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I just bought UM-Switcher on 8-Dec (license/support key available if requested) and have done some testing. The UM-Switcher video outlines a short-term access (15 min/1 hour/24 hour) rather than an annual subscription. I am attempting to set up annual subscription. My plan is that renewing users would buy the appropriate level of membership from the WooCommerce Store, and that would change their status to the 2018 version of their membership. I tested by setting up a Store Product for $0 and buying that product with a test ID. I set the product start date for Feb 1, 2018 and the end date for Feb 1, 2019. The results in table “wp_um_switcher” were that the test member has “subscription_type_start_date” of 0000-00-00 and “subscription_type_end_date” of 0000-00-00, and the “user_status” was set to the value of the “selectbefore” field. The actual user role was set to equal the “user_status” value.
This test told me that UM-Switcher is updating the Role, but in a way I did not expect. I anticipated that the subscription-type-start-date would be 2018-02-01 and the end date would be 2019-02-01. These did not occur. So purchasing the UM-Switcher Product that I had created for testing did change the Role as soon as the purchase was completed, I am not assured that the Role will change on Feb 1, 2019. My understanding of the settings in UM-Switcher is poor. My intent is to have members buy their memberships during the “membership drive event” from Jan 1 – Jan 31, 2018, where thereafter renewal notices will come out during the 2019 membership drive and members will be able to buy the current Store Product for 2019.
Clearly I will need some assistance with the settings of the new Store Product, and for testing. I do not see any documentation on setting up this type of annual membership site, although apparently many UM-Switcher users have done so. Where can I see documentation or an existing functional sample site for annual membership?Ken Metheny
ken@methenysystems.com -
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Thank you — I am encouraged! I want to say congratulations and thank you for filling a clear need of Ultimate Member users. UM provides excellent member profiles but doesn’t do much for access restriction, which many membership sites require.
When I bought a test product i created, my initial role was “member”. The purchase date was 9-Dec, Start Date was 10-Dec, and Expiration of 11-Dec. Immediately upon purchase my role changed from “member” to the selected community role. So I see that UM-Switcher has an immediate effect on the role before the subscription starts in the pre-activation period. When I view the table entry in SQL, I see that the name of that pre-activation role is “select before”, which suggests the very action which occurred.
What still confuses me is the Product Start Date and Product End Date: only the Start Date of 10-Dec (2017-12-10) is reflected in the “expire_time” entry of the wp_um_switcher table, and 11-Dec is not in any of the table entries. I anticipate that my role which is being tested should change at 2017-12-10 19_09:31 to the select after value. That should happen in a few hours. But then what should happen on 11-Dec? Also, if 11-Dec is not recorded in the SQL table, then how does UM-switcher know when to send out renewal reminders?
Also, will these actions occur without CRON jobs being set up, although the timing of the events might be inaccurate? How much variance can I expect without CRON jobs? Or do I have to inform UM-switcher of the date/time manually? When I refreshed my view of the wp_um_switcher table this morning, the current-time field still shows “2017-12-09 17:08:31”. This concerns me, because without that time advancing, I presume UM-Switcher does not know to take any further action.
If CRON jobs are necessary to get any result, I would likely be willing to pay to have you set them up if the cost is not too high for my client. I usually buy in US dollars — what is the approximate U.S. dollar cost for you to set up CRON jobs? Do I have to convert the dollars, or is this done automatically when I charge the credit card? I realize I am showing my lack of worldliness — I should know more about international business.
I added one more screen image below to augment the previous two. This shows my Subscription in green (does that mean the purchase was successful, or that the subscription Start Date has been reached?), and that the Reminder Date 1 is in red, while the Reminder Date 2 is green, even though both dates where in the past when I made the test purchase. Does UM-Switcher send out Reminder 2 when the date has passed? I did not see a corresponding email.
Another anomaly: my UM-Switcher option on my WordPress Dashboard has no “Settings” sub-option as is shown in your video example. Has this sub-option been eliminated in the current version?
Thank you again for creating this product. Once I understand these points of confusion, I will have a great membership system, which a competing and more expensive product, Paid Memberships Pro, was not able to provide.
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Hi Ken,
Yes, you need a Cronjob, in order reminders to be send out on time and accurate. WordPress has also a cronjob but it’s not accurate.
Is your hosting including a cronjob option? Here you can order our cronjob setup service: https://theme-dutch.com/product/um-switcher-cronjob-setup/ When you order this service my guys will not only setup your cronjob but they will also run a full test. I believe you can pay with Dollars and your payment provider will change it to Euro’s.
My advice would be otherwise it will lead to confusion. First the cronjob and a full test, then you can check things out and run your own test. And probably all your questions will be answered.
Mike
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