[Joshua Shapiro]

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

[Joshua Shapiro]

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

[Joshua Shapiro]

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

[Joshua Shapiro]

Cristian – the solution I used was to go with s2Drip – setting the from_day to 0 – not sure why the other condition isn’t working
maybe it has to do with making a php call – better to keep it simple wiith shortcodes

Joshua

[Joshua Shapiro]

Cristian – I put all the s2IF conditions together (eliminating the blank lines) – figured out what
you were talking about and its working

but I want to clarify that in Jason examples using [s2IF current_user_can (access_s2member_levelX)]
this is for any level which is level X and greater so since our level 4 is free lifetime members – which is
an admin I used “can” —

thank you again –

now I am assuming when I take my test trial member and upgrade him to a paid level,
that s2member pro already sees he is a registered members and just changes his role
to the level he pays for – is this correct? so that I know any people who first join as a trial
member will be able to upgrade automatically by going through paypal

thank you – Joshua

[Joshua Shapiro]

Cristian

I have the welcome pages setup as 1-account-page, 2-account-page, etc …

I tried in my url to use:

[s2Get user_field="s2member_access_level" /]-account-page
but of course this url wasn’t recognized – is there a way
to use some variable for the level that instead of using
s2IF statement it will convert the level # to get me to the right
welcome/member page?

back to Level access versus role —

so you are say if a person is level 1 – as an example
access_s2member_level1 – is a capability – but if there
are no capabilities for level1 and a person is level 1 is it true?

my level2 has two capabilities novel1 and novel2
so it would be current_user_can(access_s2member_level2_novel1)? then

I just saw when I tested the page and I changed
from current_user_can(access_s2member_level4) to current_user_is(s2member_level4)
that I couldn’t see the text for the screen as an admin

also when you say to have no breaking lines between
/s2IF and s2IF/ what would this look like?

this is what I have at the moment:

[s2If current_user_is(access_s2member_level1)]
Home Page: [ <span style=”color: #ff0000;”>click here</span> ]
Logout of Membership: [ <span style=”color: red;”>[logout_to_home text=”click here”]</span> ]
[/s2If]

can you show me how I would change it to eliminate any extra blank lines?

just trying to see the best way to code this part as all levels will access
this page and I want to take them back to their specific welcome/account page

thank you – Joshua

[Joshua Shapiro]

1) I know in paypal after someone pays – they get sent to a page we want them to see – so what you are saying basically for all Paypal forms is we can send a person to the next page to see – so for a trial member we could send them back to the home page of our site if we want

2) now are you saying that if a new member pays on Paypal, that also s2member pro will automatically make a new account for them, enter their name, email, and send the welcome email I setup — also will send a temporary password?

3) I see how to change the welcome email to the paid members, but what about the welcome emails to the trial member,
under general options is an Email setting message, is this where their welcome message comes from? – the new User message you said above right?

where do we go within wordpress to allow or not allow custom passwords, I think its better to let wordpress send a custom or generated password and have the member login and change it

thanks Cristian again for your help – I have a test system offered to me where I can try this all out

one other questions, if I use sandbox on paypal – I don’t need to worry about what is called my merchant ID?

thanks – Joshua

[Joshua Shapiro]

Hi Cristian

this is what I found out so far – for example I use Foxfire – I saw there are applications for what to do with a pdf file
and what to do with an mp3 file (basically 3 options view/play, download or ask which one?)

so it doesn’t seem to matter what I do in s2member pro – if I try to download or view the pdf
the settings in the browser are over riding it – so it was suggested to me by a friend who is a developer
to offer 3 things

a) let the person click on the link directly and as it happened with me, my application was set to view
the pdf they would see this but then when I changed my setting to download, the file was downloaded automatically

b) suggest (but I think on a mac if a person click directly on their link since they don’t have two buttons on their mouse
they are asked what to do) to Window users to right-click the mouse to download

c) make a zip file of all the member files for the month – which would be downloaded

does this sound like a good plan since there is no way to know what setting each member will have for pdf and mp3
files in their browser?

the key is that via the settings I gave for amazon s3 within s2member pro is working

but again this is the code I used (I didn’t add the in-line part – maybe if I do this would force
the pdf to be downloaded, can you tell me Cristian as I wanted to offer for each member file two links?

click here

you see above I don’t have the setting about in-line – but I again believe the behavior within the browser
will be based on the application or plugin controling how to handle pdf files

also another developer suggested when the pdf file is viewed to open in a separate window
so they don’t lose the link to the member page where the files are to be downloaded

