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New Script: Members Area/Subscription System

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New Script: Members Area/Subscription System
Hi,

Due to the downturn in ad-revenue I have been looking at different ways of changing my revenue stream, and one of those I thought of was a Members Area where you could offer 'extras' to paid subscribers.

However, when I looked at available scripts to do this I found many of them lacking in features and I wondered if GT would be willing to start a project along these lines?

Here's a brief run-down of the things I'd be looking for:

• Database member record storage (txt/mysql)
• < FORM > based login prompt to place in HTML (as opposed to .htaccess 'popup' login)
• GROUPS and AREAS (to allow for multi-level membership)
• Mailing capabilities with <% tags %> to insert user-based info (password reminders, newsletter, etc.)
• Comprehensive user records with custom 'fields'
• 'Template' based screen prompts and form responses

I imagine that the GROUPS and AREAS would represent specific paths/URLs within a site and that these would be set through the ADMIN panel.

I also image it wouldn't include any 'subscription' management initially, since there would be many different payment methods/systems, but that this part could be developed later if required.

Does anyone else think this would be a useful package for GT to develop?
(i.e.; is there a demand for it?)


All the best
Shaun

Last edited by:

qango: Sep 24, 2001, 12:01 AM
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Re: [qango] New Script: Members Area/Subscription System In reply to
special service?

you can find everything and anything on the net ... you sure would need something special to get people to pay. google has a campaign going on ... I guess the only content areas that people still pay for are porn sites, even those I'm sure have stale images Wink unless you get yourself into a Japanese fetish site.

openoffice + gimp + sketch ... Smile
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Re: [qango] New Script: Members Area/Subscription System In reply to
Links SQL can do this using the built-in authentication process.

Also with GT Forum being tied in with other GT scripts, it would
not be difficult to assign users to different groups, or
multiple groups.
========================================
Buh Bye!

Cheers,
Me
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Re: [AnthroRules] New Script: Members Area/Subscription System In reply to
Apologies,

I'll try to clear up a few things:

I didn't intend it for use only with paid subscriptions (I appreciate what you're saying OooO), that was just an example.

Primarily I'm looking for a system of 'closing off' areas of a site, any site, by restricting access to specific users (members). I know .htaccess can do this, but I was looking for something a bit more flexible that offered more features than a simple 'popup' username and password option, and that would allow for 'members' to have their passwords emailed to them if they forget, etc. and for the 'admin' to be able to email certain groups/areas members.

I also didn't intend for it to be used exlusively with GT's other products, rather for it to be a separate package that anyone could install on any server, and who's login form HTML code could be used on any page.

I'll explain how I came about suggesting it here, that may help:

I operate a website design company and would like to offer additional pages/sections to my clients that are not 'public domain'. Some of the information would be client-specific and sensitive, so rather than creating a series of directories and adding .htaccess files for each client, I was looking for something that would allow me to use a single form for all my clients and direct them to their 'area' based on their 'record' details.

With the addition of a mailing back-end on the admin, it would be a great way of communicating with my clients (I know I could use a mailing list!) and would offer a bit more flexibility than plain .htaccess files.

Maybe I'm not thinking about it straight, but does this give you a better idea of what I'm looking for?

GT has such an area here, for paid-up members to download files, etc. where you login with your email address and password - that's the sort of thing I'm looking for.

If there's a package that already does this at a reasonable price, then please let me know the URL :)

All the best
Shaun
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Re: [qango] New Script: Members Area/Subscription System In reply to
L I N K S SQL with a bit of hacking...

Read the "Resume Posting" thread in the Custom Jobs Forum...where pugdog and I discuss the logistics of setting up such a system you are looking for.

BTW: I've used the central authentication process in LINKS SQL to allow access to other scripts and files in my server.
========================================
Buh Bye!

