AEC SOBI2 workflow

I have been working with paid membership sites using Joomla, SOBI2 and AEC Automatic Expiry Component.

After chasing my tail for a couple of weeks, by George I think I get it... mostly.

SOBI2 controls all of the directory listings but just the directory listings. Everything must be set to free.

AEC control all of the payments AND the membership levels. (Your do not want to have to manually set to Author or Publisher - sobi2 does this for you!)

I only have this running with three membership levels right now because I do not have ioncube on my host to allow advanced usergroups. Free Basic at $150/year or $15/month Pro at $247/year or $24/month

Some customizing of the Entry form, Vcard and Details templates must be done in SOBI2 - but it cannot be done without a query to AEC to determine the subscription the owner has.

The AEC - SOBI2 - AEC workflow looks something like this:

(click the image to view full image)

SOBI2 Customization

I have been working on 3 Joomla sites that have a SOBI2 business directory at the core. All of them needed customization

The BIA site needed only a custom look and images.

The Dental site need custom display to prevent viewing of contact information and details unless logged in.

The Mr. Bob site required 3 levels of membership: Free, Basic and Pro with Paypal subscription payments, many custom fields, and automatic expiry using the AEC - Automatic Expiry Component.

What a learning curve. All 3 sites will be launching this week - I still need to create the images for the BIA site, the dental site needs minor cosmetic tweaking and menu edits.

The Mr.Bob site was the biggest challenge. I found I could not have SEO turned on with the AEC plugin or all payment plans were disabled. Not so good - a paid community site nobody could subscribe to.
The next challenge was just offline planning - with all of the extra components and the three access levels.
All paid members can post ads, only pro members can post events and content. Free members can add simplified listings to the SOBI2 directory. All paid members get advanced listings but Pro members also get an image gallery and extra fields.

I eliminated all paid fields in SOBI2 because their a-la-carte style is kind of irritating.
All paid items are packaged in AEC. Then when editing their entry in SOBI2 the entry form does a database call to AEC to determine their plan id # and shows or hides fields for editing and submitting based on their plan level.
AEC also sets as Registered, Author or Publisher - other components are controlled by those levels.

Thanks to SOBI2 forum member k2xl for inspiring this solution through his Author name solution.
This is a huge amount of work and customization. Contact me if you want this for your site.

Building Online Communities With Joomla

Barrie North from Compass Designs provides a detailed overview of online communities here: http://www.compassdesigns.net/tutorials/289-building-online-communities-with-joomla.html

- he touches briefly on what it is that makes a community a popular place to return to: ie giving registered users indide tools to call their own and facilitating discussion on articles, blogs, as well as discussion forums.
Some of the comments were very insightful:

• keep it simple
• think of it as a community
• listen to the community needs

Get even more details in his online tutorial http://www.simplweb.com/413-7.html

What makes a Community Online?

As I build with Joomla, I recognize that it can be difficult to get community members to participate.
I like the idea of the Karma plugin so that visitors build rank by editing their profile and posting to the forum. I wonder if there is a way to modify Mamblog extension to credit Karma points?!

I am giving a speech tonight about creating and participating in conversation online. If you are at that event (or just want to join the fun) post your blog address and twitter page in the comments... I will comment on your blog and follow it and follow you on Twitter.

I want to start having some fun with Web 2.0 this year!
I am following my Internet Marketing hero on twitter - Mike Filsaime. He is following me back - very cool.

Share some ideas on how you are joining in to the online conversation that is WEb 2.0
Do you blog? comment on blogs? Give Yahoo Answers? Visit discusion boards? Put content on Youtube or upload podcasts? Digg it? Create reviews at amazon.com.............