[Kate]

This is my third post recently, and it may very well be another one that makes you seasoned WPMU developers scratch your head and say “Is she for real?” Truth is, I don’t just pop in and ask questions. Believe me, it’s preceded by scouring through Google and reading countless posts. So, maybe I’m just that dense. Or, maybe I’m not fully understanding the use of each of these… I don’t know. But, I’m hoping I can get some input on this.

I’m creating a site that will have three types of users: Paid Subscribers, Free Subscribers, and Trial Subscribers. The features available to each will depend on which category they fall into. I’ll need to refer back to their user type both for payment tracking, as well as what features they do or don’t see. Would it be easier to do this via:

1) assigning each to a group (they don’t have control over changing this). Or, is this misuse of groups?

2) creating a custom role for each of these three types, with capabilities that differ for each one.

3) Just adding a three option drop-down at registration that lets them select which they want to be. Then, that value would be stored in their profile. (My only concern is how easily could that value be destroyed? eg: If the drop down somehow got deleted?)

4) Custom fields

5) Or, maybe there’s a plugin that accomplishes what I want? I came across several, but wasn’t sure if they were what I needed.

Thanks for your input. I really appreciate it!

[Anonymous User 96400]

I’d give them the choice during registration, then store that value as usermeta and check for each bp-component for that value and then either display the contents of that component or a nice little reminder with a link to upgrade their account.

Not sure how well roles would work as you can have different roles in different blogs.

[Kate]

Thanks so much for the reply Travel-Junkie. So, basically option 3: a custom profile field added to the registration form? I added a couple of these for other purposes and saw how the data is stored. Again, may be a stupid question, but I’m a WPMU/BP newbie! My only concern was that I assume the data would be erased if the drop-down itself were somehow removed by my client.

BTW: Users can only create accounts for the main blog. They don’t have blogging privileges themselves.

Thanks again!

[Anonymous User 96400]

Not exactly what I meant. There are BP profile fields (added through the backend) and then there are usermeta (which you will have to code yourself and is WP core). Stuff that’s in your profile will be displayed publicly on your profile. Usermeta can be displayed, but doesn’t have to necessarilly.

[Kate]

Okay, great. Thanks for clearing it up for me. Really appreciate the help!

[Anonymous User 96400]

No worries. Glad I could help

[Michael Eisenwasser]

How did this turn out? What steps did you take to make it work?

I am creating a site with a similar need. I will have 2 roles – employers and job seekers. I would like to display different fields for each role’s profile and also allow them to pick their role on signup. Any tips?

[designodyssey]

Also check out Role Scoper which now has good support for WPMU. I’m doing the same thing, but was hoping to use Role Scoper and BPContents to achieve the same.

[John James Jacoby]

I know this is a little back from the dead, but I would go about this in a totally different way myself.

I would use good old WordPress usermeta, and have three different registration screens. Giving users the ability to choose something will more often than not confuse them. If you give them a dedicated registration with only the options they need, that will yield better results.

I have a post around here somewhere on how to assign usermeta values directly from registration. Then rather than trying to group users together, rather than wasting a profile field that you eventually have to hide or prevent users from changing, and rather than creating custom user role types, you can just check the meta and go. And if they upgrade their account, you just update the usermeta value.

Custom user roles is a good idea too, but it comes with a little more work to make things cooperate the way you want to use them.

[designodyssey]

@JJJ

First, is it jjj or JJJ?

Second, is there some way to use the usermeta solution for groups?

Also, I want to change the display of everything (dropdowns, menus, labels, etc.) to account for the different user types (e.g. teachers, students, parents). That would also need to be the case for groups (e.g. classrooms, schools, departments). How would you suggest going about this?

Thanks

[Heiner]

Sorry, no answers, just additional questions:
@katendarcy Which plug in do you recommend or use for facilitating the payments?

In the front end I would like to display custome fields of paid users only. Still I want all users to see all custom profile fields when setting up their profiles so they see what they are missing when they have a free membership.

designodyssey: I found that role scoper helps to shape the user types and their capabilities. So the user role should be the key. In future there might be two or more categories of paid users.
I see there are a few more of you working on this, so any hints are appreciated.

[NetTantra]

Hi,

You can check this plugin which I recently develop to provide ACL BuddyPress Extended Profiles:

https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/buddypress-xprofiles-acl/

Hope you find it useful.

Regards,
NetTantra

[@mercime]

@nettantra thank you. Will be checking it out.