eMember – PayPal integration questions

[gobigkahuna]

I’m integrating PayPal payments into my website for the first time. I’ve set up my PayPal button and eMember settings per the tutorial on your website. I’m testing my new integration and have a couple of questions:

1. What is the recommended method for ensuring a new member is logged into their account before they click on a button to pay for a new subscription? Or is that even necessary?

2. If a “free” level member pays for a “paid” membership while not logged in, will eMember still know he paid for his upgraded membership level? If so, is it based on the user’s email address or what?

3. I created a test member and set him up with a “free demo” level account. The test member then paid for a subscription level and after a few minutes the member’s membership level was automatically upgraded from “free demo” to a “paid” level account. So far so good. I then issued a refund to that test member. After issuing the refund, I noticed that the test member’s membership level (from the WP eMember control panel) was still “paid” but his account state was set to “unsubscribed”. What does this mean?

Thanks very much!

[wzp]

1. What is the recommended method for ensuring a new member is logged into their account before they click on a button to pay for a new subscription?

Membership Plugin – How to Add an upgrade button

2. If a “free” level member pays for a “paid” membership while not logged in, will eMember still know he paid for his upgraded membership level? If so, is it based on the user’s email address or what?

If they are not logged in, it thinks they want a new membership; unless they specify an existing email account.

After issuing the refund, I noticed that the test member’s membership level (from the WP eMember control panel) was still “paid” but his account state was set to “unsubscribed”. What does this mean?

It could possibly mean that, out of the generosity of your heart, you may decide to let the user keep the membership. Since eMember can’t read your mind, it doesn’t know your intent, and thus leaves the membership alone.

[gobigkahuna]

Could I get a serious answer to the second half of question #2 and all of #3 please? I’ve read the tutorials and searched the forums but haven’t found answers to my questions:

2. If eMember thinks it’s a new membership, how is that purchase linked to the user when they sign up for a membership? Is it using their email address?

3. So does “unsubscribed” really mean that their access to the paid information will continue until their previously paid subscription (now refunded so no longer paid for) would have expired? So for example, a customer pays for a 1 year membership, changes his mind, I refund the money, but his access will continue until I’ve manually closed his membership?

[admin]

2) Yes, it will use their email address to find an existing profile. If it finds one then it will upgrade that profile. Otherwise it will treat it as a new member signup scenario.

You can force your users to log-in before they can pay for upgrade that way it will be guaranteed that their profile (the one they are logged in) will be updated regardless of the email.

3) Use the “No Expiry or Until Cancelled” option in your membership level settings and it will deactivate the account immediately. If you have specified a duration value then it waits for that duration to be over before it cancels the account.

[gobigkahuna]

Thanks very much for the help, I’m still a bit confused though.

1. I’ve created 4 membership levels:

– “member” – only has access to member info and payment pages

– “demo” – is able to access the demo page for 10 days plus “member” level pages

– “month” – is able to access paid material for 30 days plus “member” level pages

– “year” – is able to access paid material for 1 year plus “member” level pages

I’ve set up the membership levels and page protections as explained in the docs and your reply but I’m not sure it will work as I am expecting.

What I want to happen is that when someone initially registers on my website, they are given a “demo” membership level. Then at the end of 10 days they are reverted to a “member” level membership.

Similarly for paid subscribers, when they pay for an upgraded membership, they have access to that membership for that period of time. Then at the end of their period, they are reverted back to a “member” level membership.

2. Ok, so I take it that if someone pays for a 1 year membership and then cancels, I will need to manually stop their access. Not an ideal situation, but hopefully there are so few cancellations it doesn’t become an issue.

[admin]

When someone cancels the membership, the plugin will automatically cancel their access. There are 2 ways you can sell access:

1) One time fee (example: $50 for 1 year access to a level). When the year is up, the plugin automatically deactivates access.

or

2) A recurring fee (example: $50 per year for access to a level). You should use the “No Expiry or Until Cancelled” option in the membership level. The subscription button will keep charging them $xx every year. If the user cancels the subscription, the account will be deactivated.

[Author]

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