WP-Members FAQs

I {did something} and the plugin doesn’t {do something}

In the early days of WordPress, themes and plugins were pretty limited. Tracking down issues was not as problematic. Today you have themes that try to be plugins, plugins that are essentially separate applications, and site administrators that install many (sometimes many many) plugins, some of which may not necessarily be up-to-date with current WordPress standards, if at all.

This makes it extremely difficult to diagnose your problem when it is as simple as “I set {some setting} and the result was {not as expected}.”

If you are following best practices, you already have a test site set up for testing. Start by using that, not your live site.

If you’re new to WP-Members, ideally you would test it out before you install a hundred additional plugins. Set up a test site and use it with no plugins and a basic theme such as the current WP default theme. Do this before you start bringing other factors into play.em

If you’re having problems, try disabling other plugins first to see if there is some compatibility issue.

Whatever you do, don’t automatically assume the issue is WP-Members. The plugin is pretty robust. Most issues that people experience are the result of some outside force, not following directions, or simply not understanding the basic functionality of the plugin. I’m certainly not suggesting the plugin is perfect and that I’m never wrong. But in more than a decade of developing and supporting this plugin, things are fairly solid around the main components of the plugin.

Keep in mind, incompatibility with another plugin or theme is not the same as incompatibility with WordPress core functionality. Remember it’s a WordPress plugin – not a {name-of-plugin-here} plugin.

The best way to get to the root of the issue is to start basic and build from there.

I’m really only using this to add user fields and have the login integrated into the site. I would rather that posts be unblocked by default. How do I do that?

WP-Members gives you the ability to change the settings for how the plugin blocks content. The default setting is to block posts and allow individual posts to be set to unblock at the post level. You can change this setting so that all posts will be viewable by default. If you then have a post that you want blocked to registered members only, you can set the post to block at the post level.

How do I block (or unblock) an individual post (or page)?

If you are using the default settings (as mentioned above), and you have a post that you want to be unblocked (viewable by any user, not just logged in users), on the Edit Post page there will be a meta box in the upper right hand corner “Page/Post Restriction”. Check the box to block the post/page and update to save the setting.

For more information, see Override the Default Setting for Posts in the Users Guide.

For information on removing/changing old post meta “block” and “unblock”, see this post.

How to I change the registration fields that are used and which ones are required?

These settings can be managed on the WP-Members admin panel found under Settings > WP-Members

For more information, see Add Fields in the Users Guide.

Where do I find the users registration information?

WP-Members was designed to fully integrate with WordPress to allow maximum compatibility not only with WP, but also with other plugins that rely on WP user registration information, such as discussion forums, email newsletters, etc. The user information is in the main WP users page under Users > Users, then click “Edit” under an individual user. Any non-native WP fields (WP-Members custom fields) are added to the bottom of this page and are fully editable. (Note: if you don’t have any registered users yet, i.e. a clean install, these fields will not display until there is data in them.)

Additionally, user information can be added to the Users > All Users panel by checking the box in the “Users Screen” column in the plugin’s Fields tab.

Some user data can also be edited in the Users > All Users panel. There is a screen option added that lists users who have not yet been exported, as well as bulk actions added to the Bulk Actions menu for exporting and activating (if moderated registration is enabled). A full list of users can be exported using the “Export All Users” button at the bottom of this screen.

For more information, see Managing Users in the Users Guide

Can I change the email address that messages are mailed from?

Most people are unaware that WP-Members uses the native function wp_mail, and that wp_mail sends messages from wordpress@mydomain.com. But it is easy to override this.

To change the email address that the WP-Members emails come from, you can set this address in the plugin’s email settings. For more information, see Set a Custom Email Address in the Users Guide.

To change the email address that all WordPress emails come from, you can do it with a couple of filters added to your functions.php file or you can do it with a plugin.

Can I customize the way the login and registration forms look?

Yes! All of the style and layout elements are driven by CSS. You can create your own stylesheet to determine the look and feel of the forms to better integrate with your theme. In fact, that is encouraged.

You can create a custom stylesheet from scratch, or you can use one of the existing stylesheets as a starting point.

The plugin has integration into the WordPress Customizer, so you can also use the Customizer to apply custom CSS.

This page in the plugin documentation has information to get you started with choosing a stylesheet and customizing one of the existing stylesheets. It also includes information on some of the filters that can be used.

The login and registration fields are out of alignment. How can I fix that?

If you use one of the side-by-side layout stylesheets, those use a float property for the label and the input. These two elements must be the exact same height or they will be out of alignment. The stylesheets when tested with the specific WP default theme indicated and the default WP-Members form fields will align. However, in another theme and/or with additional fields, that may or may not be the case. If the elements do not align when used in another theme this is the result of inherited properties from additional styles in the theme that need to be accounted for.

There are several simple and easy solutions. First, the fast fix is to use one of the “no float” stylesheets included in the plugin download.

The best solution is to set up a custom stylesheet. This is something you should do anyway so that your forms are consistent with the look of your theme. Please see the documentation on customizing the stylesheet.