I just got a test site where I can try options and also the RC version of s2member

don’t worry Cristian about the delay to answer, everything happens in its right time

Joshua

[Joshua Shapiro]

Cristian

I just played with a pdf file within options within my browser, and using Foxfire I saw there is an application
you can specify to work with file types – for pdf it was setup to display the file – so no settings I use within s2member pro
have any effect it appears

when I changed the application to download, it downloaded the file to my computer and when I set it to ask
it had a window that asked whether I wanted to view the pdf or download it

so how can we prepare for the situation of our member how they will perceive the pdf file – I am sure (although I have
tested this yet) I will run into the same situation with an mp3 file if it will automatically be played which since our mp3 files
could be an hour it would probably be better to let them be downloaded

do you have any suggestions how we can offer these two member files so the member is not confused what
is going on since how they setup their browser takes presidence (I believe) over what we use in s2memberpro linked
to downloading or viewing/playing

Joshua

[Joshua Shapiro]

Hi Cristian

my ultimate goal is to offer a way for our member to view and download our pdf member files
and to hear or download the mp3 files

I haven’t tested the mp3 files yet because I have yet to resolve the issue with the pdf file
always being viewed by the interal pdf viewer plugin of the browser

yes I did ask in the download options that a pdf extension be an inline file

here is the code on the page I am using:

click here

maybe there is something else I need to add here because this pdf file is on amazon s3
what did you do to get your file to offer a download option

thank you Cristian

Joshua

PS – if I have to live with just offer the pdf files as a download its ok
or maybe I can explain to our member is they wish to view the pdf, another plugin
takes over and the screen

PSS – I don’t know if you have time Cristian but would it help if I let you
be a user on our site and you looked around? I have tried setting up everything
I read in the instructions for s2member pro

[Joshua Shapiro]

Cristian you are an angle from God and I appreciate your help

you are the second person who has told me about set http headers – but when I right click on our bucket
this option does not appear – I have looked everywhere on amazon s3 and I can not find this option – could it be working with the firefox browser I don’t see it and should try chrome

on the first part I was able to add content dispostion – value attachment
now I don’t know if I needed to delete the other meta data I setup before
which was content-type text-plain (as I read someone else to suggest to force it to download)

in any case, it is possible unless I can find how to set http headers – that even
making the change to add content disposition – when I click on the link to our pdf
file on amazon s3 – using the code via s2member pro – we still see the pdf file
being displayed in the browser …

so so far we still are at an impass
plus I am assuming if and when we can get this working, this means we
will have to live with just letting our members download the files and not be
able to all view (the pdf files) or hear (the mp3 files)

any more ideas or suggestions —

any ideas if there is a way to get the plugin PDF Viewer to work with our pdf file on amazon s3
(the dvelopers said it won’t work)

thank you again Cristian

Joshua

[Joshua Shapiro]

Cristian

in regard to your answer:

You said:

The PDF or MP3 will be opened in the browser, depending on how the browser is configured, I guess. Some will open it and others will download it to the computer.

I say – so does this mean that no matter what shortcodes I use in s2member they can not over-ride the behavior of the browser, I tested this in chrome, firefox, opera and ms browser – everyone had a plugin open the pdf file – even if I show the s2mempro settings or shortcode to not to do inline – it still will ignore this and open the pdf file or play the mp3 file – I need to make sure that no matter what browser a person uses that I can have the same result – to download (which I have never achieved with a pdf on amazon s3 not matter what I try) or to open the pdf file in a viewer from within a word press site?

you said:
You may need to generate a URL with a key. See: WP Admin -> s2Member -> Download -> Advanced

I have used the advanced features given and still unable to have through the browser I use working within
the page framework of my wordpress website to have the pdf file displayed in either the plugin PDF viewer
or have a way via indicating the pdf file is inline to display the pdf file to display outside of the built in pdf plugin
within the browser – it seems all the browser if they see a pdf file will take over the full screen and display the pdf
file within the browser’s plugin and not a word press pdf viewer plugin

for these two situation do I have no other options? or must I then forget about using amazon s3 and put all
the member files under the s2-files sub directory – if I do this I know the plugin PDF viewer works but then I lose
the advantage of placing the member files with a faster system with amazon s3

thank you Cristian

Joshua

[Joshua Shapiro]

Cristian – I tried to send you a message via the contact function of the forum and it didn’t let me do so
is there any way I can talk with via email or skype (my email is crystalskullexplorers@gmail.com)
thank you – Joshua

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