Protection Methods
From AMember Pro Manual
Contents |
Protection Basics
Essentially protection allows you to make one or more areas on your site available only for registered and not-expired customers. If you have protection set up correctly, only ACTIVE, that is paid and non-expired, customers will be able to access the protected area or areas.
You already know that aMember allows you to have several membership types ("products") each of which broadly equates to a protected area. aMember allows considerable flexibility in setting up protection for these areas.
For example, suppose you have 2 folders on your site:
- /membersA/
- /membersB/
and you have 3 products:
- Product #1 - gives access to folder A
- Product #2 - gives access to folder B
- Product #3 - gives access to both folder A and folder B
Please note: Products are always numbered. The id number is visible on the aMember Admin CP -> Manage Products page. First id is not always equal to 1, and second id is not always equal to first id increased by 1.
You can allow access as follows:
- /membersA/
- access allowed for members subscribed to products #1 OR #3
- /membersB/
- access allowed for members subscribed to products #2 OR #3
Setup Protection
To apply folder protection, just go to aMember CP -> Protect Folders and follow instructions.
Comparing Existing Protection Methods
| Method | HTML Login Form | Logout ability | Performace | Access Log | Requirements | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New_Rewrite | + | + | + | only login | mod_rewrite available from .htaccess files | most preffered method |
| Mod_Rewrite-php_include | + | + | - | full logs | mod_rewrite available from .htaccess files, PHP compiled as Apache module | this method may cause problems with third-party PHP scripts in protected area |
| PHP_Include | + | + | + | full logs | only PHP files can be protected | could not be used to protect images or downloadable content. You have to change your existing files |
| htpasswd | - | - | + | no logs | no special requirements, will work on any Apache webhosting |
Enabling Protection Plugins
php_include plugin is enabled by default, and you should not disable it. It is used for all protection methods except htpasswd.
To enable htpasswd plugin, follow instructions:
- Visit aMember CP -> Setup -> Plugins and enable htpasswd in Protection Plugins list.
- Click to aMember Cp -> Rebuild Db to build .htpasswd and .htgroup files in amember/data/ folder, else protection will not work until Midnight.