added a member to the eMember plugin’s section on the dashboard with the correct membership level.

There are also different paid membership levels that are working correctly using a shortcode to generate a ‘buy now button’ such as [wp_eStore_buy_now_fancy id=x] and setting the product’s membership level Reference Text field. This is also working, in that clicking the button processes the payment (PayPal in my client’s case), the user is directed back to the site and prompted for a name and e-mail address. An e-mail is generated and the user completes the registration by following the link in the e-mail.

The end result of either of these approaches is that users can get membership and can successfully log into the site with their member credentials. The problem I am running into is that logged in users are being forced to a registration page when they go into the store’s checkout process, for example when they click the ‘check out’ button in any cart elements. Rather than being directed to PayPal, they are directed to a registration page at the path /join-us/registration/. These users are already logged in and in some cases have already purchased products before through the store.

Inspecting the info in the eStore and eMembership plugins now, I see that the eStore has one customer account (from the 2nd registration which involved purchasing a product that had a membership level associated with it) and the eMember has two members (from the 1st registration as a ‘free’ member and the 2nd registration that created the eStore customer).

Should customers be able to proceed through the store checkout process once they are members? Why are they being directed to a registration form?

Any help is greatly appreciated and I am happy to provide details as needed.

The site is in ‘maintenance’ mode so no urls are publicly available currently. I can check with the client to approve access to the site by support staff if needed.

eMember plugin v8.6.9

eStore plugin v6.9.8.6

WP version v3.5

[Peter]

Sounds like your scenario is the same as scenario 3.1 which is explained in the following page:

http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/wordpress-membership/a-typical-member-registration-flow-96

Did you get a chance to look at the instructions/video?

[mskalla]

Hi Peter, thanks for the reply. You are correct that scenario 3.1 is the closest you have for your scenarios, and this has been considered.

My client is wanting to create a ‘free’ membership as well as paid ones, but creating a free membership does not create a customer record. My client also has products for sale, but when a user who has signed up for a free membership interacts with the store, they are forced to create a new account with the store before they can make a purchase, at which point they have two accounts, one associated with their old ‘free’ membership and a new one associated with the store. Is there a way to route a ‘free’ membership through the store so that both a customer record is created and member record is created without the user actually spending money?

[admin]

A user only ever need ONE account (free or paid) on the site.

The following statement is not correct (The checkout flow does not require a user to have a customer record… it just requires the user to be logged into the site):

when a user who has signed up for a free membership interacts with the store, they are forced to create a new account

You simply give the user an option to log in (this way existing users can log-in and continue the purchase rather than having to create a new account).

You can add a message like the following on the page where you get them to register:

If you already have a user account then then simply click here and log into the site.

You can also put the login widget on that page too (or the login widget can be on the sidebar so existing users/members can log in easily).

[mskalla]

Hi and thanks for the reply. It looks like the theme selected for this site has conflicting user management and other settings, which was the cause of my issue. Some login features on the site were pointing to the theme’s custom login features rather than the eMember features.

[Author]

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