XenForo + Wordpress + aMember Pro

[hperkins]

Hello,

I am planning a website where I would like to integrate Wordpress, aMember Pro and Xenforo (if it can meet my requirements), and was wondering if anyone had experience in this scenario?

So far aMember Pro has impressed me with its ability to handle Wordpress, but at the moment I am using Vanilla Forums (That is, user login and details both being handled by aMember Pro to present a seamless login experience for the end-user), and while Vanilla is nice, I really am starting to love the feel of Xenforo (just from using this forum).

If anyone could provide me with some experience or advice in this regard I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you,

Henry

 

[kingston]

I really want to join together XenForo and Wordpress to sync users across the two. Is aMember the best way to do that? Any recommendations?

I am using Wordpress Mutlisite as well and my forum is on a sub-domain, not in a sub directory.

Http://spiritcompany.com
forum at http://forum.spiritcompany.com

 

[Wildcat Media]

aMember, I thought, was more of a subscription-based system, sort of "forcing" its own member base onto both the member databases of both XenForo and WordPress. But having said that, it was so poorly documented and supported (nobody ever answered our requests for help) that I am very unimpressed with it. It comes across to me as a kludge. I will never work with it again.

 

[Dakis]

200$ and it's undocumented and not good supported?

 

[Dav]

XenForo has its own system built in, and I have had a few members use it. I feel that using XenForo's built-in system gives you a lot more control over permissions. From what little I remember now of aMember Pro, it only handles things at the usergroup level (IOW, it can assign to a user group). I felt aMember was clumsy myself. Documentation was scarce--it took me several tries to figure out where to install files at. And its handling of logging in via XenForo was even more clumsy.

I had a few issues at the beginning but i sent a ticket to support and they were really helpful and got me up and running. My system works really well now and support has always been good for me.

I really want to join together XenForo and Wordpress to sync users across the two. Is aMember the best way to do that? Any recommendations?

I am using Wordpress Mutlisite as well and my forum is on a sub-domain, not in a sub directory.

Http://spiritcompany.com
forum at http://forum.spiritcompany.com

I use amember -xenforo - wordpress and it works great. I did have a few problems in the beginning as it wasn't clear to me how to install but support soon helped me. Once you find your way around the system its pretty simple to use. You can check out my site, the link is in my signature to see how we have it all integrated.

 

[zooki]

aMember, I thought, was more of a subscription-based system, sort of "forcing" its own member base onto both the member databases of both XenForo and WordPress. But having said that, it was so poorly documented and supported (nobody ever answered our requests for help) that I am very unimpressed with it. It comes across to me as a kludge. I will never work with it again.

I have not gone with them yet, but I did use their support Forum:

Can aMember Help Me?

 

[kingston]

I had a few issues at the beginning but i sent a ticket to support and they were really helpful and got me up and running. My system works really well now and support has always been good for me.



I use amember -xenforo - wordpress and it works great. I did have a few problems in the beginning as it wasn't clear to me how to install but support soon helped me. Once you find your way around the system its pretty simple to use. You can check out my site, the link is in my signature to see how we have it all integrated.

I have tried to register on amember to ask some questions, but I can't figure out how to do it without purchasing :/

The part that I am kinda lost on is exactly what amember does. Does it sync the two user databases? So when someone clicks signup on Xenforo when amember is installed does it go to amember page or just normal xenforo and copies later? do the avatars not sync across? That is a shame if so because that is one of those abilities that makes people think they are all in the same ecosystem.

 

[Dav]

I have tried to register on amember to ask some questions, but I can't figure out how to do it without purchasing :/

The part that I am kinda lost on is exactly what amember does. Does it sync the two user databases? So when someone clicks signup on Xenforo when amember is installed does it go to amember page or just normal xenforo and copies later? do the avatars not sync across? That is a shame if so because that is one of those abilities that makes people think they are all in the same ecosystem.

