Setting up two membership functions for two businesses

  • Hi

    I run a website for the National Shooting Council – lets call it business A. We have a membership database which we are about to bring into WordPress (we currently use an external vendor for this). However we would also like to offer our members the chance to ALSO join a second business, lets call that B which is run by someone else.

    In other words, people can choose to join A only, or A and B. B will extract some data fields from A, and may have some additional requirements of its own. We then need the membership database for B to notify that business when they have a new member. We will also then need to pay B for that membership, as the money belongs to them.

    Has anyone heard of something like this – or know what the best way might be to set this up?

    Thanks

    Neil

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Moderator bcworkz

    (@bcworkz)

    How are members going to be told they should choose to join A, B, both, or neither? How is their data getting into the WP site for A? If users choose to join B, how does their data get to B’s site? Ideally there’d be some sort of API we could use to get and send data.

    Moving data about often requires a custom app because the schemas involved in combination are often unique, as is the communication required to do so.

    Thread Starter National Shooting Council

    (@nscouncil)

    Hey BC

    Thanks for getting back to me. (Potential) members will be invited to join A, and joining B is optional for them (but has benefits for them in doing so). The invitation will be via blogs, social media etc where they sign up on our site (and using one of the various WordPress solutions). Payment will be via Stripe, PayPal etc.

    So that means they will join A only, or A & B. If they want to join B only, then they will need to go directly to that entity.

    In terms of data migration, that’s where I need advice. The simple solution is to have the membership system for A send a CSV or similar file to the system for B. However we don’t know if that exists so the “plan b” is for the membership system for A to send an email directly to B with the relevant data (currently they use a spreadsheet, hence why I’m asking for a greenfield solution)

    Yes, I’ve used APIs a couple of times for integrations and it sounds like that is a preferable option

    Regards
    Neil

    Moderator bcworkz

    (@bcworkz)

    Assuming their data is already in place on A, if the user chooses to join B, their data could be set to B via HTTPS POST method. The destination URL needs to be designed for the purpose. The typical approach would be as an API request, but it doesn’t have to be a formal REST API. It could be any destination that executes code to add the passed data as a new member.

    Now, about getting their data into A to start with. Would a full import of all member data be in compliance with whatever privacy terms they agreed to when becoming a member? If so, all imported users could be considered inactive until they agree to join. This could be accomplished by switching roles.

    If their data cannot be exported en masse due to privacy concerns, ideally their data could be fetched individually from its current location after obtaining consent. If this is in the form of a spreadsheet, it will not work very well, there really ought to be an API or similar. If there are extant privacy issues on the source data, you may be forced to ask them to re-enter their data on the new system if there is no API or similar mechanism..

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
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