Integration with Mambo

I currently have a custom website and just installed the trial version a week ago. I really like it. I am planning on converting my custom php website to work with Mambo... It will just make things easier. I had no problem exporting my existing members and importing them into aMember. Are there any tips, things I should watch out for, when installing Mambo and integrating it with aMember? Is there a trial Mambo plugin? I am assuming that Mambo protected pages will not be viewable unless they are members of Mambo and aMember. Can there be free member sections and paid member sections in Mambo?

Thanks for any advice.
Rick

With reading all the post I was able to get almost everything done. And yes, I did read the sticky before posting my questions.
I am still looking for an answer/suggestions for the following questions.

1. I had aMember installed before Mambo. I was able to import all my members into aMember. How do I get them into Mambo?

2. I have disabled Mambo signup page. Can there be free member sections and paid member sections in Mambo? Maybe this should be posted at Mambo's site.

Thanks in advance.
Rick

I can answer Number 2 for you. Right now, it's NO. What you essentially want is to have two types of members - free and paid. Without getting too technical, Mambo only has one "regular" registered member group. To do what you want, you'd need a "special" registered member group (i.e., paid member group). Unfortunately at this time, Mambo does not yet have sophisticated member group controls - you cannot create your desired groups "on the fly".

The Mambo team is aware of this growing issue of user groups, and rumor has it that Mambo 5 will include these controls. Unfortuantely, that doesn't do Mambo webmasters much good.

To get this functionality NOW requires a bit of custom coding. The GOOD news is that it is not very expensive. I got a quote of $50 when I bid this out at Mambolance.com (where you can bid Mambo projects to Mambo specialists). This will require a couple of days of work by a qualified programmer.

I asked the folks here at CGI-Central about this very thing a day or so ago. The response I have is that, though the aMember Mambo module is coded to work with this current Mambo, altering it to work with a new customized member group (like the "paid registered" group) is a fairly trivial matter.

Hope this information helps!

[EDIT] If you don't want the Mambo core to be altered, here is a component from Mambobrothers called MAL (Mambo Access Levels). The cost is $100, but you can literally do ANYTHING you want with custom groups and access levels. You can find it here

Thanks for the info. It was very helpful.
Rick

mambo mod -

hi I saw this post.
I have done a mod with the group acl hack for menus which I integrated with moslock whichs works fairly well. The only problem is it doenst work with authorize.net

I have the code I need to add a new user and remove a user but my question is how easy it is to add this code to your script so that the users between your script and mambo are syncronized?

is there just a addUser function and a removeUser funtion or what?

I'm interested in #2 too, Mambo 4.5.1a

So, reading this and looking at the date, I'm a little puzzled. Currently in my mambo, I see a "Special" and "Registered" as the member groups. Does this mean that #2 in the above issue can work for Mambo 4.5.1a?

I don't know how different this is, but I would like to have a free section, but I don't want them to sign up. I just want them to visit the site as a public site, but sign up for the paid features of mambo, which I gather as "Special".

1. First off, is this possible with my Mambo site in the root?

2. What folders do I protect in Mambo, if I want my free part of the Mambo site to be in the root folder?


Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Okay, let me take a stab at it. Please, anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

1. Absolutely! In fact, free is the easiest. All you have to do is make sure the permission for items you want seen by everyone (that is, without having to sign up) is set to PUBLIC. This will ensure that anyone who comes to your site can see said items. This is easily done in Mambo's administrative backend.

2. Try to use Mambo's native permissions as much as possible to control access levels. Mambo has its own permissions system, and typically it's a good idea to use that as much as possible first.

A quick note about the SPECIAL group: From my understanding, SPECIAL is a group that you (even as Administrator) cannot assign people to. SPECIAL is an internal group used by Mambo in which the system itself places users of a certain permission level. Editors, Publishers, Administrators and Super Administrators are lumped in there, I believe. You can set content items to SPECIAL permission - however you cannot place actual users into that group.

Unfortunately, Mambo's ACL (Access Control Level) is arguably the weakest part of the system. Now, there are workarounds. On the expensive end, you have the MAL component by Mambobrothers; there are pros and cons to this because the rumor has it that Mambo should have much improved ACL around Version 5.0 (some say 4.6 but I seriously doubt it, as this is a HUGE step and would impact third party component development). A cheaper (but dangerous) method is to apply a hack to the core (something I STRONGLY recommend against, as this destroys your upgrade pathway).

My strongest suggestion? Go to Mambo's official forums (forums.mamboserver.com) and read all about it. You aren't the only webmaster dealing with this - not by a longshot. ;-)

Regards,
Brat.

But aMember has the option

Hey Brat,
When I enabled the plugin for aMember though, under the Manage Products section, there is an option called "mambo access". And within that drop down there is "Public", "Registered", and "Special". So, am I to assume that "Special" in aMember does not work?

Really ???!!!

Wow! Really?!

If aMember really can allow members to be assigned to "Special," this is more profound than you know. I don't know of anyone who has done this (not that there aren't any, just that I don't know'em). The trick is, you merely want them to be registered members with special access privileges and not necessarily, say, authors or writers (you don't want them to be able to alter your site content).

Give it a try!

If it works... you've just become my favorite person here (no insult to Alex. )

Regards,
Brat.

Just Purchased!

Hey, I just wanted to let you all know I have purchased aMember with the Mambo module. I'll be able to play and see what I can come up with.

Regards,
Brat

It Works!!! Special Works!!!!

I just set up a special test subscription (for our inhouse purposes only - it'll be removed before the site goes live).

aMember indeed DOES put members into the Special group!!!!!

I have galleries which are set for SPECIAL to see (did it in Mambo's admin backend). I also already had a dummy user (regular REGISTERED group) as my "control".

Sure enough, the user registered via my test subscription (which I'd set to dump such users in the SPECIAL group) did ineed have access to the SPECIAL sections of my site. My dummy user, who is just a regular REGISTERED member, did not.

Now, here's the important note:

KEEP ALL CLIENT RECORDS if you are going to use this approach. Because, in Mambo's administrative backend, NO distinction is made between the normal REGISTERED users and the ones who are SPECIAL. Unless you go into Mambo's database and actually look them up, from the admin backend view they look like they have the same access privileges.

I'm doing more testing now just to make sure what I've just stated is true, but so far, it sure looks that way.

Major KUDOS to Alex and the entire aMember group for managing to do this. You just solved me a GANG of headaches.

Regards,
an elated Brat