Hi,

You should be able to sign up to the forum here if you click the link - Not yet registered? Sign Up Here (Right at the bottom below the two main boxes)

aMemebr handles the subscription (membership sign-ups, subscriptions packages etc..)
You would set up so a member signs up from your homepage (not the forum). Once they are signed up they would automatically be a member of your site and have an account created for your forum.
Users are edited from the amember admin but permissions for the forum are set from the xenforo admin.
You can get your Avatars to sync across. There is a thread on here somewhere on how to do it. I think it was Jake who posted it

It might sound confusing but once it is setup and you use it, it is pretty straight forward. Some really neat features too

 

[cmeinck]

What if it creates an account/username that exists previously in either Wordpress or Xenforo? When a member signs up, is anything pushed to Wordpress?

 

[Wildcat Media]

I had a few issues at the beginning but i sent a ticket to support and they were really helpful and got me up and running. My system works really well now and support has always been good for me.

That was the opposite for my project. The XenForo add-on was essentially just dumped on our laps, with nothing other than "install these files" as directions. But...where?? It took me a week of messing around with it to finally figure out where things should go. If something is offered as something to be added to XenForo, it should follow the conventions for installing an add-on (a common directory structure for the files, in the installation file packet, like we have with most of the add-ons here in the Resource area).

Then, I find that the XF add-on wasn't even necessary--all it was supposed to do was redirect the login to aMember. Well, all it ended up doing for us was creating a double login: we'd login via XenForo, and rather than be in the forum, you'd instead get bounced to an aMember login. And yet you would not be logged into aMember but still be able to login to the forum. There were no instructions as to where to install files, no description of how the finished system should work...nothing.

Maybe aMember has improved? Perhaps. But that sloppy experience is something I won't forget if a similar situation comes up.

 

[Dav]

What if it creates an account/username that exists previously in either Wordpress or Xenforo? When a member signs up, is anything pushed to Wordpress?

The system will ask you to choose a new username because it already exists. The original usernames etc can be moved over and nothing is pushed to wordpress

 

[kingston]

The system will ask you to choose a new username because it already exists. The original usernames etc can be moved over and nothing is pushed to wordpress

So only registration happens in amember, but everything else via sign in and back end works normally in wordpress and xenforo?

does amember handle spam signups well?

I only have 39 users on my wordpress, but over 10,000 on my forum. can I match the users from wordpress to existing users on xenforo so the accounts or linked, possibly changing the usernames?

 

[Dav]

So only registration happens in amember, but everything else via sign in and back end works normally in wordpress and xenforo?

does amember handle spam signups well?

I only have 39 users on my wordpress, but over 10,000 on my forum. can I match the users from wordpress to existing users on xenforo so the accounts or linked, possibly changing the usernames?

Yes its aMember that handles the registration. Yes everything else in the backend of wordpress and xenforo works normally (If you edit user do it in amember though)

amember has a bulit in Recaptcha for the sign ups

You can import users from wordpress and xenforo. Support should help you with this or post in the forum. It is possible to do it yourself though if you have the tech mind.

Let me know if you need to know more

 

[kingston]

Yes its aMember that handles the registration. Yes everything else in the backend of wordpress and xenforo works normally (If you edit user do it in amember though)

amember has a bulit in Recaptcha for the sign ups

You can import users from wordpress and xenforo. Support should help you with this or post in the forum. It is possible to do it yourself though if you have the tech mind.

Let me know if you need to know more

I really appreciate your help! It sounds like amember is what I want, but I want to be 100% sure before I commit because of the expense and the mess that might be hard to clean up later if it ends up not working.

How hard is it to disconnect amember from XenForo and Wordpress once connected? Is that easy?

Do people have to re-enter their passwords when I pull over? I saw somewhere they did.

If a user changes their avatar in Xenforo will it reflect in wordpress automatically?

I have user upgrades right now running through Xenforo (meaning they pay to go into a new user group). Any idea how that works in amember or does that work the way it always does in Xenforo and just gets pulled over?

Can I use paypal?

If I wanted to setup affiliates is that hard?

Does amember work like a checkout software?

Sorry for all the questions but we are joining a large multisite wordpress installation to xenforo and turning it into an ecosystem of many sites.