Cheers,
Me
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Re: [qango] New Script: Members Area/Subscription System In reply to
FWIW,

In Reply To:
, and that would allow for 'members' to have their passwords emailed to them if they forget, etc. and for the 'admin' to be able to email certain groups/areas members
http://cgi.elitehost.com for account manager lite


In Reply To:
than a simple 'popup' username and password option
http://javascript.internet.com/.../htaccess-login.html for .htaccess w/o pop-up box.

Maybe this'll give you some ideas at least.
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Re: [Watts] New Script: Members Area/Subscription System In reply to
Quote:
http://cgi.elitehost.com for account manager lite

Not recommended for the robust features that qango is requesting.
Yea..for smaller sites and applications, it may be a nice solution,
but for larger set of users and also providing flexibility to
edit data like username/password, this script ain't gonna cut
it.

Quote:
http://javascript.internet.com/navigation/htaccess-login.html for .htaccess w/o pop-up box.

You're kidding, right.

I would avoid any type of JS password protection script like
the plague...most that I've seen are full of security leaks and
holes.
========================================
Buh Bye!

Cheers,
Me
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Re: [AnthroRules] New Script: Members Area/Subscription System In reply to
I haven't really plugged in the .htaccess javascript and messed with it. I assumed it would perform the same function as the pop-up window (ie, basically an input form) since I didn't see any place where you had to specify "password=joe" as part of the script, other than what you input as an end user. Thanks for the notice, I'd certainly research it before I used it.

BTW, I use account manager lite for about 800 users/passwords. We upload a text file of user information once a year and then add/drop people through out the year. I can see where it would not be robust enough to handle 50,000 subscribers and I certainly don't know enough to tell whether the programming behind it is solid or full of holes.
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Re: [Watts] New Script: Members Area/Subscription System In reply to
Thanks for the replies.

Eliot, I'll have a look at that thread and see if I can make anything of it. If I can get something from a 'hack' that would be great.

Watts, the problem with the 'lite' versions of Elite's scripts is that they contain links back to Elite (I installed Subscribe Me Lite for a design client of mine). This is OK in the main and is a small price to pay for using their scripts, but I'd want a non-branded 'clean' solution. I had a look at the 'pro' version whilst I was there, and it does include a lot of what I want so I may consider using it, but I'm not so sure I need all of those features.

I appreciate that this probably isn't something that would be popular enough to warrant "reiventing-the-wheel", so I'll finish this thread here for now and have another look around Smile

All the best
Shaun
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Re: [qango] New Script: Members Area/Subscription System In reply to
I've been working on a module along these lines... there's a thread in the Links 2.0 forums: here about it.

If you want to send me more specific details I could try to come up with something a bit more functional. It's still under developement and currently only validates/adds/deletes/updates users in a mySQL database.

It's designed to be portable across servers. ie, you just need to pass in a few arguements to the module (database and table names, database username/password, column names for ID , UserName and Password fields) to connect to your database, and the rest is all done by plugging in function calls.

--Philip
Links 2.0 moderator
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Re: [qango] New Script: Members Area/Subscription System In reply to
Hi Shaun,

Have you thought about using LinksSQL's built-in user functions?

This might not give you *all* the functionality you are looking for, but you could perhaps:

1. Add an "enum" field to the Users table - "Paid" with values like 'Silver', 'Gold', 'Platinum'

2. Write some Template Globals to display certain "paid" options, then...

3. Call these Globals in the login_success.html template via a <%if Paid eq 'Platinum'%><%GlobalPlatinum%><%elseif Paid eq 'Gold'%><%GlobalGold%><%elseif Paid eq 'Silver'%><%GlobalSilver%><%else%> (etc.) type construct.

Plus, you've already got the password reminder / subscription email capabilities.

I think the above would do some of what you are looking to do, with no real code hacks, just a little table, template, and Global customization...

That is, unless I'm completely not understanding what you are trying to do... Wink

--
Matt G
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Re: [mglaspie] New Script: Members Area/Subscription System In reply to
Quote:
Have you thought about using LinksSQL's built-in user functions?

LIKE I already SUGGESTED. Tongue
========================================
Buh Bye!

