Question about Integrating WP eStore with WP eMembers

[drmani]

I’ve ordered the pack of WP eStore, WP eMembers and WP Affiliate, with

a plan to integrate it all for a blog-based membership program.

I’ve set up the WP eStore, and listed the membership as one of the

products. The ordering process works fine.

I’ve activated WP eMembers, and it is protecting one category in which

paid-membership content will be delivered.

Now my question is:

How do I get the two to work together?

I want my blog visitors to:

1. Order a paid membership (through eStore)

2. Make their payment, and then be taken to the membership registration

page

3. Register to access the private content

How do I make this happen automatically, without my having to manually

verify payments, and then add/register the buyer as a member?

On WP eMembers, I have created a page on my blog for new registrations,

but have turned OFF ‘Free Memberships’ – so it redirects to the order

page.

One solution I thought of was to enable ‘Free Memberships’ – and then

make the registration page the ‘download page’ for the eStore purchase.

However, how will the two be integrated, so that eMembers knows which

buyers/members to grant GOLD member access privileges to?

Am I missing out on some step in the process?

Thanks for your help. This looks like a very powerful and effective

set of plug-ins, and once I get it all integrated and working, will

definitely be letting folks know about it.

Thanks.

All success

Dr.Mani

[amin007]

@drmani, The eStore and eMember plugins are pre-integrated so you don’t need to do any manual work for integration. The only thing you need to do is specify the “Membership Level ID” in the eStore product when you create/configure an “Add to Cart”, “Buy Now” or “Subscribe” button.

Here is an example scenerio, You have a membership level called “Gold Pass”. The id of this membership level is 3 (The ID for each membership level is listed on the Manage Levels screen). Say for example, you want to charge $25 for this membership level. So head to the “Add/Edit Products” menu of the WP etore plugin so you can configure an “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” button to accept payment from potential customers. When you fill in the details of this product, just specify 3 (Membership Level ID of Gold Pass) in the “Reference Text” field which is under the “Additional Product Details” section. Now, Place this “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” button you just configured on your Membership Payment/Join Us page.

When a member pays for the membership using this button the eStore plugin will know (from the Level ID you entered in the reference text) that this payment was for a “Gold Pass” and it will automatically create the appropriate member account and send an email to the customer. The email sent to the customers will contain a unique link. When they follow that link they will be brought to the registration page where they will be able to choose their Username and password to complete the registration and access the “members only” content.

If you have muliple mebership levels then create an “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” button for each membership level and place them on your Membership Payment/Join Us page following the above instructions.

Let me know if this makes sense.

[drmani]

Got it, thanks.

Yes, it makes sense. I wondered what that field (Reference Text) was for on the eMembers plugin, had an idea it was to integrate both, but didn’t realize there was a field for it on eStore “Additional Product Details” section as well.

Will try it next time and let you know how it goes.

Thanks for your help

All success

Dr.Mani

[Kate]

First, I want to apologize that I’ve been all over the site! I posted a question in the comments section, one in the documentation section, and now one here! Don’t mean to be a nuisance! Hopefully it’s not too much trouble for you.

Anyhow, I have a question along the lines of drmani, but, slightly different. I’d like to be able to have all users start off on the same registration page. From there, they can choose which membership type they want from (perhaps) a drop-down. Or, after registration and confirming their e-mail, they’re re-directed to a page where they can select one of the three buttons to say which membership type they want. Is this possible? I’m just trying to figure out the best way to keep the registration flow basically the same for any type of user. I have three membership types: trial (expires in 1 day), free (no expiration), and paid (must be renewed every year).

Thanks so much!

[amin007]

Hi Kate, the registration flow is the same for signing up for any type of membership except the free one (this one doesn’t have any payment involved). I have replied to your comment which should answer the “Trial” membership option.

The basic member registration flow is the following:

1) Visitor lands on your site.

2) Want to become a member after seeing some of the awesome content.

3) Follows the “Register” or “Join Today” link.

4) The above mentioned links will take them to the “Membership Payment” Page. It may look similar to the one here (http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/eMember-demo/members-home/join-us)

5) From this page they can decide which membership option they want to choose (eg. Free, Silver, Gold or whatever you are offering)

6) If they choose the “Free Membership” then they just follow the link and sign up for a free membership. Remember, the free membership sign up is only possible if you (the admin) allow free membership on your site.

7) If they choose a “Paid Membership” then they make a payment by clicking on the payment button for the appropriate membership.

Once the Payment is confirmed (at this point the plugin knows what type of membership this member wants), the plugin will create the appropriate membership account for this visitor.

9) The member will receive an email that contains a UNIQUE link to complete the registration.

10) When the member clicks on that link in the email it will let them choose a “username” and “password” and complete the registration. At this point the member can log into the site.

Step 9 and 10 are additional steps that allows the member to choose their own “username” and “password”. Many membership plugin just randomly creates a “username” and “password” for the member and completes the process at step 8. From my experience I know what most people do not like to receive random “username” and “password” assigned to them so in WP eMember I made sure the members can choose the login credentials.

Let me know if this makes sense

[Kate]

Thanks so much for the reply and the breakdown. And, it absolutely does make sense. I’m sorry I didn’t quite get it before. I’ll blame it on lack of sleep.

I was hoping to have the signup/registration form be the main thing all users see on the home page (until they log in), but I guess I can figure something else out for the design. I’m creating a dating site for a client, and the majority of them seem to have that “get started now” form on the home page. Hmmm… I’ll have to think about that one.

[Author]

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