Hello Alex, This is just a repeat of a recent e-mail I sent you, but I thought I'd put it on here too since it might be of interest to other users. I have a couple of requirements for a site I'm doing, but aMember has to change just a bit to support those requirements. 1. I need to be able to create a tiered product structure. In other words, a "Product A" and then a "Product B" which also contains all of "Product A"'s access to resources. For example: Product A: $50 - access to A resources Product B: $100 - access to A & B resources As aMember works now, products are mutually exclusive and cannot be teired in this way to include the features of the lesser products. Am I just thinking about this the wrong way? Is there another way to do what I want to do with aMember? 2. I need to be able to select multiple individual products using the PAYPAL RECURRING billing method. This is not possible as far as I know. Selecting the "Select Multiple Products" & "Select Multiple Products on Member Page" options in the Control Panel have no effect. I still get the message during user product selection "Only 1 paid product can be selected". For example Product C: $20 Product D: $20 These cannot be both selected at the same time. I might be able to use another payment processor, but perhaps there's some clever way to do this without the user realzing they have to buy a product and then come back and buy another?? Here's a full product example of what I want to do on the site: Main subscription level: ----------------------------- Product A: $50 Product B: $100 -- Add on products --------------------- Product C: $20 Product D: $20 I would like customers to be able to pick one of Product A or B as their main subscription. Again, Product B being a superset of A (so buying B gives you access to A & B resources). Then Product's C & D are "add-ons" or extras. I would like the customer to be able to radio button A OR B and then checkbox C and/or D. Does anyone else out there have these type of requirements for their product structure? I'm curious how (un)common this is? Thanks!
No they are not, and yes it can. You have an option when adding products to add additional protected URLs other than the main one. So, if product A allows access to directory_a, then product B can be set up to give access to directory_a as well as directory_b. Which is, I think, what you are looking to do. This refers to the Pro version - it is not so far as I know possible in the free version. I have never used aMember with PayPal so I cannot comment on your last question but multiple selections are allowed in aMember.
I'm very sorry, the issue I'm having is slightly different than I initially described. The issue with #1 is more the ability of the customer to "upgrade" or "downgrade" from one of these teired products to another as well as the customer to be shown only those products which are available (ie. if the customer already has the product, why still show it on their Account screen?) For example. Let's say the customer signs up with Product B. Then on their Account page, they are still presented with all products including Product B. 1. What happens when the user signs up for Product B again if Product B is already subscribed to and is a recurring product? 2. If the customer wants to downgrade to Product A, how is that obvious from the product selection and (how) is it handled internally? I would say that the change would have to occur at the beginning of a billing cycle. That would make things simpler. Any downgrade (or upgrade) would kick in at the beginning of the next period, but aMember does not currently have a way to handle this. Again, common? uncommon? People have products and subscription levels like this? On a related note, how does a customer "cancel" a subscription, paid (or free)? I don't see anyway to do that on the Account screen?
Without knowing that it would be any kind of problem, I was able to set up something like what you're talking about with the free version. I have one product (a trial version), which offers access to everything with the exception of one area. The other product gives full access to everything. The way I did it was to put the restricted material in a subdirectory of the main directory. And then the .htaccess file of the subdirectory required the main product only. - Alan
I have about 40 protected folders. I have nine different subscription plans that offer access to different combinations of the protected areas, including one that provides full access (I actually give a monthly, quarterly and annual subscription option for each of the 9 plans, so I really have 27 subscription plans). The control is when you set up your subscription plan, you list the folders you want them to access in "additional URLs" (I don't list anything in the "Product URL"). I, too, wanted to have a user be able to purchase more than one plan at a time, but I don't think this is possible with PayPal, so I created the "packages" as described above. To "upgrade" or "downgrade" a subscription, I think they would have to cancel one plan and then sign up for another. To cancel a subscription with PayPal, the user has to log in to their PayPal account and cancel from there (instructions for canceling subscriptions are emailed to the user by PayPal when they sign up for a subscription). Gary www.med-ref.com
It is shown just because it may be necessary sometimes to order it again. Good example is aMember site, where you may wish to order aMember for your another web project. Also, it is necessary when not-recurring payment plugins used - to make customer able to renew subscription. Nothing good will happen - user will be billed twice. But I never heard about - users are stupid (sometimes , but they are able to count money, and they will not pay again for already paid things. Yes, it is really too complex and rarely asked, so we don't plan to implement it soon.
I am starting to implement a new project, and would like to know if anyone has figured out a way to do part of what is discussed here. Specifically, I would like to offer 2 subscription plans with 2 add-on products. Which payment processors are able to handle both recurring subscriptions and one-time purchases in the same transaction (any??)? What suggestions can anyone give me for implementing this plan? Do I have to process the subscriptions separately from the add-on products, or is there a way to process both at the same time? - Alan
Any direct credit card billing plugin (like Authorize.Net) will handle this situation easy and you don't need to separate anything.