Cheers,
Me
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Re: [AnthroRules] New Script: Members Area/Subscription System In reply to
I think you guys missed a point he made against using Links SQL's system...

Quote:
I also didn't intend for it to be used exlusively with GT's other products, rather for it to be a separate package that anyone could install on any server, and who's login form HTML code could be used on any page.
You'd have to dig out all the code Links uses in order to be able to use it across multiple servers... and doing so would probably violate the liscense.

--Philip
Links 2.0 moderator
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Re: [PerlFreak] New Script: Members Area/Subscription System In reply to
Yeah, I'm not sure what Shaun meant by that...

Since he was talking about limiting users' access on HIS site, I'm *guessing* what he may have been talking about there is having his clients place a login form on pages on THEIR respective sites, but which would still "login" to HIS site, where the user information would be stored and the corresponding content would be delivered...

That's just a matter of the action= attribute of the form tag in the HTML code he'd give his users.

Anyway, without knowing exactly what he's trying to accomplish (like an example of what kind of data/content he wants to limit/provide access to), and knowing what was meant by the "install on any server" bit, there's no way to give a definitive answer. But hey, why not throw out some ideas he may not have thought of? Who knows? It may help him (or others with similar goals) find an alternate solution. Wink

--
Matt G
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Re: [mglaspie] New Script: Members Area/Subscription System In reply to
Okay,

Looks like I've not made a very good job of explaining what I want, I'll have another go.

Forget Links, LinksSQL, and other GT products - this new script set I'm looking for is intented for use by anyone regardless of whether they have any other GT products and would be a stand-alone application that would be used for access control. Much like .htaccess does, but with a little bit more functionality.

You've probably visited the download section of GT right? When you get to the front-page of that 'area' you're required to 'login' with a username and password. There's a form to complete and a 'submit/login' button. That's what I'm looking for.

As I've mentioned I run a website design company (as well as Qango) and would like to create a 'client area' for my design customers that only they can look at. The login form can then be placed on any of the pages of the site, and once they've logged-in they'd have access to all the pages within that 'area' (the area would be determined by a pathname in the admin control panel).

You've probably all come across similar user 'login' systems, especially if you use an ad-agency, or are members of affiliate programs, etc.

From an Admin point of view, I'd like to be able to setup various 'areas' within a site (defined by the pathname) and then be able to control which 'users' have access to which areas. In addition I'd like a facility to email users either 'all' or by the 'area' they are a member of.

Does this make it any clearer?

Essentially its just a more advanced version of what .htaccess offers.

All the best
Shaun
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Re: [qango] New Script: Members Area/Subscription System In reply to
If GT don't wish to make this script I'd be happy to help you out.
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Re: [qango] New Script: Members Area/Subscription System In reply to
Hi,

We could be interested in something like this, however you'd almost definately want to do it with .htaccess, but provide a powerful admin that can setup users, groups, and areas on your site to protect.

The reason to use .htaccess, as otherwise every file you want to protect needs to be served through a program, dramtically increasing the server load.

The downside to .htaccess, is the product is limited as it won't work on NT servers.

What would you see a product like this costing?

Cheers,

Alex
--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
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Re: [Alex] New Script: Members Area/Subscription System In reply to
Hi Alex,

I'm not all that good with perl so I don't know if this would be a simple thing to do, or if even a 'basic' product would take a lot of development?

I suppose a price of between $50-$200 depending on features.

All the best
Shaun
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Re: [qango] New Script: Members Area/Subscription System In reply to
Shaun,

What solution did you end up using?

Thanks

Simon.
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Re: [jai] New Script: Members Area/Subscription System In reply to
Hi Simon,

I didn't - the project fell through so I stopped looking for a solution. (I operate a website design company as well as Qango and this feature was part of a design brief I was asked to assist with.)

If you are looking for something similar and you find a solution, I'd still be interested, if just for future reference.

All the best
Shaun
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Re: [qango] New Script: Members Area/Subscription System In reply to
You can find more here

http://www.hotscripts.com/...anagement/index.html
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