Review of a trial member upgrading to a paid member

Forums General Review of a trial member upgrading to a paid member

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  • #535
    Joshua Shapiro
    Participant

    Cristian

    I want to ask you about suggested procedure to upgrade a member
    (I have tested now in my system the full range of joining and even sandbox in paypal worked fine)

    you said before if a free trial member is logged on, and they go to upgrade to a paid membership
    that when they use a Paypal Pro form – it will put their information into the form, they click the paypal
    button (I have to use Express Checkout) – they go to Paypal, make the payment, I have a thank you
    page and all that will happen is their role will be changed and we have them as a reoccurring payment
    will be set up – s2member pro recognizes they already are a member

    however, I see there are versions of the Pro Form that are available to create a shortcode if a member
    wish to do an upgrade as a paid member – so is it better to use this upgrade form like from a trial
    member to a higher level?

    in our case we don’t really have this due to drip feeding – but my question is this in case a person makes
    a mistake

    lets assume they are logged in, they are level 2 – and they pay for level 3 – does this mean?:

    one – on paypal their level 2 reoccurrence is stopped and a level 3 payment reoccurrence will replace it
    and then their role in the user would be changed to level 3?

    what I am concerned about is if an existing member (level 2 or 3) decides to pay again – with the current
    user name, that it will reset their account? change their date of joining our membership – ??

    is there a way to block this?

    and secondly, I didn’t see this field in the user profile (via the user option) but how can I change
    a user’s date when they join being a member so I can test for the 2nd month of drip feeding?

    thanks Cristian

    Joshua

    #544

    I see there are versions of the Pro Form that are available to create a shortcode if a member
    wish to do an upgrade as a paid member

    Do you mean the Modification Pro-Form? That one works for registered users only, while the regular pro-form works for existing users only, while the regular pro-form can be used to register new ones or upgrade existing ones.

    lets assume they are logged in, they are level 2 – and they pay for level 3 – does this mean?:
    one – on paypal their level 2 reoccurrence is stopped and a level 3 payment reoccurrence will replace it
    and then their role in the user would be changed to level 3?

    Yes, in PayPal the level 2 subscription would be ended and a new one created for level 3, and his WP role gets changed to s2Member Level 3.

    what I am concerned about is if an existing member (level 2 or 3) decides to pay again – with the current
    user name, that it will reset their account? change their date of joining our membership – ??

    No, he can’t register a new account with the same username, and trying it wouldn’t reset his existing account.

    how can I change a user’s date when they join being a member so I can test for the 2nd month of drip feeding?

    Why would you need to change the date for the drip? You can drip based on the date he got a particular access, so level 0 and level 2 could have different dates if he registered free first and upgraded later. Does that make sense? See: WP Admin -> s2Member -> Scripting -> Content Dripping

    I hope that helps. 🙂

    #547
    Joshua Shapiro
    Participant

    Cristian

    thanks for replying – I have been able to do many tests since I last wrote this post and got some help from Websharks –
    so I have two issues left that I am waiting for help as my membership service with s2member pro is almost done

    first I need to describe what I am trying to do

    we are offering people a chance to read chapters of two novels we are writing – rather than wait till the whole book is done
    they can read what we have completed so far

    the setup is level 1 is 30 day trial, level 2 is divided into two ccaps, novel1 and novel 2, level 3 is to receive both novels
    and level 4 is free lifetime membership (for people helping us and with these projects)

    my challenge is the following
    I tried to use a Pro form paypal with modify to pretend I am switching to receive novel 2 instead of novel 1 — while in paypal
    the previous reoccurring membership was cancelled and a new one started within the wp databases and s2member fields
    we have two problems

    1) the ccap field which showed novel1, now shows both novel1 and novel2 which is not what I want
    2) there is a field in wp_meta (or something like this) which shows the initial date of payment should be changed
    to the new date of this switch (from January 1st to January 4th but it was not) – this would affect how I drip feed content
    as the member should now only see the materials for novel2 and not for both novel1 and novel2

