andrecolbert wrote: Hi,
I represent a non-profit academic association that has 500 members and it seems to me CB Pro with add-ons like CBSubs could be perfect for our entire site upgrade. I am the Executive Manager of the association and I am also a Joomla developer. Some of my questions include can we import a .xls or .cvs of our old member database to create a new MySQL one? (I want a new database but I obviously need to import contact details, subscription fees paid, due dates, etc.) Next, we need to have profile/forms that new members can complete and existing members can update. We need members to be able to pay their annual membership fees and process them through a reliable gateway. And auto send welcome emails and renewal emails upon payment. And it would be great if members could use the same login for to access their profile and access certain pages on the site. To what extent can we control this? As you can see, I have lots of questions and I'm not sure who to ask.
1. Import question
If the users are already in your Joomla/CB database, you can use the CBSubs import feature to initialize running subscriptions (from delimited text file).
If users are not in the joomla/cb database you would have to use something like CB Juice to import them first and then use CBSubs to initial membership.
I would not import past expired memberships - CBSubs is not an accounting system.
2. Profile question
CB allows you to add fields and tabs to profies. Some fields can be marked to appear during registration, can be marked mandatory, etc.
3. Payments
CBSubs supports many payment gateways (Paypal, Authorize.net. 2Checkout, etc - see CBSubs page for list).
4. Emails
CBSubs can send welcome mails, pending payment mails, expiration mails, etc. You can also use the CBSubs mailer to configure smart personalized reminders - example send email X days before expiration to member.
5. Access and login
With CBSubs you can configure any Joomla content element (single article, all articles in a category, component, module, menu item) and require a subscription to access. If subscription does not exist, user trying to access will see a CBSubs intervention that will propose all subscriptions that would unlock the specific content.
I think I address everything.
As you can see CBSubs is very flexible and you can do almost anything with it.
It has a learning curve, and comes with a very detailed manual to help you learn.
nant