WP-Members is designed to run "out-of-the-box" with no modifications to your WP installation necessary. Please follow the installation instructions below.
Most of the support issues that arise are a result of improper installation or simply not reading/following directions.
Basic Install:
The best way to begin is to review the
Initial Setup Video. There is also a complete
Users Guide available that covers all of the plugin's features in depth.
- Upload the
/wp-members/
directory and its contents to the /wp-content/plugins/
directory
- Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress®
You are ready to begin using WP-Members. Now follow the instructions titled "Locking down your site" below.
Locking down your site:
- To restrict posts, you will need to use the
<!--more-->
link in your posts. Content above to the "more" split will display on summary pages (home, archive, category) but the user will be required to login to view the entire post. You may also use the plugin's auto excerpt setting to create post excerpts automatically. If you do not use the "more" tag or the auto excerpt setting, full post content is going to show on archive templates, unless the post is marked as hidden.
- To begin restricting pages, change the plugin default setting for pages to be blocked. Unlike posts, the
<!--more-->
link is not necessary in the blocking of pages, but must be used if you have the "show excerpts" setting turned on for pages.
- To protect comments, we recommend setting "Users must be registered and logged in to comment" under Settings > Discussion.
- On the Settings > General page, it is recommended that you uncheck "Anyone can register". While not required, this will prevent WP's native registration from colliding with WP-Members, especially if you are using any of the WP-Members additional registration fields.
- Under Settings > Reading, "For each article in a feed, show" is recommended to be set to "Summary." WordPress installs with full feed settings by default. If you don't change this, your feeds will show full content.
Additional Setup Information
There are also some special pages that can be created with simple shortcodes:
- A User Profile page where registered members can edit their information and change/reset their password: [wpmem_profile]
- A Registration page available for those that need a specific URL for registrations (such as email marketing or banner ad landing pages). Note: this is strictly optional as a registration form can also be included by default on blocked content pages: [wpmem_form register]
- A Login page. This is also an optional page as the login form is included by default on blocked content. But if you need a specific login page, this can be created with a simple shortcode: [wpmem_form login]
- And more shortcodes are available!
Powerful cusotmizations can be constructed with
over 120 action and filter hooks, as well as user accessible functions.