WordPress Questions and Answers + Payments Add-on (CMAP) - Use Case - Creating Forum With Paid Subscriptions For Posting Questions and Answers

Use Case – Creating Forum With Paid Subscriptions For Posting Questions and Answers

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Introduction

The Answers Payments Add-on allows you to charge users for posting questions and answers on your forum. It can be done in two ways - by one-time charge for publishing question or answer or by paying for a subscription.

Use Case Front-End

Q&A Subscription:

Questions Subscription:

Answers Subscription:

Use Case Assumptions

In this example use case guide we will consider how to charge users for posting questions and answers on WordPress discussion forum using subscription plans.

We assume that you have already installed the WordPress Questions and Answers and Answers Payments Add-On.

It follows:

• Installing the plugin
• Installing payment plugin (EDD or WooCommerce)
• Choosing between payment providers
• Subscriptions
  • Q&A subscription
  • Question subscription
  • Answer subscription
• Monitor subscriptions
• Translating front-end labels
• End result

Installing the Plugin

The process is the same for all CM plugins and add-ons.

• Download the plugin from your customer dashboard.
• Log in to WordPress and navigate to the WordPress Admin → Plugins settings.
• Click on Add New.
• Activate it and add the license.

Learn more: Getting Started - Plugin Overview

Installing Payment Plugin (EDD or WooCommerce)

You must choose between either Easy Digital Downloads or WooCommerce.

Head to Admin Dashboard → Plugins → Installed Plugins and click Add New. 

Search for either Easy Digital Downloads or WooCommerce and install it.

Configure Payment Plugins

Don't forget to configure the payment plugin! This way you can connect it to payment providers such as PayPal or credit card companies.

External Resources

• Introduction to EDD - Easy Digital Downloads
• Configuring WooCommerce Settings - WooCommerce Docs

Choosing Between Payment Providers

First thing we need to do is to choose the payment provider. Navigate to Admin Dashboard → CM Answers Pro → Settings → Payments tab. Under the General section you can find the following options:

• Payment Provider - Choose a payment provider between Easy Digital Downloads or WooCommerce. Note: only active payment plugins will be listed.
• Autocomplete WooCommerce Order - Enable this option if you want to automatically approve WooCommerce orders, in case if you use WooCommerce as a payment provider.
• Enable CRON for checking user subscription every 4 hours - Enable this option to automatically check statuses of user subscriptions.

Then click the button Update below the settings to save the changes.

Subscriptions

Now we can configure our subscription plans. The plugin has 3 types of subscriptions:

• Q&A Subscription - Paying for this subscription allows users to ask questions and post answers on the forum for certain period of time. This type of subscription can not be used together with Question Subscription or Answers Subscription.
• Question Subscription - Paying for this subscription allows users to ask questions for certain period of time. This type of subscription can be used together with Answer Subscription and can not be used together with Q&A Subscription.
• Answers Subscription - Paying for this subscription allows users to post answers for certain period of time. This type of subscription can be used together with Question Subscription and can not be used together with Q&A Subscription.

TIP

Each type of the subscription can be used together with one-time charges for posting questions or answers, giving your users a choice if they want to pay separately for posting each question or answer, or they want to buy a subscription. Learn more about one-time charges in this use case guide: WordPress Questions and Answers + Payments Add-on (CMAP) - Use Case - Creating Forum That Charges For Posting Questions and Answers

Example of using together the Q&A Subscription and one-time charge for asking questions:

Now let's consider each subscription type more detailed.

Q&A Subscription

Under the Q&A subscription section you can configure the subscription which allows users to post questions and answers on the forum for a certain period of time. The options are:

• Enable unified subscription for Questions and Answers - Turn on this option if you want users to pay for a subscription to be able to post questions and answers.
• Set period for Answer and Question Subscriptions (in months) - Set the amount of months that the subscription will work after the payment.
• Enable sending email about expired subscription - Turn on this option if you want to notify the user when his subscription is expired and he needs to pay for the subscription again in order to continue posting questions and answers.
• Email subject / content about an expired subscription - These 2 fields allow you to customize the subject and body of the email notification which will be sent to the user after the subscription expiration. You can use the shortcode [username] inside the email body, which will be replaced by the actual user name of a receiver.
• EDD / WooCommerce product - Choose the field related to the payment system that you have chosen previously and select here a product to define the price of the subscription. You need to create a product in advance. Both payment systems work similar, let's choose an EDD product for our example.

