WordPress Integration Overview

About Ontraport's WordPress Integration

Applies to: Ontraport Plus and above accounts

Ontraport supports integration of your existing or new WordPress.org (standalone) site to create a robust membership site. Features include:

• Granular protection of any page or post so only members can see the page or post
• Sell or give away membership levels, and drip content only to that level using a Campaign
• All member management is centralized in Ontraport (billing, granting or removing access, etc.)
• Easy integration of Ontraport media into WordPress (forms, video, images)
• A built in Customer Center where members can download invoices, update payment details, etc.
• A built in Partner Center where affiliates can obtain promo tools, see approved commissions, etc.
• Unlimited installations of PilotPress on any WordPress website you own, membership levels and Ontraport hosted WordPress websites.
• Custom login page and branded "Password Reminder" capability

Note: WordPress.com, the blogging platform, is not compatible with Ontraport. You must use a stand-alone, WordPress.org site.

How WordPress Membership Site Integration Works

The PilotPress plugin creates a deep integration between WordPress and ONTRAPORT. Before each page loads, PilotPress checks to make sure the member has access to the page. If access to that page or post has not been granted the member is redirected to another page you select.

When a member enters the Customer Center (if configured), PilotPress communicates with Ontraport to display their information and allow them to change their credit card details, view their invoices, etc.

If the member is also a Partner in Ontraport they have access to the Partner Center where they can obtain the promo tools with their Partner ID information included, the sales history and commissions paid and owed.

Because of the deep integration with frequent communication between your WordPress site and Ontraport, the PilotPress plugin must be the only plugin handling membership or redirection. Cache plugins must be configured to ignore the PilotPress protected pages, or they will try to render the page without regard to the protection level.

Step 1 - Integrate your WordPress site & Create Membership Levels in Ontraport

1. In Ontraport, you may have to turn on WordPress integration by going to the profile icon in the top right, Administration > Advanced Features > WordPress.
2. Slide the toggle next to WordPress to ON
   
   
3. Navigate to Administration > Integrations > Wordpress Websites.
4. Click the New WordPress Site button, then the existing WordPress site. If you need a new WordPress site, learn more here.
5. Name the website for reference in ONTRAPORT (1), provide the URL to your site (2), add membership levels by clicking the + Add button (3) and copy the App ID and API Key values at the bottom (4) into a text file for use in WordPress.
   
6. Download the PilotPress plugin to your computer. Copy and paste the App ID and API key onto a notepad. Then, click Save in the upper right of this page.

Step 2 - Install PilotPress on Your WordPress Site

Log into your WordPress site as an administrator and install the PilotPress plugin by visiting Plugins > Add New and uploading the plugin.

You will be asked for the App ID ("Application ID" in WordPress) and API Key during activation. After entering those, visit the PilotPress settings section below for further configuration.

Learn more about PilotPress settings here.

In WordPress Admin, navigate to Settings > PilotPress to configure the following settings.

General Settings

1. Application ID and API Key: Enter the information you copied from step 1 above.
2. Lock all users without Admin role out of profile editor: Check to lock users out of the WordPress profile editor.

ONTRAPORT Integration Settings

1. Enable Customer Center Check to activate the built-in Customer Center. Your members can update credit cards, see future and past invoices, and change their username and password, so this can be valuable even if you do not have a membership site.
2. Enable Partner Center  If you have a Partner or Affiliate program, check to enable the Partner Center. Your Partners can obtain promo tools, see the number of leads they have generated and track their commissions.
3. Which center has priority when redirecting? If both are enabled, and the member logging in is both a Customer and a Partner, which Center should they redirect to?
   
   
4. Enable Discrete Nicknames Check this to allow WordPress nicknames to be the first portion of the email address. If you leave unchecked then it will default to FirstLast name.

Note: Discrete Nicknames are only applied when the user registers for membership in WordPress first and is synced to ONTRAPORT using the New User Registration Settings below. Membership users created in ONTRAPORT will continue to have the nickname formed from their ONTRAPORT first and last name.

Post Login Redirect Settings

1. Customers Redirect To Select the page you want to direct customers to once they log into your membership site. The dropdown menu lists all the pages you have created in WordPress, so you can use a page such as the Customer Center, membership overview page or sales page.
2. Partners Redirect To Select the page you want to direct Partners once they log in as a Partner. The dropdown menu lists all the pages you have created in WordPress, so you can select a page such as your Partner Center, a page promoting your upcoming partner offer or one that gives an overview of how to be a successful partner.
   
   

New User Registration Settings

1. Sync WordPress users to your ONTRAPORT Contacts This drop down has three options:
   1. No (do not automatically sync registrations on WordPress to your ONTRAPORT account)
   2. Yes, New Users Only (to start syncing new registrations to ONTRAPORT, but ignore all the existing users)
   3. Yes, New and Existing Users (sync all existing users in WordPress to ONTRAPORT as new Contacts).
      
