I noticed a release of 2.1.9 of amember, but the features don't reflect the problems of the integration of amember into vbulletin. Since this information was lacking when I purchased my copy of amember, I felt that it should be posted. Please tell me about any inaccuracies and I will correct them. ***************************** GOAL: Integrate amember with vbulletin 3.0.1, with an already integrated photopost 4.8.x. 1. Amember to handle all usernames and passwords. 2. Must modify templates in vb to point all login, register and logout links to the appropriate amember script, and to eliminate the user of the same scripts in vbulletin. 3. Amember to automatically expire and reduce the membership level of members whose subscription time has expired. 4. Subscription time to be entered automatically by payment by member or manually by admin, in the case of giving extended free full access to certain members. RESULT: This isn't possible WHY: WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO THE USE OF AMEMBER WITH VB3: LOGIN: At this time, all new members must log-in through vbulletin's existing scripts, bypassing amember completely. UPGRADING FREE MEMBERS: In order to upgrade free members, you must create subscriptions IN VBULLETIN. When you want to award a free member with higher/greater access to your forums, you go into VBULLETIN's subscription system and assign the member to one of the subscription levels you have defined. This has NOTHING to do with setting up the payment processor in vbulletin. Just because you use the subscription system of vbulletin, doesn't mean you must set anything in the payment processor section of vbulletin. You are not billing through vbulletin, only handling maintenance of the subscriptions through it. By doing so, vbulletin will automatically upgrade the member to the correct access; and will automatically lower the access when the time you have specified has expired. This is all OUTSIDE of amember. PAID MEMBERS: First, a member must ALREADY be signed-up directly in vbulletin's database (under the vbulletin register script), before that member can PAY for access. Second, a member who wishes to pay for membership must be pointed to the amember sign-up page, where they must enter the EXACT username, password, and email address used in vbulletin. You should modify the display of the sign-up page in amember to reflect that this information must MATCH EXACTLY. Third, once that member has paid for access, he must ACCESS YOUR FORUM through amember, which means that you must have links for PAID members to easily access amember and gain access. Then theoretically, after the subscription is completed, the paid member's access is lowered to the "free" access level, and he should be able to access either through amember or vbulletin's log-in scripts. PROBLEMS WITH THIS METHOD: The use of amember with vbulletin solves a weakness in vbulletin's subscription system. Amember allows ADULT oriented forums to bill for services using many different processors. CCBILL is one such processor that offers adult billing AND built-in affiliate program monitoring and disbursements. WHY IS THIS A PROBLEM? Since a free member has already set up an account in vbulletin, he is already "inside" the website. Should he choose to pay for additional access, he will follow a link "inside" the website to the amember billing page. There is no way to change this link based on the referral of the member. For example, BOB DOLE has signed up as an affiliate of your forum with CCBILL, and has been assigned a link that identifies him as the referrer of the customer. That link lands the customer on the main page where he completes the vbulletin sign-up. Vbulletin doesn't see the ccbill link info and doesn't store it. CCBILL on the other hand, did drop a cookie onto the customer's browser. Provided the customer wants to pay within a short time (two weeks?? I can't remember exactly), CCBILL will credit the affiliate the sale correctly. After that time period, the cookie expires and the affiliate doesn't receive credit. It is just something that you should be aware of. CONCLUSION: If you want to bill for an adult oriented forum, then you must use amember as vbulletin doesn't have the support you need for adult billing services. However, as this latest upgrade hasn't fixed the issues brought up in the post, you should have an understanding of the limitations and confusion that can occur with a split log-in and registration system.
More on Amember ... Everything in the preceeding post is as accurate as I know at this time. We DO NOT have amember fully working on our site currently. It appears there are issues between our server and ccbill that are currently unresolved. So we can't test the amember integration and ccbill billing/affiliate program information. My post is based on the best information I have. Our problem is currently with our server (from what we understand) but alex/alexander are continuing to help us address the problem and get it resolved. I have posted this to support email's - and am only sharing it for two reasons: 1. to show that alex/alexander DO support their work and help you with problems that don't seem to be related to their software! 2. to let you know that sometimes things don't go as planned and you have to be prepared for issues. I still plan on buying another copy of amember for use on another site as soon as I get this one working correctly. The script is very good and the support is top notch.
vip, thank you for your informative message! To be honest, I was not aware on your situation, and to be honest, I don't see any real problems here. Affiliate link points to ccBill website, right? This way, ccBill keeps a cookie for some period of time, and after that, ccBill makes redirect to your website. It's all - your site don't need to do anything with that. Then, when user is ready to pay, ccBill will read cookie value and use it. No special actions required from the script. I'm not familiar with ccBill affiliate program, but it is how most affiliate programs works.
Follow-up on vBulletin integration Dear VIP: I see that your notes on vB integration were written last June. I am carefully considering the same upgrade on a site that involves vBulletin and Hivemail and Indexu and SigmaChat and several other integrated packages that are all supposedly supported by aMember. Because of the potential complexity of simultaneously integrating several such apps, I'm doing my "due diligence" carefully by studying what the experiences of other users have been with vBulletin, Hivemail, IndexU, Photopost and PhotoClassifieds integration using aMember. Are you aware whether any of the issues you identified in this post have been resolved since you posted this message last June? Thanks! Best Professional Regards, WebSissy