What's My Role: Membership Sites in WordPress

Roles & Capabilities are one of the more complicated (and powerful) features of WordPress. We'll be talking a logical organizational framework for setting up a Membership/Protected Content website:

• Members Plugin, for understanding the Roles & Capabilities and a non-code way to protect WordPress Content

• Defining additional roles without modifying existing ones for access

• Other plugins that help in simplifying the Admin Area and that work with Roles & Capabilities

• Resource List of Reviewed or Recommended Premium Membership/Protected Content Plugins.

You should have plenty of experience with adding users in WordPress and working with Plugins to benefit the most from this talk. This will be a technical discussion and we'll be discussing why you'd want to protect some content or protect the ability of certain users to post content.

Transcript

1. What’s My Role? Membership Sites in WordPress and Using Roles & Capabilities to Manage Workflow
2. Jim True Support Lead & Community Manager
 Pods Framework http://pods.io | @podsframework http://jimtrue.com | @jimtrue
3. – William Shakespeare
 “As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII “All the World’s a Stage, and all the Men and Women merely players.”
4. It’s No Different with WordPress… WordPress comes with 5 built-in “Actors” SUBSCRIBER CONTRIBUTOR AUTHOR EDITOR ADMIN SUPER
 ADMIN In Multisite: GUEST Not Logged
 Into WP:
5. WordPress is at it’s heart a Publishing Platform So its roles come from Publishing & Editing Workflows & are designed to provide that type of control over what users can do SUBSCRI CONTRIB AUTHOR EDITOR ADMIN
6. Managed in WordPress with
 Roles & Capabilities • Users are given ROLES • Roles are given CAPABILITIES that define what they can do, see, edit or interact with. • Plugins can use these capabilities or add their own • Wordpress Codex Page: Roles and Capabilities
7. Post & Page Handling SUBSCRI CONTRIB AUTHOR EDITOR ADMIN EDIT PUBLISH READ DELETE all posts & pages all posts & pages all posts & pages all posts & pages all posts & pages all posts & pages all posts & pages all posts & pages only their
 own only their
 own all, except private only their
 own only their
 own all, except private only their
 own all, except private
8. Example of Capabilities ADMIN edit_posts edit_others_posts publish_posts read_private_posts read delete_posts delete_private_posts delete_published_posts delete_others_posts edit_private_posts edit_published_posts edit_pages edit_other_pages publish_pages read_private_pages read delete_pages delete_private_pages delete_published_pages delete_others_pages edit_private_pages edit_published_pages Post Capabilities Page Capabilities
9. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a tool to manage this? This is all REALLY Confusing, isn’t it?
10. Members Plugin https://wordpress.org/plugins/members/
 http://themehybrid.com/plugins/members
11. Members Plugin • Provides Role & Capability Manager • Enables Content Permissions • Allows users to be assigned multiple roles • Enables Login Widget • Make a Private ONLY Site • All of the above, managed under
 Settings, Members
12. ADMIN Members: Role Manager Edit Roles and all of their capabilities from a simple to use interface. Reads capabilities from ALL plugins!
13. Members: Content Permissions Editor Allow easy selection of who’s allowed to see the content on the Page or the Post. Also works with Custom Post Types! Can also access with shortcodes in the content:
 [members_access role=“editor”]
 [/members_access] role or capability
14. Members DEMO
15. • eCommerce Member Site • Drip Content • Member access to Content • ALL Front-end Restricting Content
 by User Role vs • Works with Roles & Capabilities • Use Back-end Admin to Manage Workflow & Access • ALL Back-End Managing Users & Workflow How is this useful?
16. Membership eCommerce Sites • Video Rental & Virtual Training Websites • Club Membership Sites or Private Communities • Online Courses or Coaching Sites (lynda.com) • Pay to Read /Use Websites, Law or Medical Libraries • Premium Support Sites
17. Membership Site: Requirements • eCommerce Gateway/Process • User Profile Editor and Account Management • “Drip Content Delivery” • Email Marketing tie-in for Drip Sales, Expiring Notices, Invoices, etc. • Easy to Manage Content Permissions • Good Hosting & SSL Certificate (for secure eCommerce)
18. MemberPress https://www.memberpress.com/ $119/year or $239/year Developer Easy to use and manage, automatically sets up pricing, login, signup and thank you pages. Built-in Content Access control and Content ‘Dripping’ as well as eMail Marketing & payment gateways.
19. Restrict Content Pro https://restrictcontentpro.com/ $99 - $249/year or $499/one-time Developer By the makers of Easy Digital Downloads, good integration with that system and solid set of add-ons, that provide much of the functionality from MemberPress. Excellent Support.
20. LearnDash https://www.learndash.com/ $129/year single site - $299/year unlimited LMS (Learning Management Suite), designed specifically for course management and delivery of online learning materials.
21. How do you choose? • Only providing content restriction? MemberPress • Also selling Digital Goods for download? Restrict Content Pro • Setting up an entire Online Course curriculum including enrollment, scheduled courses, certificates of completion, etc? LearnDash • More Pros & Cons and reviews listed at:
 WPBeginner 5 Best WordPress Membership Plugins Compared (2017)
22. Using WordPress to Manage Workflow • Use the Back-end Admin to build an application around what the Client needs to streamline or simplify their business processes. • Use Roles/Capabilities, Dashboard Views, Admin Menus and Custom Post Types to build a PROCESS.
23. Workflow Management Sites • Project Management or Job Queue Process • Support Ticket System or Help Desk • Lead Generation or CRM • Appointment Management • Property Management • Limitless possibilities (honestly)
24. Planning a Solution Dispatch Design Manager Job comes in from Client Assigns Priority, Enters into System Attaches Design to Job Routes to Design Updates Date Completed and Notes Routes for
 Approval Approves or
 Rejects Design Adds Notes
 & Comments Back to Dispatch
25. Tools Used to Manage Workflow • Members Plugin for Job Roles • Pods for Clients & Job Queues • Admin Columns Pro with Pods Add-on for Inline Editing and Management through the Table List • OPTIONAL: ClientDash for Dashboard and Menu Customization • WP Help for in site Documentation • Tabify Edit Screen for Metabox Management • Widget Builder for Custom Dashboard Widgets (not compatible with ClientDash)
26. Workflow Demos As many as we have time for…
27. Questions?
28. Jim True Support Lead & Community Manager
 Pods Framework http://pods.io | @podsframework http://jimtrue.com | @jimtrue
29. Tampa Bay WordPress Meetups Monthly in St Pete @ Iron Yard
 1st Thursdays every Month http://tampabaywp.org | @tampabaywp Slack Chat | Facebook Group | Meetup