 

[Dav]

I really appreciate your help! It sounds like amember is what I want, but I want to be 100% sure before I commit because of the expense and the mess that might be hard to clean up later if it ends up not working.

How hard is it to disconnect amember from XenForo and Wordpress once connected? Is that easy?

Do people have to re-enter their passwords when I pull over? I saw somewhere they did.

If a user changes their avatar in Xenforo will it reflect in wordpress automatically?

I have user upgrades right now running through Xenforo (meaning they pay to go into a new user group). Any idea how that works in amember or does that work the way it always does in Xenforo and just gets pulled over?

Can I use paypal?

If I wanted to setup affiliates is that hard?

Does amember work like a checkout software?

Sorry for all the questions but we are joining a large multisite wordpress installation to xenforo and turning it into an ecosystem of many sites.

How hard is it to disconnect amember from XenForo and Wordpress once connected? Is that easy?
Im not sure about this because i haven't removed amember but i wouldn't think it would be much of a job

Do people have to re-enter their passwords when I pull over? I saw somewhere they did.
Yes but this is not as painful as it may seem (In my experience)

If a user changes their avatar in Xenforo will it reflect in wordpress automatically?
Im not sure about this

I have user upgrades right now running through Xenforo (meaning they pay to go into a new user group). Any idea how that works in amember or does that work the way it always does in Xenforo and just gets pulled over?
The amember and xenforo user upgrades would work seperately. Have you tried the demo of amember? It could be worth trying so you can get a feel of what to expect.

Can I use paypal?
There are a few payment gateways you can use and Yes paypal is one of them

If I wanted to setup affiliates is that hard?
Im not sure of this yet as i haven't tried it but from what i have seen it shouldn't be too hard

Does amember work like a checkout software?
amember handles your websites different levels of subscriptions and what they can access etc...

Sorry if some answers are not very clear. If you post in the amember forum they will give you clearer answers if you need them.

 

[SchmitzIT]

I can confirm that the aMember bridge is poorly documented and supported. I worked with a client who sent me all the files. Followed the aMEmber instructions to a tee, and it didn't work. It took about 2 painstaking weeks of literally trying to drag the info out of their support guy.

We got short replies that were just not helpful: "Add the proper URL to the template", kind of stuff. Note it has no mention of which URL and which template to do this in.

Apparently they have not addressed the issue yet.

The irony is that the company's website claims they pride themselves on offering top notch support :s

 

[kingston]

I can confirm that the aMember bridge is poorly documented and supported. I worked with a client who sent me all the files. Followed the aMEmber instructions to a tee, and it didn't work. It took about 2 painstaking weeks of literally trying to drag the info out of their support guy.

We got short replies that were just not helpful: "Add the proper URL to the template", kind of stuff. Note it has no mention of which URL and which template to do this in.

Apparently they have not addressed the issue yet.

The irony is that the company's website claims they pride themselves on offering top notch support :s

Always good to get multiple opinions on products. Do you have a rival product you suggest to look at as well for a good Xenforo / Wordpress linking.

 

[Deepmartini]

If Xenforo could simply have the option to charge people upfront when creating an account that would do the same thing as what amember does.

 

[kingston]

If Xenforo could simply have the option to charge people upfront when creating an account that would do the same thing as what amember does.

What about linking to wordpress? That is honestly the thing I am most concerned with.

As far as charging to create an account why just could you make it so you can create an account that has no privileges unless you upgrade?

 

[SchmitzIT]

Always good to get multiple opinions on products. Do you have a rival product you suggest to look at as well for a good Xenforo / Wordpress linking.

Cannot say I have. The sad thing is that apparently the bridge, when installed properly, works very well. The issue was just that the knowledge to make this happen has not been included in their documentation.

 

[kingston]

Cannot say I have. The sad thing is that apparently the bridge, when installed properly, works very well. The issue was just that the knowledge to make this happen has not been included in their documentation.

So once installed good, but the installed part is difficult and not well documented. Is that a fair assessment?