Membership site - tie databases together?

[magusbuckley]

Hello:

Trying to build a membership based site and am having trouble understanding something -

From what I can tell, there are really two ways of creating a membership site; I can build a custom site and lock the content myself by keeping a database with my users or I can use a third party site, such as Wild Apricot, to do the work for me.

The problem with companies like Wild Apricot is that in order to secure my pages, those pages and content have to be on a Wild Apricot server. I'd rather manage the content and keep it on the same server as my unsecured pages.

If I do this, then I'll have a database with my members on my hosting server. But....how do I keep track of who's paid or not? I know the merchant will retain a database for me, but do I have to merge the two somehow?

Here's a few problems I can see that I'll run into.

1. You come to my site and fill out the form to create an account. After entering your information, you click "Next" to get to the payment screen. The form handler on the first page automatically puts your account information into my database as a registered user. If, while on the payment screen, you decide to back out, you simply don't pay but you still have an account - FOR FREE!

2. You come to my site and fill out the form to create an account. I have all accounts default to "guest" account type so you have no access until I verify from the merchant that you've made a payment. What happens if you create your account on a Friday afternoon and I don't check back with the merchant until Monday? That means you wouldn't be able to access the site over the weekend and that's not going to cut it!

So..if there are two databases (one to store the names of the people who are actively paying to see the site, and another database to store the names of the active accounts), how do I tie them together?

Any and all information will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Magus

 

[smoovo]

Payment processing companies, like authorize.net, have a confirmation handler. When a person fill up a form and send it to process a payment, their system sending back an array of variables that one of them is the payment status (processed or not). You can use this as a flag. I'm sure that not only authorize.net has this system (developers), just look for a good payment gateway service company.

So here how it can be done (solving your issues):

1. A person fill up a form with personal details, on click forward he/she transferred to the payment form. The input fields will be stored on a session as an array. If payment processed the array will be stored on the DB together with payment field that flag the status of the membership (active or not). It also will be the gate (active or not field) to give access to your pages.

2. Since all of it automatic, none should wait until you will review the status.