This is what I wish to accomplish:
1) guests who can browse the forum only. (not a problem)
2) registered members who can post questions via a paid subscription (not working)
I've enable the paid subscription feature and created a membergroup (inherited from Regular Members) to which I would like ALL users who register to the forum to be assigned.
NOTE: In the settings there are four Select Group Type options (this is set to Private). The other types seem to indicate the user may make the selection.
However when I register a test user that member does not get assigned to the created membergroup and can post questions. If I inspect the user profile for this member it says (no primary membergroup).
So my questions are:
1 - How do I set up registration to automatically assign users to my created membergroup?
2 - Is this the correct approach to mandate a paid subscription before letting users into the forum?
I'm under the assumption that at registration the user would be directed to PayPal for payment then after the transaction completes (via ipn) the user would be given access to the forum.
Thanks,
The user must be registered before they can do a paid subscription.
It will not automatically redrect to them after registeration to paypal. They need to goto their profile and click paid subs.
Unless you alter you permissions to prevent all membergroups from accessing each forum, they will be able to see the forums.
What most people do is create a single board at the top that explains to people they need to do a paid subscription.
(that forum would have permissions so everyone can see it)
then alter EVERY other boards permission to disallow everything except for admin/mods and Paid subscription membergroup.
Having the user be registered was key (didn't know that). So getting users into a paid forum is really a two step process:
- have them register
- have them find and use the paid subscription link
From your description:
Lainaathen alter EVERY other boards permission to disallow everything except for admin/mods and Paid subscription membergroup.
This would imply that the board would be hidden as the view permission would be disallowed? So a member would then need to subscribe to an unseen board?
My requirements were that all non-members (Guests) could view the board and upon a paid registration then be permitted to post replies and questions.
So my solution was to create two membergroups
- Support Seeker
- Paid Support
Upon registration a user would be assigned to the Support Seeker membergroup. Support Seeker woud have permissions identical to Guests but with the addition to
- View profile summary and stats (own profile)
Edit account settings (own profile)
With these permissions Support Seeker would be able to purchase the subscription.
When the subscription transaction completes the user is added to the Paid Subscription membergroup which has the additional permissions of post and reply.
You don't need to block them from viewing the board if that's not what you want. Just go to Admin > Permissions and go to each of those membergroups and make sure the option to post replies are disabled/unchecked. Same for new topics if you don't want them to be able to post them.
Your members just need to go into their Profiles and they should see a Paid Subscriptions link on the left to click on.
There is a mod to put new members into a specified group automatically but it's only for SMF 1.1.x...at least for now, unless the author updates it to work on SMF 2.0.
So you do not know of any one step "Reg. & Pay" mods? Also what mod do I use to place them into specific groups that will change after paying?
Thanks
Edit: I found the membergroup mod...
If you don't want users to go trough the process of looking for paid subscription option you can use this mod (http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1446) (if the user doesn't have to activate his account trough mail or admin approve), or this mod (http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1445) (if the user has to go trough activation).
I tried both of those and neither work on my themes. Even on the default it did not redirect for me.
Thanks
I answered you in the mods topic, here:
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=266694.msg1956885#msg1956885
Locking topic as it seems the original poster has abandoned it.