    I am used to programming with databases (not using php) and it appears via s2member pro I do not have a way
    (as far as I can tell) to change the value for this member of these fields –
    a) to blank out the ccap file in the user profile so it will only show novel2 instead of novel1, novel2
    b) to reset the date of initial payment to become a member for the new service switch

    so does this mean I can’t keep a level 2 member with receive materials for only one novel diferientiating which
    novel by the ccap value and must make perhaps novel 1 a level 2 member and novel2 a level 3 member?

    and if I do this, when I switch a person from level 2 to level 3 or level 3 to level2 – that this database field
    that is used to determine the number of days a person is a paid member so in the s2drip shortcode when
    I say from_day=”0″, or from_day=”31″, etc basically giving new materials each month that this initial payment
    date in the wp_meta (database) will be changed too?

    or is there a way where I can change this value of this field within the page via shortcodes?

    do you know the field I am speaking about – I asked Jason about this and he said this field exists but
    that a) I can’t manually change its value by use a mysql program as I can’t see this database – it is
    setup by the code with s2member pro

    so to summary what I am asking is, if I change a member from one level to another, not only will the previous
    payment sent up on paypal be cancelled and a new one started but this date field of when a person pays
    for membership will also be changed when they change levels so I can start over for drip feeding of member
    content?

    is there a way I can view the value of this field – using a s2get command? so in my test pages
    I could show it on the screen?

    2) Second challenge with our membership – how to allow a person to join who does want to use an on-line payment
    system such as paypal and sends us a check in the mail?

    Does this mean I ask them to register first (free member) so they have their login and password and then
    I change their role to the paid member – manually add an EOT date? but then how to give them access to
    each month of membership – do I manually use the ccap field I see in their user profile and maybe put
    ccap codes which I can use a s2IF shortcode?

    like one ccap code that this is a manual payer (which I would keep a history in a spreadsheet)
    then another code they paid for month 1, then another code they paid for month2, and so on

    I am trying to have our system be ready for these future eventualities – or is there already a page that
    Jason did which explains how to handle a new member who pays via a check?

    only ideas or thoughts how to do this would be great Cristian

    thank you – Joshua

    #548
    Joshua Shapiro
    Participant

    Christian

    this is an update to my post – I tried another test

    I took a test member who was level 2 – and did a modify to level 3
    what I saw was the custom capability field was not cleared out (novel1, novel2) was still there
    and also when I tested if the date of paying for the upgraded service in the wp_meta database
    was reset, it was not

    while I think making novel1 level 2 and making novel2 level 3 will help with what
    files are shown

    the drip feeding part won’t work – this gives to the member all the prior months of
    information we shared instead of starting over at month 1

    can you help

    Joshua

    #565

    I’m not 100% sure I understand the setup you have, because there’s a big mixed use of levels and ccap for access and you didn’t explain the payments. I think that’s a mistake and that you may be better just using ccaps and s2Drip in this setup.

    Or are you selling a subscription instead of one-time payments? That’s the only case where a level would be required that I can think of right now, because ccaps can’t be sold with a recurring payment.

    The way I understand what you have:

    – Level 1 is to give a 30 day trial, which may be achieved with s2Drip and not require a subscription, unless you plan to charge recurringly for continued access afterwards, but it seems that for access after the trial you give Level 2.

    – Level 2 is for continued access to a single (seems to be a single payment, not recurring), and you have it split into two, for novels 1 and 2.

    – Level 3 is for access to both novels.

    – Level 4 is for access to both novels, but without having paid.

    You can do all that with just level 1 and ccaps. Even just level 0 if there’s no recurring payment, use the free user registration (the free registration pro-form lets you add ccaps to his free account, e.g the trial one).

    For access to novel 1, you give/sell the ccap for novel 1. Same for novel 2. If the user gets access to both, you just give both separate ccaps, not a ccap/level that mixes both. If he gets them free, the ccap can be the same for access, he just didn’t pay for it.