There is a freely available post here that describes specifically how this comes about and how you can make specific adjustments to it.

Can I customize the plugin? Where do code snippets go?

You should never make changes to the plugin’s core files. The plugin has an extensible framework, so the proper way to approach customization is through the use of action and filter hooks. There are lots of examples in the premium support code snippet library of customized functions and features that utilize the framework of filter and action hooks. There are also various user API functions and shortcodes you can use to customize your output.

To store you customizations, you can use either a custom plugin file or your theme’s functions.php file.

What about user avatars? Can I use a custom avatar?

WordPress is compliant for use with Globally Recognized Avatars (or “gravatars“).

See this post on how to use the wpmem_sidebar_status filter to add a gravatar to the sidebar widget. (For those of you that are not yet premium members, this article is a free sample of the great code snippets and tutorials available to members.) And for premium members, this post shows you how to add an avatar to the user profile page.

For users who want to override WP’s gravatar support with a custom avatar, you can do so by implementing an image field in the registration form and using that field as an avatar image. There is a code snippet available that allows you to do that.

How do I get the login widget to display a link to register and/or forgot password?

See: How do I create a “forgot password” link in the login form?

The Forgot Password link does not work.

See: How do I create a “forgot password” link in the login form?

User passwords are invalid? What is wrong?

See: Why can’t users log in?

Translation Issues

If a particular string is not translating and it is not a custom field, the most likely two possibilities are either:

(a) the string is not translated in the .po file, or
(b) if the string is translated, but is marked as fuzzy. Any translations that are marked as fuzzy are not included in the compiled .mo file.

WP-Members is now part of the wordpress.org polyglots project. This means that when a language pack is available for the language you run WordPress in, it will download automatically from wordpress.org. However, this only happens if the language pack is at least 95% complete. Translations with complete language packs are listed here.

If you want to participate in translation as a contributor, you are free to do so. If you have an interest in being identified as an editor, feel free to contact me (You do not have to be identified as an editor or contact me to contribute to translations – only contact me if you have an interest in being an editor). Editors can approve suggested translations. Having an identified editor for a specific language moves the process to completion faster and benefits all users. However, you need to be available on the WordPress Slack channel and be willing to stay up to date. (It doesn’t mean you have to translate everything yourself – just be available to approve translation suggestions and check-in regularly.) There are several languages that currently have no designated editor. Note that the general editors for some language locales will require that you participate as a contributor before being approved as an editor.

Language packs that are included in the plugin download are no longer supported. They continue to be included to fill in the gap until language packs from the polyglots project are complete. I would recommend that you use the polyglots language packs as these will be the most up to date. Even if a language pack not complete, you can still download it manually for use in your install.

Does the plugin support multi-language sites?

See Multi-language Considerations

How do I import users?

See how to import users.

How do I redirect a user after login, registration, or logout?

Let me preface this by saying that you should put some thought into whether your redirect is really necessary. There are good redirects and there are bad. I don’t generally recommend redirecting the user because you will find that you end up with something confusing in most cases.

With that in mind, there are several ways to implement redirects.

If using the login form shortcode, you can redirect login using the shortcode attribute “redirect_to”. Note that this only affects the instance of the form generated by that specific use of the shortcode.
The widget has a “redirect_to” attribute available in the widget settings. This only affects login from the widget.
The wpmem_login_redirect filter filters all logins that go through any WP-Members login form.
WP’s login_redirect filter can be used to filter any and all logins, both through WP-Members and any other forms as long as those forms use WP’s login functions.

Registration

If using the registration form shortcode, you can redirect after registration using the “redirect_to” attribute in the shortcode.
The wpmem_register_redirect filter can redirect any registration through the WP-Members registration form.
WP’s user_register action is often used to redirect users on registration. If you are using the WP-Members registration form, this is not recommended. There are several actions the plugin handles after user_register and redirecting on this action would remove the user from that process prior to completion. This is only recommended when other forms of registration are being used (another plugin such as WooCommerce or bbPress, or a custom registration form).

Logout

Use the wpmem_logout_redirect filter to redirect a user upon logout.
WP’s logout_redirect action can be used to redirect all logouts.

Do you provide discounts for non-profits?

Unfortunately, no. The primary reason is that this is a small business with expenses to cover. I’m not offended by people asking because I do understand the situation smaller non-profits are in. If you’re a club or association run by volunteers and little to no budget, I get it. But please understand that building and maintaining this software project is my sole income. It’s fun, and I enjoy it, but it’s also how I put food on the table. Providing support and maintaining the plugin takes considerable time, and the labor cost of providing support to you is the same whether you are a non-profit or anyone else.

The core plugin is freely available for everyone, as is all of the plugin’s documentation. Customizing the plugin follows WP’s system of filter and action hooks. There is no “secret sauce” that I hold back to get you to buy. But buying support and/or add-ons (regardless of whether you use them or not) is what keeps this plugin available for everyone.