Usage Guide Archives - WordPress Membership

How to Bulk Update Member’s Start Date and Membership Level with WP eMember

A feature of the eMember Plugin allows admin to bulk update their member’s start date and membership level. This tool is useful if you have many members that need to have their accounts updated or changed.

The Bulk Update Admin Functions are useful if you intend to run an upgrade promotion on your website or need to cease a number of member accounts.

When you use these functions keep in mind the changes will apply to all the members that belong to the chosen membership level.

Locating the Bulk Update Tools

The bulk update tools can be found by:

Clicking the Admin Functions menu under WP eMember.
Selecting the Bulk Operation tab.
Choosing which Bulk Operation function you would like to use (instructions of each tool can be found below).

Types of Bulk Operation Tools for the eMember Plugin

Bulk Update Subscription Start Date of Members

The subscription start date of a member is set to the day the user registers.

If for any reason you need to alter the date your user’s membership commenced, you can use this section to do so.

You can manually set a new subscription start date of all members who belong to a particular level with the click of a couple of buttons.

Select the level that the members belong to.
Choose the date that their membership should now commence. You may choose an earlier date if you wish to cease the members access, while choosing a later date will allow them further access to the site.
Click the Bulk Change Subscription Start Date button.
All members that belong to the level you chose from the drop-down menu will now have a new member start date. This new member start date will be visible in the member’s profile.

Bulk Update Membership Level of Members

You can manually change the membership level of any member by editing their record from the members menu. This is great if you only have a couple of members you wish to update.

If you find that you need to update all members within a specific level you can use the Bulk Update Member Level Tool.

For instance, you could be offering a deal where all members are upgraded free of charge. This bulk update option would allow you to make those changes in a couple of seconds.

Select the current membership level of the members that you wish to update. Note that all members within this level will be updated.
Select which level these members will be updated to. This may be an upgrade or downgrade depending on the circumstances.
Click the Bulk Change Membership Level button.
All the members from the chosen level will now be updated to the new level.

Bulk Update Auto Upgrade Starts Date of Members

The auto upgrade starts date of a member is set to the day the user registers (or the day they pay for a new membership level). You can manually set a specific date of all members who belong to a particular level using the following option.

Select the level of the members that you wish to change the auto upgrade start date of.
Enter the new auto upgrade start date for the members.
Click the Bulk Change Auto Upgrade Start Date button.
The members that belong to the chosen level will now have a new auto upgrade start date.

A Successful Bulk Update

Once you complete a bulk member update, if the process has been successful you will receive a message at the top of the screen similar to the one below.

In the case of this example, all members of the Gold level had their subscription start date updated to the 20th of September 2018. This is now reflected in the profile of each of the Gold members (displayed in the screenshot below).

Automatically Redirect Your Members to a Page After They Login

WP eMember has an “After Login Redirection” feature that you can use to automatically send the members to a specific page (example, members only area) when they log into the site.

How to Enable the After Login Redirection Feature

Go to the WP eMember Settings menu
Check the “Enable After login Redirection” checkbox
Save the settings by clicking the update button at the bottom of this page

How to Configure Which Page to Redirect to

There are 3 options to choose from:

You can redirect all of your members to a specific page upon login. Simply specify the URL of the page in the "eMember settings -> Pages/Forms Settings -> After Login Page" field.
You can redirect members to a specific page based on their membership levels. Specify the URL of the redirect page in the "Membership Level -> Redirect After Login" field to configure a per membership level specific redirection page.
You can also redirect on a per user basis (redirect a specific member to a specific page). Specify the URL of the redirect page in the "Members -> Edit a member's record -> After Login Page URL" field to configure a per user specific redirection page.

Can I Use a Mixture of These Available Redirections?

Yes, you can mix them up. This is how eMember will determine the after login redirection of a user when he/she logs into the site:

First, it will check if there is a user specific redirection available for the member. If it finds one then it will redirect the member to that page.
If a user specific redirection is not present, the plugin will check if a membership level specific redirection is configured. If it finds one then it will redirect the member to that membership level redirection page.
If the plugin can’t find any of the above, it will redirect the user to the global/general redirection page specified under the “Pages/Forms Settings” area.

Do Not Trigger After Login Redirection when Logging in via Inline Login Widget

This option can be used to keep the user on the current page when they are logging in via the inline login widget. The inline login widget is shown when a member clicks on the login link inside a protected post/page.

You can enable the following option in eMember plugin settings:

Prevent After Login Redirection When Logging in via Inline Login Option

When this option is enabled, the after login redirection won’t get triggered when the login action happens via the inline login widget. If the member goes to the standard login page and logs in then the redirection will work as configured in your site.

Create a Custom Link to the Login Page to Redirect to a URL

The after login redirection will honor the redirect_to query parameter in the URL. If you specify a URL value via the redirect_to parameter then it will send the user to that URL after the loging (ignoring any after login redirection that you may have configured in the settings).

