WordPress Simple Membership Plugin FAQ post provides a list of FAQ questions many keep asking in the forum and more.
Last Updated: September 20, 2023
Latest News: Updated the documentation.
This is a list of common questions asked in wordpress.org support forum. I have created this list to help answer some of the most common questions people keep asking. If you can’t find an answer to your question please click the following link WordPress simple membership support forum and create a support ticket in WordPress. You can also create a support ticket in our own personal forum https://simple-membership-plugin.com/forums/forum/simple-membership-plugin/. Someone will assist you as soon as possible.
What You Need:
- Simple Membership plugin.
- (Optional: Documentation you might want to read how-to-deal-with-the-common-challenges-of-a-membership-site)
- (Optional: You might be interested in the following documentation adding-a-terms-and-conditions-and-privacy-policy-to-member-registration-page.)
WordPress Simple Membership Plugin FAQ
Q1 GDPR compliance question. Does simple membership plugin store the data of the users or members anywhere else other than on the own WP-System? This is an important part of the new guidelines of the GDPR.
Answer: The members information (that they enter) is stored ONLY in your site’s database. Nothing is ever sent to anywhere else by this plugin.
There are options in the plugin that you can use to make the users accept your terms and conditions and privacy policy before they can signup. You can read more about this question in the following forum post.
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Q2 Does this plugin retain card information? And how do I answer the compliance question with stripe?
Answer: This plugin does not store any card information.
The customer actually enters the card information on Stripe’s website (when you use the SCA compatible option). Then Stripe processes the transaction:
https://simple-membership-plugin.com/sca-compliant-stripe-buy-now-button/
https://simple-membership-plugin.com/sca-compliant-stripe-subscription-button/
For paypal checkout, all the card information is entered on PayPal’s site. Then the transaction is handled by PayPal. Click the following forum post link for more information.
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Q3 Is there a way to have the <button id> excluded from the customer’s transaction receipt?
Answer: No, you can read more about it from the following forum post.
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Q4 Can I use a Social Login plugin to create an account?
Answer: Yes, please check the following URL https://simple-membership-plugin.com/social-login-plugin-simple-membership/ to learn more.
Note: Different people might want different behavior with the above integration process. If you require a customization please submit the contact form and one of the developers will get back to you with a quote.
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Q5 How to disable “edit profile” after member has logged in? I do not want my members to change their password because I will be providing one to them.
Answer: If you don’t want them to change the password on the edit profile page then you can hide the password fields in the edit profile form. The following forum post has more information.
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Q6 I’m using the PayPal Smart Button with the SMP. I want to expand my audience and offer alternative payment methods like SOFORT payments which is used in German speaking countries. Is this possible?
Answer: No, SOFORT won’t work with SMP unfortunately. Check the following link forum post to learn more.
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Q7 What we’re looking for is a way to have an offline payment button (on a special page we’ll use when we’re at events) that means the user will sit in “registration” mode until we update the record (after taking payment through our card reader). Is this possible?
Answer: Here is a suggestion that may work. Check the following link forum post to learn more.
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Q8 Can the plugin auto generate Member’s Serial Number?
Answer: No. Check the following link forum post to learn more.
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Q9 I want to fire a Facebook Pixel when somebody clicks on the PayPal Smart Button which I have implemented with a short code. Ho do I do this?
Answer: This is not a feature we have unfortunately. Check the following link forum post to learn more.
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Q10 When I delete the plugin, why is data left in the database?
Answer: The database only holds the critical membership info and settings configuration. Those will not get deleted if you delete the plugin. This is to make sure someone doesn’t lose all their work if they accidentally deactivate and delete the plugin. Check the following link forum post to learn more.
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Q11 I’d like to be able to specify my “Reply-to” address so that it will be different from my “From” address. Is this possible?
Answer: No, you can read more about it from the following forum post.
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Q12 Does this plugin protect excerpt?
Answer: No. This plugin is primarily used for protecting the main content of the page (not the excerpt). The excerpt output is very dependent on the theme (different themes do it differently). You may want to try the following option to see if that works: https://simple-membership-plugin.com/full-page-protection-addon-simple-membership/
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Q13 I want my members to be redirected to the landing page after they click on the login link while they are already logged in. Is this possible?
Answer: Unfortunately, what you are looking for is not available in our simple plugin. You need to use a more heavy weight plugin that has the option you require. That’s the short answer. Check the following link forum post to learn more.
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Q14 I’m trying to set up the plugin such that nobody who registers can become a member unless I first approve them. I thought that setting the default registrant status to “pending” would accomplish this, but it’s not working.
Answer: Notifying users of new posts is something a subscription newsletter or email campaign management type plugins handle. There are already many robust plugins for that functionality in WordPress repository. Check the following link forum post to learn more.
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Q15 Is the RSS Feed also protected from the public when protecting the page and post content?
Answer: Yes. When you enable content protection in posts it also protects the RSS feed. So when you go to yoursite.com/feed/ you will not see any blog posts displayed.
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Content Protection
Q1 How do I show in my post list if a post is protected or if it is free for all?
Answer: Someone shared solution using a function. Check the following link forum post to learn more.
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Q2 If we start asking for membership from our visitors, how does it affect on the search engine results? Will the results be removed since search engines can’t access to our content?
Answer: Webservers, technically, don’t differentiate between whether a page is being accessed by a web browser or scanned by a search engine. Therefore, any actual content that is protected from unauthorized user access, is also protected from search engine scans.
Because search engines can “see” additional things on a page that regular users can’t; it is possible to embed “hints,” called “metadata,” onto a protected page; that is visible only to search engines. This metadata substitutes for the information that is otherwise not available; without giving away or exposing the protected content.
Check the following link forum post to learn more.
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Multi Language Sites
Note: Our plugin is not currently setup for Multi-language sites. Please check the following link forum post posted by one of the developers. This applies to any multi language plugins like WPML etc. However some users have shared some tweaks that might help you. The following link https://simple-membership-plugin.com/user-submitted-tweaks-simple-membership/ also has user submitted tweaks you might like to try in your site.
Q1 When WPML is installed, it would be nice if the plugin could allow different URLs for each language. Specifically for the “Forgot Password” URL. Right now it is possible to define only a single (language agnostic) URL for each page.
Answer: Someone has submitted a PHP solution you can implement in your site to work with WPML plugin. Check the following link forum post to learn more.
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I will be adding more information and more tutorials in the future. So make sure you bookmark this page and keep coming back for the latest updates.
If you have any questions please let me know.
Enjoy.
Simple Membership Plugin Tutorial List:
I have been working in IT since 1999 and I enjoy the challenges it brings me. I love developing websites with WordPress. I spend a lot of time helping out in wordpress.org forums. I have been writing tutorials since 2011. Now I am learning how to manage my own VPS "Virtual Private Server.