Have a note that the subscription payment is not recurring. It means that every time the subscription is expired, the user has to manually purchase it again to continue posting questions and answers.

After you finished configuring the Q&A subscription, don't forget to save the changes by clicking the button Update below the settings.

Now let's see the result on the front-end.

Front-end Result

When the user wants to post a question or answer on the forum, he will be asked to get a subscription first:

After the user clicks the button Subscribe, he will be redirected to the checkout page or cart. In our case it's a checkout page provided by EDD:

And after purchasing the user can see the confirmation information. There's a button Go back which allows to get back to the forum:

Now the user is able to post questions and answers:

Example of the email notification when the subscription is expired:

Question Subscription

Now let's consider a Question Subscription. Have a note that the Q&A subscription must be disabled, as it overrides Question or Answers subscriptions. Under the Question subscription section you can configure the subscription which allows users to post questions on the forum for a certain period of time. The options are identical to the previous case:

• Enable subscription for Questions - Turn on this option if you want users to pay for a subscription to be able to post questions.
• Set period for Question Subscription (in months) - Set the amount of months that the subscription will work after the payment.
• Enable sending emails about an expired subscription - Turn on this option if you want to notify the user when his subscription is expired and he needs to pay for the subscription again in order to continue posting questions.
• Email subject / content about an expired subscription - These 2 fields allow you to customize the subject and body of the email notification which will be sent to the user after the subscription expiration. You can use the shortcode [username] inside the email body, which will be replaced by the actual user name of a reciever.
• EDD / WooCommerce product - Choose the field related to the payment system that you have chosen previously and select here a product to define the price of the subscription. You need to create a product in advance. Both payment systems work similar, let's choose an EDD product for our example.

Have a note that the subscription payment is not recurring. It means that every time the subscription is expired, the user has to manually purchase it again to continue posting questions.

After you finished configuring the subscription, don't forget to save the changes by clicking the button Update below the settings.

Now let's see the result on the front-end.

Front-end Result

When the user wants to post a question, he will be asked to get a subscription first. The process of purchasing the subscription and result is similar to the previous case - after the purchase, the user will be able to post questions.

Example of the email notification when the subscription is expired:

Answer Subscription

Now let's consider an Answers Subscription. Have a note that the Q&A subscription must be disabled, as it overrides Question or Answers subscriptions. Under the Answers subscription section you can configure the subscription which allows users to post answers for a certain period of time. The options are identical to previous cases:

• Enable subscription for Answers - Turn on this option if you want users to pay for a subscription to be able to post answers.
• Set period for Answer Subscription (in months) - Set the amount of months that the subscription will work after the payment.
• Enable sending emails about an expired subscription - Turn on this option if you want to notify the user when his subscription is expired and he needs to pay for the subscription again in order to continue posting answers.
• Email subject / content about an expired subscription - These 2 fields allow you to customize the subject and body of the email notification which will be sent to the user after the subscription expiration. You can use the shortcode [username] inside the email body, which will be replaced by the actual user name of a reciever.
• EDD / WooCommerce product - Choose the field related to the payment system that you have chosen previously and select here a product to define the price of the subscription. You need to create a product in advance. Both payment systems work similar, let's choose an EDD product for our example.

Have a note that the subscription payment is not recurring. It means that every time the subscription is expired, the user has to manually purchase it again to continue posting answers.

After you finished configuring the subscription, don't forget to save the changes by clicking the button Update below the settings.

Now let's see the result on the front-end.

Front-end Result

When the user wants to post an answer, he will be asked to get a subscription first. The process of purchasing the subscription and result is the same as in previous cases - after the purchase, the user will be able to post answers.

Example of the email notification when the subscription is expired:

Monitor Subscriptions

The plugin allows you to track and manage existing subscriptions. To do this, navigate to Admin Dashboard → CM Answers Pro → Subscriptions.

There you will find a table with all info:

The table contains the following information about each subscription:

• ID
• User
• Price
• Status
• Date Create
• Date Edit
• Date Expired

You can click on any user to see his profile and you can also Cancel or Delete any subscription by clicking relevant buttons next to the needed item.

Translating Front-end Labels

You can translate all labels and buttons that appear on the front-end. To do this, navigate to Admin Dashboard → CM Answers Pro → Settings → Labels tab.

All labels related to the payment process can be found under the section Payments.

End Result

Following instructions found in the plugin and guides, you should be able to charge users for posting questions and answers on your forum using subscription plans.

Use Case Front-End

Q&A Subscription:

Questions Subscription:

Answers Subscription:

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