Below is an example of how you can use the redirect_to parameter to create a link to the login page.

https://www.mysite.com/member-login/?redirect_to=https://www.mysite.com/special-redirect-page

If a user clicks on this link and logs into the site from the login page, he will get redirect to that specified URL.

Create a Custom Link to Override the Login Redirection

You can specify the no-redirect parameter in the login page’s URL to prevent the after login redirection.

Below is an example of how you can use the no-redirect parameter to create a link to the login page.

https://www.mysite.com/member-login/?no-redirect=1

When a member clicks on the following link and logs into the site, there will be no after login redirection for him (even if you have enabled the redirection feature).

How to Customize Which Fields Appear on the Registration and Edit Profile Page

WP eMember plugin allows you to customize the fields that appear on the registration and edit profile page. You can choose to not display some of the fields depending on your site’s need.

In order to customize which fields appear on the form, go to the following settings/configuration area:

WP eMember Settings -> Pages/Forms Settings

The “Registration Form Fields” section in this menu page (see screenshot below) allows you to turn on/off certain fields from the registration page. You can also make certain fields required.

emember-registration-form-field-configuration

The “Edit Profile Form Fields” settings section allows you to configure fields that you want to show in the edit profile page.

Adding Custom Fields

If the default fields offered in eMember is not enough then you can add custom fields to the registration and edit profile form to collect extra data required for your business.

Go to the “Custom Field Settings” tab (from eMember settings menu) and configure the extra fields that you want to add. After you hit the “update options” button the extra fields will show up in the “Registration” and “Edit Profile” form on your site.

Note: the custom fields you add will show up on your registration and edit profile page directly… you don’t need to configure these fields from the “Pages/Forms Settings” section.

membership-custom-field-configuration-steps

Need More Custom Field Control?

We have an advanced eMember addon that has more custom fields controlling options.

How to Add a Membership Level in WP eMember

WP eMember uses a concept of membership levels. This feature is designed to give you, the site owner, the ability to easily control and assign what content your members can and cannot access on your site.

What is a Membership Level
Creating a Membership Level
Understanding the Account Expiry Condition
Managing Remaining Time After Subscription Cancellation (Prorating)
- Remaining Time Setup Example:
Video Tutorial
Additional Resources

What is a Membership Level

When a visitor becomes a member, he is assigned to one of the membership levels you create in the plugin. The member will then have access to the site’s content based on the permissions you defined in the membership level.

The membership level also controls how long a member of that level has access to the content. For example: if you have created a level with a 60 day duration, then members who belong to that level will get access to the content for 60 days from the date they joined. After that time, their account will expire and they will need to renew or upgrade their account.

You can create as many membership levels as you want to. So create a membership level for each different variations of access that you need to offer on your site. Then you can assign members to a membership level based on the kind of access to content and expiry you want for them.

Creating a Membership Level

To add a new membership level, you need to browse to the “Membership Level” menu of the plugin.

emember-manage-membership-level-interface-1

From the “Manage Levels” tab you can click on the “Add New” button to add a new membership level.

wp-emember-plugin-add-new-level-interface

The Membership level addition menu has help text next to each field to guide you. You can edit or delete an existing membership level from this “Manage Levels” interface too.

Understanding the Account Expiry Condition

The expiry of a member’s account is controlled by the membership level assigned to that member. So the value that you set in the Subscription Duration field will control how the account will expire.

Read the following resources to get a better understanding of this so you can set the Subscription Duration value for a membership level according to your needs.

Managing Remaining Time After Subscription Cancellation (Prorating)

If you are using a subscription-type button for your membership to charge recurring payments and want the member to be able to use their remaining time after the subscription payment agreement is canceled, follow these steps:

To prevent immediate cancellation of a member’s account when a subscription is canceled, avoid using the “No Expiry or Until Cancelled” option for the membership level. Instead, set a duration value that matches or is one day more than the subscription period. This approach ensures that the plugin sets the account to “unsubscribed” upon cancellation, allowing the member to use the remaining subscription duration.

Remaining Time Setup Example:

Let’s say you are creating a subscription payment button to charge every 30 days. You can set a value of 31 days in the subscription duration field of the membership level configuration. The extra day acts as a buffer to ensure the payment gateway can process the recurring charge and notify the plugin before it deactivates the account. This creates a cycle of 31 days. It will ensure that the member will continue to have access for another 31 days after receiving a subscription recurring charge. As long as the recurring charges continue, the member will have access. If the subscription is canceled, the account will expire after the remaining days for the cycle.

Video Tutorial

Read the manage content protection documentation to learn how to apply protection to your content for different membership levels that you create.

Additional Resources

The following documentation is good to read if you want to configure notification email before account expiry:

How to Setup the WP eMember Settings Page

The first thing you need to do after you activate the WP eMember plugin is head over to the settings menu page to configure some settings. Most of the settings fields are self explanatory and have help text next to it.

It is a good idea to read the Typical Membership Registration process documentation before you start setting up WP eMember plugin.

The settings/options menu for the WordPress eMember Plugin can be found on the left hand side of your wordpress dashboard similar to the following screenshot (on WordPress version 4.0 or above)

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