Hi Alex. Can you set up a demo of aMember using the Bulletin Board plugin (doesn't matter which BB), so people can login and use aMember and see how it integrates with a demo forum/BB? I am curious and anxious to test the plugin running. I think that'd help everybody with their purchase decision. I would like to use the Bulletin Board BEHIND aMember password protection like this: /public_html/aMember_protected/invisionboard I need to distribute files to members, so I need those files inside a password protected directory. When a member returns to the site with above setup, must the member sign into aMember and then log into Invision Board? I understand how aMember adds people to a specific group in Invision Board upon signup, but after they are a member, how does signing into aMember also sign the member into the Invision Board in subsequent visits? cheers.
Ryan, ok, will do tomorrow. "Single Login" is working for Invision Board and vBulletin. So, if user logged-in in aMember, it also becomes logged in board and (!) vice-versa. You may use bulletin board behind aMember protection, but it is not necessary - you may unprotect this folder (it is also easy to do). Really there are million of possible installations and configurations and even if I setup one, it will not explain all possibilities. It is better to contact me for free advice. About your case - yes, it is possible. User becomes logged-in in both scripts, not matter where he was logged-in.
Perhaps I can lend some insight about using aMember with a BB plugin. In my case, the BB plugin is for the Invision Power Board. The board's not public yet since we're waiting on IPB 1.2 on June 15th. I'm running the board's normal registration AND aMember's registration- I don't want normal forum visitors to have to deal with subscriptions if they have no intention of joining our organization. Here's how my board's usergroups are setup: "Members" are those who have general access to the board if they register on it. "Paid Members" are those who've been sent to my aMember installation and bought a subscription. I have MULTIPLE usergroups above the "Paid Member" level....completely dependent upon the needs of my organization. In aMember, under the IPB's plugin settings, I've set the "Members" as the default "not paid" group and set "Admins" as the untouchable group. When a member pays for a subscription, they're automatically moved into the "Paid Member" level by aMember; they're moved back to a non-paid forum "member" if their subscription expires. Once in the "Paid Member" group, I manually set them to one of the higher up usergroups based on their particular placement within our organization. No matter where I place them, aMember automatically bumps them back down to the non-paid "Members" group if they expire (unless I make them admins). It's all quite easy.
If I may also add I am using phpBB2 inside a protected folder, and secure.htaccess I am not using groups at the moment, but Amemberpro has this all set up if I need it. very impressed!
Burn, So if you wanted to restrict access to your entire board you could do this scenario: 1. Guests can browse the board, but not read any topics (a.k.a the tease factor) 2. They create a login and at BB account creation are asked to "pay". 3. Depending on how they pay (instant vs offline, etc..) determines how quickly they will be (or at all) moved from the "Vaildating" group into the "Members" group. Using Paypal IPN, you may not notice this movement, but from the impression I am getting, is the way it works.
That is entirely an issue for the board, if that is what you allow there, then yes. They will need to create their account using aMember to pay. In my case I hae done this by changing where the 'resister now' link goes. It goes to the aMember sign-up page. They sign up and pay through amember and then, once their payment is completed however long that takes, they are added to the appropriate group in the BB. Yep. Of course you can, using amember, have multiple products at different prices which allow different levels of access to the BB. So a particular product would give exclusive access for example to a specified forum. The membership levels have to be set up in the BB in advance, but once they are they will appear as options in the amember Add Products screen and so can be associated with products.