A subscription based site is a site that offers member content at a dollar value. These members are able to access parts of the site regular users cannot.

You might be surprised to know that DotNetNuke has the capability to do this, and I was able to set it up on my site with no core changes, and in a very short time frame.

Payment Gateway

The first step is to select a payment gateway for your site. This is the processor that will collect the money on your behalf.

I think the only one that works by default within DotNetNuke is PayPal (www.paypal.com), so let’s use this one.

To configure PayPal as your selected processor:-

1. Login as an administrator of your site.
2. Navigate to Admin -> Site Settings
3. Expand Advanced Settings.
4. Expand Payment Settings.
5. Select your currency (I’ve only ever used USD)
6. Select payment processor (PayPal)
7. Enter process user id and password. (this is the login you use to get into PayPal and the account money will go into)
8. Click the “Update” button at the bottom of Site Settings.

Subscription Roles

To block certain sections off your site, you will need to create role(s) that will you apply to sections of your site for view access. (This would be the membership section.)

On my site, I have created a Gold, Silver and Host role.

To create new roles:-

1. Login as an administrator of your site.
2. Navigate to Admin -> Security Roles
3. Click the “Add New Role” button.
4. Enter role name and description. (e.g. Gold Membership, 1 Year Membership Access)
5. Check the “Public Role” checkbox, this will allow people to subscribe to your role.
6. Expand “Advance Settings”
7. Enter the “Service Fee”, e.g. my site is $35 for 1 year access. So my service fee is 35
8. Enter “Billing Period”, e.g. 1 year ($35 every year)
9. Click the “Update” button.

Securing Content

Okay, now we’ve setup the payment process, and setup our subscription roles. It’s time to secure our content. Create a few pages on your site, and secure them to your newly created role.

Allowing your Users to Subscribe

You currently have done enough to allow your users to subscribe, but currently it’s not that intuitive, for them to subscribe, they actually need to edit there account profile, expand membership services, and “subscribe” to the appropriate role.

This will take them through the PayPal process, paying into your account and then DotNetNuke will automatically add them into your chosen role.

Note: if they pay via eCheque which takes a few days to clear, they are not automatically added to the role, and you will have to do it manually once it clears.

To make this section a bit easier, I offer an explanation page, and an f.a.q.

Management

So you’ve now enabled your site for membership services, and hopefully you are collecting payments. You’ve made no core changes to DotNetNuke (although the sign up process could be better).

The only part that isn’t completely implemented yet is the Management side of things. These are modules like:-

• Notify the user that there subscription is expiring.
• Visual notification of there subscription status. (e.g. welcome gold member)
• Update the role when a subscription has been renewed (haven’t tested this yet)

I’m sure there are plenty of other screens as well. I am planning on implementing some of this functionality as custom modules, something that will be offered to subscribers of my site.

Conclusion

So hopefully, you have seen how easy it is to create a subscription based website in DotNetNuke. Definitely a powerful platform indeed!