Thread

I am currently managing an education site that I’d like to transition to EE. Before I purchase, I need to know if Expression Engine can handle the following process:

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1. Secure Area Management and Payment gateway to Paypal
The site contains a variety of online video-based training modules organized into courses. A student will purchase a single course and pay via Paypal. After payment, the student is immediately redirected to a secure area of the site containing the course content. The student has lifetime access to the content.

The same student later purchases a second course. After payment, the student is again redirected to the secure area for the new course.

The student later logs in to the site and goes to “Homeroom” page which lists all paid courses. The student may click the name of the course to access the appropriate secure area.

This process can go on with students deciding which courses they want to take. They must always have access to secured areas as well as a central location from which they can select the course they want to view.

2. Membership management of free content area.
To access the free content area of the site, a visitor must register and login. Login takes them to the same central location containing links to the free content. The “free” member may also purchase courses.

3. Forums Module
In addition, I need a forums module that will allow me to manage access such that some areas are open to all members while other areas are only open to paid students based on the courses they have purchased.

4. Photo Gallery Module
Similar to the Forums module, I must be able to manage access such that some members may only view while others, based on their courses, may upload to specific, assigned galleries.

Is Expression Engine capable of handling my needs? If so, how? Other than the forum module, are there addons that I will need? Which ones?

Thanks so much for answering my questions.

Hi, fertilepress, let’s see about your project. =)

1.  We do offer the Simple Commerce Module which sounds like a good fit for you.  The issue here is that you would need a member group per course, and then member groups for all permutations as a member may belong to only one group at a time, so that is something to consider.

2.  Included with the point 1 caveats.

3.  This is a separate purchase that you can read about here on the discussion forum module page

4.  Due to the access requirements this would be best handled as a weblog with custom fields for use as a gallery.

So yes, ExpressionEngine is capable of handling your needs but will need come additional thinking and possibly some custom solutions for the multiple courses.

Have you tried EE yet?

Thank you so much, Lisa. I appreciate your answers. I am aware of the Forum Module addon and will check out the topic you suggested.

1. That permutations consideration is a monster, for sure. Not sure if this will be the ultimate show-stopper for me. This is a top priority as it is the model all of our revenue is based on. It’s gotta work smoothly. I was hoping EE would either handle this natively or with an existing module.

4. Again, the solution seems more of a work-around than a core feature. Not ideal. Are there any addons or plugins that link to an existing gallery solution? Something like Photopost or Coppermine?

Yes, I have been trying EE out both with the Core version using MAMP and the $10 Demo. I haven’t figured out how to meet all of my requirements yet, though. Since I’m not that experienced with EE, I thought it best to post my questions here.

I love the flexibility of EE and was hoping I could make the switch. I generate a lot of content and would prefer to design once and replace content as needed. The EE weblog approach is perfect for that. But until I figure out these other key requirements, I may have to look to Drupal. (Ugh! Hate themes!)

Thanks again!

renee

Hi, fertilepress, let’s see about your project. =)

3.  This is a separate purchase that you can read about here on the discussion forum module page

I’ve experimented with the Forums module and have to admit that was what originally brought me to EE. But again, managing access to different forums is member based, and again, I need it to be based on class registrations. <sigh>

renee

Hi, Renee -

For 1 you may be able to build a custom module that handles this for front-end access only. Solspace.com had the Permissions module but it is not currently for sale.

4.  Using a weblog as a gallery, especially in combination with FieldFrame is an extremely popular option and not a work-around.  Weblogs are more akin to “data containers” where you set up your own custom fields that define the type of data.  Don’t get stuck on it being called a “weblog” - this can be renamed easily.

I’d check out aMember with the EE plugin. Seems to do exactly what you want to do with memberships, and you can run Coppermine simultaneously.

For 1 you may be able to build a custom module that handles this for front-end access only. Solspace.com had the Permissions module but it is not currently for sale.

4.  Using a weblog as a gallery, especially in combination with FieldFrame is an extremely popular option and not a work-around.  Weblogs are more akin to “data containers” where you set up your own custom fields that define the type of data.  Don’t get stuck on it being called a “weblog” - this can be renamed easily.

Hi Lisa,

I’m not a coder, so building a custom module is beyond my skills. I currently use amember, so I will explore that solution. I was hoping to get rid of amember and find a single solution for all my needs. Sounds like that may not be possible. Why isn’t Permissions for sale anymore?

4. I understand what you’re saying, but I call it a workaround because I would have to build a gallery from scratch. Then I still will have the issue of permissions to deal with.

Thanks again for your response. I haven’t given up on EE yet.

renee

I’d check out aMember with the EE plugin. Seems to do exactly what you want to do with memberships, and you can run Coppermine simultaneously.

Thank you, Douglas. I use amember today and was hoping to replace it with a comprehensive CMS that includes membership management. Is there an EE plugin for Coppermine? Would I have to use the amember plugin to Coppermine instead? And that would work inside EE?

Thanks!

renee

I didn’t see your other thread about aMember, but I was refering to aMember’s ability to mix and match various scripts under one login, like EE and Coppermine.

You may also want to look at FoxEE Cart, which has some of the same features but works within EE. You have have use FoxyCart as your payment gateway, though.

FYI -

Foxee/foxycart will be supporting PayPal very soon. So you will be able to receive payment through both a merchant account or PayPal.

FYI -

Foxee/foxycart will be supporting PayPal very soon. So you will be able to receive payment through both a merchant account or PayPal.

And Foxee will allow me to manage access to site sections/pages and forum access? How does it work?

And Foxee will allow me to manage access to site sections/pages and forum access?

Yes, not only will it allow you to provide access only areas but you can have a user belong to more then one subscription group. For example you could create a EE member group called subscriptions, then create several foxee subscriptions; red,blue,green. A user can buy one or more subscriptions. Then in your templates you can restrict access to only users that “own” that subscription. For forums you will need to nest the forums in a EE template and apply subscription conditionals to that template.

Yes, not only will it allow you to provide access only areas but you can have a user belong to more then one subscription group. For example you could create a EE member group called subscriptions, then create several foxee subscriptions; red,blue,green. A user can buy one or more subscriptions. Then in your templates you can restrict access to only users that “own” that subscription. For forums you will need to nest the forums in a EE template and apply subscription conditionals to that template.

That sounds great, Michael!

About the forums, will I be able to control access to specific forums within that “forums” template by subscriptions? Probably not as the subscription can only control access to templates, not what’s within a template. Am I right?

Any idea when the Paypal function will be available?

Thanks!

renee

A user can buy one or more subscriptions. Then in your templates you can restrict access to only users that “own” that subscription.

One more thing, is there or will there be a method of importing subscribers that are already in my database?

renee

Hi Renee.

We are getting ready to start Beta testing the PayPal gateway in the next day or two. The final release depends on how well we did in the initial development 😊

You are correct about the forums, specific board access using foxee conditionals is not supported out of the box.

Foxee allows importing several fields using XML, including members:

http://www.hccdevelopment.com/docs/foxee/foxee_110/control_panel/settings/import_and_export/