I am running VB 3.6.2 with the latest aMember and vB plugin installed. I have a large forum with around 20k users. I am currently using the built-in vbulletin payment system, but want better stats, and recurring billing, so I purchased aMember. I offer two levels of membership in my forum: Member and Gold Member. The default usergroup is Member, and the upgraded usergroup is Gold Member. I don't want to change the way users signup in vBulletin, or manage their profiles, etc. I have read everything available for integrating aMember, and it seems that the obviously easy way to do it is overlooked, but perhaps, hopefully, I'm missing something. All I want is for user with Member status to go to a payment page, make a payment, and have his/her usergroup changed to Gold Member. They shouldn't have to enter a username or password, as these already exist. I don't have any protected directories, just use vBulletin's built in usergroup restrictions. The only fields that they fill out should be payment fields, when the transaction completes, aMember modifies the vb_user table to change their usergroup. This seems so simple, and yet when I install and configure aMember, it asks the user to re-enter username, pass, etc. when upgrading their account. All help is appreciated.
Hi, I am actually looking for the exact same solution. I also hav a forum with two user options and control access via. vBs groups and permissions. I will watch this to see if there is a good option to sort it all out. Regards, John
Actually, in your case, aMember is not an option, because aMember requires that all users registers via aMember, and aMember runs master database of users. It is acceptable for new sites, but not for existing comminities built around a forum.
That's very disapointing, as it seems so intuitive for a vBulletin plugin to actually integrate with vBulletin. I'll look into calling signup.php form from within a custom vBulletin page. If that won't work, the I request a full refund. Whish you could refund my time invested.
It would be nice to integrate into vBulletin, but it is impossible for such a complex system as aMember to completely integrate.
I too have spent a lot of time (and $) with aMember but never got it to completely work the way I want it. It seems ever so close, but yet so far from what would work as a membership system integrated with vbulletin. There have been lots of requests for this type of thing - I'm surprised someone hasn't done it yet. aMember came close.. until last night it wiped out all my users group memberships when I was playing around and did a db rebuild. I had no idea it would compare the "base" membership in aMember and remove all my forum users from their groups.. and we're not talking just the Membership group, but other groups they had joined to gain access to special areas of our forums. Wow... I have no idea why one would want this as a feature or ever need to run it. Good thing I do backups before playing with these types of things.
Yes, aMember overwrites user-groups to calculated. It is needed when you for example, had a broken link between aMember and vBulletin sometime, then restored the link. How do we disable expired users in vBulletin in this case? However, we have an idea how to make it more intelligent - aMember will only touch groups that were configured for it, and do not touch other vB usergroups.
My money was refunded (Thanks Alex). I would be willing to pay $500 for a system that fully integrates.
Yes, has this been fixed? I haven't been able to find any documentation that describes exactly what the vBulletin plugin does (which I have bought a license for). thanks
I just got done re-installing aMember for like the 4th time in 3 years... this will be my last attempt. I can say that the plugin was not fixed to handle it this way. I did get alex to fix mine though! Perhaps he will make the same change to the public available version. Here was my issue: All users in my forums are set to "Registered Users" as their default group, then have many "Additional" groups that control certain access. For example, one might be in a group that grants access to a specific forum, or members of our club are also given special rights and an icon under their name indicating they are a member. ALL of this is driven by additional groups, not the primary group. My first test: UserA is in "Registered Users" as well as a group called "Dirt Bosses" and "Forum X Access". (1 default, 2 additional). User signs up to be a member of our club, so gets access to "Members" additional group. All is working fine. However, if I did a rebuild or the user were to expire, the users additional groups are all erased, and they are left with only "Registered Users". Luckily I didn't do this on our production system after importing all the users or everyone would have lost their group membership! I had alex go in and fix it so now only the Members group is turned on or off as the user expires or the database is rebuilt. Its still not a perfect system, but at least I can use it this way. I would think most vBulletin admins would not want to have all additional groups cleared out like the standard plugin does. aMember should ONLY touch the group specified by the product and NEVER touch any others... ever. I don't see why it would need too. Thanks alex for your help!!!!
Thanks John. OK, I need that. What do I have to do? I need aMember to cover my new custom directory, vBulletin (by secondary membergroups also, like John's above), photopost and Mediawiki.