    For the trial access, you can probably have a ccap that gives that temporary access (e.g. novel1trial), and you’d check for it with a conditional and the date he got that access.

    I hope that helps. 🙂

    #574
    Joshua Shapiro
    Participant

    Hi Cristian

    first let me explain a bit more about my system

    we are not selling the whole novel, we are giving chapters each month of two different novels – unless a person becomes a paid member they don’t see the chapters (along with a special interview each month) which is why we need drip feeding

    I was able to setup a reoccuring payment with a ccap — but as I explain below, when a person wants to switch which novel they see, due to an inability to change some fields in the wp database or s2member database – I am not able to do what I want
    anyway here is what I discovered:

    after doing many test I found out the following things of how s2member pro works which is affecting how I need to setup our membership for the two novels being offered simultaneously – either separately or together

    since I am using drip feeding (s2Drip shortcode) – I need to know how many months a person has been a member
    to reveal what chapters they see

    however when I do a MODIFY Pro Form – if they switch (say novel1 to novel2 or visa versa) there is a field in I think it is called
    the wp_meta database that has a date when they became a paid member and this Modify Pro form leaves this date the same
    and it is not reset if a person changes their membership via a switch in ccap value or levels

    and I was told by Jason that we have no way to change this field (unless you know of a way where I can
    change the value of this field with a shortcode or maybe php??

    so I have changed my setup to instead of using two ccaps (novel1 and novel2 which is how I originally did it on level2) to make each novel its own level — so this way (because again when I did a modify to switch, the custom capability field then contained both of these ccap values which means this person would get the chapters from both books instead just the new one they switched to …

    the only option I have for a person who wishes to switch then since I can’t change the field in wp_meta database that has the date when they first became a paid member is to make a conversion fee based on how long they have been a member (which I can test with a s2Drip shortcode, so they will get X months of the other novel equal to how many months (X) they were receiving the first novel they began to read

    I don’t expect many people will want to switch from one novel to another – more they will want to upgrade to both novels which again I would charge a converting fee to take them to the next level

    so for example if they received 1 month+ but less then two months of novel 1 and went to novel 2 they would pay the fee for novel 2 plus a one time fee of $5 –

    I don’t see any other way to do this unless there is a way to resent this field that has the date that shows when they became a paid member and to begin over to the receiving of chapters for the second novel

    also I didn’t see a way how to reset the custom capability field – to take out ccap novel1 and just show novel2 or visa versa

    so for the first part of my request for help if you know a way
    a) can I reset the date when they become a paid member b) can I blank out of the custom capability field in the user profile?

    (if not then the only option I see is to go with an extra fee to switch)

    also a semi-related question – I tested canceling a member using a cancel option in a Pro Form, it did cancel the reoccuring fee on paypal but I thought then the person’s level would be changed to level 0 (a free member) but this didn’t happen but I noticed there was an EOT date setup – so does this mean, how s2member pro changes any person, whether their trial membership runs out or they cancel, when the EOT date is exceeded then they are changed to level 0? I need to know this as I am sending out emails based on the EOT date.

    2nd question – now I also want to allow people to join who send us a check or money order – obviously we have to do some manual work to setup such a person – what will complicate this, is using drip feed how can I check to see how many months the person has been a member?

    my thought was to make a custom capability that saids this is a manual payment, manually change their EOT when their check comes in but do you have any suggestions how I can keep how many months?

    my thoughts is to append a new ccap that shows for each month they paid – or can I make a new field in the user’s profile that I can access and check the number of months they are member – like I added to their profile for city – state/province – country but I don’t want the user to see this field?

    I used to be a programmer of databases so I am use to making fields to store aspect of a customer that tells me in a program what to do … I don’t know php that well – but there is a friend helping me who if I know how to work with s2member pro we could do this – if this works, it might help other s2member pro users who have people who pay by check in a system that is doing drip feeding

    thank you Cristian

    Joshua

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