Custom Integration Question...

I have not yet investigated this fully, but I figured I'd ask first to circumvent reinventing the wheel...

I have a custom script that is in development. We'd like to use aMember for the subscriber management portion, but will not need to be password protecting directories or files.

The protection scheme is to enable functions in the custom script, so...
what I need is one custom integer field from aMember that can be set for subscription levels. We can call it "subscription_level_id"

So, if "subscription_level_id" is...
0= Free
1= activate level 1 subscription functions.
2= activate level 2 subscription functions.
3= activate level 3 subscription functions.
and so on...

The subscription_level_id would be passed to the custom script and saved in it's database. Options maybe required for recurring billing.

Is this approach possible?

Thanks!

Hi!

If your custom script is give differences in sunscription _AND_ has a field which can be accesed by amember, then a simple answer is yes, if I understand correctly.

This is known as products in amember and the field is knows as payment_id.

You will need to create different products i.e. subscriptions which will map to your custom script i.e. table and allow logins for that subscription.

The moment a member pays, amember will update the scuscription in that table which will allow access or logins.

Thants how actually all the subscription interface works, do'nt they? So your question should be, is there a plugin for that custom script available, then a simple answer is NO.

You may however ask Alex to make one or one experienced programmer. They are not very difficult actually. Just mapp the fields and thats it...

Thanks Draj!

As always you're a great help!
We will write a custom plugin...I think Alex has that in the manual...should be simple stuff.

Hi!

U are welcome...

I WARN YOU NOT TO WRITE YOUR OWN PLUGIN!

I suggest that you buy joomla plugin (amongst all available plugins) and modify. It is a total waste of time to start from scratch, beleive me.

Get a correct plugin template from joomla and not fom those Wikis thing. They are for people to have some very basic understanding and _NOT_ for complex work or for production site. They give only very very basic help and _NO_MORE_ info in details which ould be worth working with...

If you trust me, just close your eyes and buy the joomla plugin. If you do not beleive or trust me, say it here and I will give my reasons for than in details. (I am not a salesman or affiliate of cgi-central and receive no commission whatsoever from the company, mind you..)

To be honest, I find the entire plugin idea very very good not not really well impressed in terms of the related issues to making this work and their restrictions arising out of it. It id difficult to configure, if the plugin is not available. It id difficult to change certain things, etc... It is impossible to have a cross-plugin interface and everything has to go through the amember installation..

The best would have been a field mapping directly from the mysql database i.e. a mapping between system fields of amember including amember_aditional_fields to remote_database fields. By this system, it would be simply possible to configure amember_aditional_fields in one table and in anathor table to write entries of mapping which fieldd is mapped to a remote_field.

Had this feature implemented, we all would have no problems. Just simply click on the fields and get going. Here even the imports would work directly from mysql. I did place a feature request and the staff reacted to be very very positive. However I have not yet heard thereafter and have no knowledge if this would be implemented or not, a feature which is really worth...

Draj, I believe you!
I need something robust, that will work reliably.

Here's the details:

Users must be able to sign up using just name and email.
There will 1 initial signup option which is a FREE membership.

Once the user is "captured". They will be prompted to upgrade to a PAID membership which will unlock additional program features.

So, the two databases would probably require to share a "Name" and "email" field as well as the "payment_id" field.

The billing would be recurring, so if the users fails to renew, they would be bumber back to a free membership, and loose the additional functionailty.

I'd like to hear from Alex too on this issue...maybe he can write a plugin for this...I, and my developer, would rather not try to re-invent the wheel.

Thanks for any additonal info you can provide.

Hoi!

Two databases? Why on earth you need two databases? May be you are really not clear about what could be done.

Well, what you are talking about subscription playing something for an experienced admin a "very normal" thing.

So following will happen or could be done:

1. Create first subscription, which will be a free subscription giving a free assecc.
2. Get your fishing net loaded by fishes
Wink...
3. Create a second subscription, which will be a paid subscription. One more third subscription also a paid one.
4. Define in th second and the third subscription to deactivate the first subscription - once - the user joins the group.

With the first subscription, you can play like give them a free access for a few days, expire them and make that subscription trigger to activate and do something.

Further, you can also use the tags of products like:

if {product_id = first subscription}
.....then show an atractive fishing net,
.....show prices of entering the net,
.....unload money from their pockets through a payment processor,
.....upgrade their status to second subscription.
if {product_id = first subscription}
give access to the subscription...

Draj:

Funny! I like you analogy!

You understand exactly what I am trying to do...

As far as the TWO databases. I have aMember already installed using one db.
My custom script uses it's own db. That's two.

The custom script uses the db heavily, so there is no option to merge the two in any way...especially if an update to aMember comes along...I'd be screwed.

I figured this is no different from the way aMember transfers data between other script databases, phpBB, Joomla, Coppermine, etc...


Thanks!
Your input continues to help!