      Note: Synchronization happens the next time the user logs into WordPress, so you will not see all your WordPress members appear in ONTRAPORT immediately. Because the transfer of the encrypted WordPress password has to be done during the user's login session, we cannot sync the users at any other time.
2. What tags should they have? - If WordPress users are added to ONTRAPORT, what Tag would you like WordPress to add to them?
3. What sequences should they be on? - You can have the new Contact join a legacy Step or Date Sequence when they are added to ONTRAPORT.
4. What campaigns should they be on? - Specify the Contact be added to a Campaign.
   
   

Step 3 - Protect Membership Content on WordPress 

Create your membership content. You have two primary options when creating your membership content.

1. WordPress post, page or custom post type
2. Ontraport Page. Use Ontraport's ONTRApages for WordPress plugin to add your pages to your WordPress site.

Then, open any existing post, page or custom post type in the WordPress editor. A new section named PilotPress Options will be at the top right, showing the membership levels you created in ONTRAPORT. Learn more about PilotPress and the WordPress editor here.

Access Levels: Check the box next to the membership level to have access to the post. PilotPress uses discreet permissions, so only the membership levels you select will have access (lower membership levels do not automatically gain access).

Show in Navigation: Protected pages are not shown to non-members in WordPress menus unless you check this checkbox.

On Error: Non-members are redirected to this page. This can be used to remind members to log in (as shown) or to send non-members to a sales page for your membership program.

To protect entire Categories of Posts or Custom Post Types, see this article. For advanced users, see this article if you'd like to use shortcodes.

Step 4 - Create a Login Page in WordPress

Make sure all the formatting icons are available in the Visual editor when editing a page or post, and click the Add Login Form icon. If you see only one row of icons click the Toggle Toolbar icon (shown in the top row "depressed").

WordPress 5.0 will introduce the Gutenberg editor. Use a Classic block to display the PilotPress icons.

Click the Add Login Form icon, select default or Customize it. Once complete, the appropriate code will be inserted in the page. Publish the page once you're done adding a login form.

For more details on creating a Login page, see this article.

Step 5 - Setup Ontraport to Sell and Deliver A Membership Product

1. Connect your payment gateway so you can accept payments online.
   
2. Create an Order Form to sell your Membership Product. Detailed article here.
   
3. Create a Campaign to Deliver a Membership Product. Detailed article here.
   
4. Test your Membership process including order form fill out and delivery of the username and password. Do NOT use the same email address as the one you use to login as a WordPress administrator or an email address that is already on your membership delivery campaign.
   
   

 

Avoiding Plugin Conflicts

Plugins reported to conflict:

• Any other "membership" plugin
• Any plugin that manages "redirection"
• Caching plugins
• All in One SEO
• Backup Buddy
• Page Expiration Robot or Scarity Samuri
• User Role Editor
• Login Form Editors (using redirection)

About Cache Plugins: PilotPress uses the WordPress database for member verification, but some caching programs will store protected pages in memory or as static HTML files on disk and display them to any visitor. You must exclude any protected member page from the cache to use these plugins. WP Rocket, WP Super Cache and W3 Total Cache and most other caching plugins have configuration options to prevent caching of pages or directories on your site. Add all of your PilotPress protected pages to the exclusion list.

WordPress has over 50,000 plugins and we are unable to test all of them. Symptoms of a plugin conflict include protected pages being visible to non-members, members having to log in again when navigating to another protected page, and content not being visible in the WordPress editor. If you find a conflict not listed above please contact Support and let us know.

Assessing Your Current WordPress Site

It may be advantageous to install a new instance of WordPress in a subdomain or folder on your current site to provide a clean environment. Consider this option if:

• You have multiple plugins (we find that more than 10 to 15 plugins complicates troubleshooting, but this is not a hard and fast rule. See Avoiding Plugin Conflicts above.)
• You use BuddyPress or other social plugins that modify user roles or profiles
• You have an existing membership or affiliate program plugin you want to continue to use

An example of a subdomain is the URL "members.your-domain.com" where "members" takes the place of the usual "www". A folder based site would use your existing domain name with a folder name, such as "www.your-domain.com/members".

Articles in this section

• WordPress Integration Overview
• Set up Membership Quick Start
• PilotPress Settings
• PilotPress and the WordPress Editor
• Integrate an Existing WordPress Site
• Integrate a New WordPress Site
• Migrate From Another Membership System to ONTRAPORT
• Creating Membership Levels
• Protect Content on Pages, Posts and Categories in WordPress
• Testing PilotPress Content Protection

See more