Tutorial 1.5: Creating a Secure Zone
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Secure Zones are what you use when you want to hide content from everyone, save for a select few with login permissions. This can be particularly useful if you wish to sell membership to a "Members Only" section, or other privileged content.
During the course of this tutorial, you will learn about Secure Zones and their various functions. You will learn how to create, set up, and manage your secure zones, inclusive of securing content, creating sign-up pages and even selling membership to a secure zone.
Contents |
Creating the Secure Zone
- Login to your your site's control panel. You should see the dashboard page with a menu bar at the top.
- Hover your mouse over the Website tab at the top, then click the Secure Zone option on the 2nd level to bring up the Secure Zone Manager.
- Click on Create a new Secure zone from the Action box.
- Enter a name for your new Secure Zone and select the Save button.
- Once a customer has signed in, you are able to redirect them to a landing page. From the Landing Page Drop down menu, select the page that you would like them to be redirected to. (Note: This page does not need to be in a secure zone, but usually is.)
Making Content Secure
You can make content on your site secure. This means that it will be hidden from the general public, with the exception of those who are able to log in to your secure zone. We'll cover secure zone logins in a later part of the tutorial.
- First, click the next button.
- You will be presented with the Make Content Secure screen. Select the items that you wish to make secure, and move them from left to right accordingly using the green arrows. (Note: You can make more than just webpages secure; check out the drop-down menu to see what else you can make secure!)
- When you're done, hit save.
- Try to view the web page. Note that you are unable to - this is because it is now located in a secure zone.
Adding a Login Box
Secured content is pointless unless people can log in to view it, so let's implement the mechanism for that on the Home Page, now.
- First, go to Website -> Web Pages, and open your start page.
- Open the module manager by clicking the blue icon with a plus button. Select Secure Zones -> Secure Zone Login Box.
- From the drop down menu, select your newly created Secure Zone.
- Place your cursor in the WYSIWYG editor at the location you would like the box to appear. When you're happy with the position, click "Insert".
- Save and publish your Web Page. Your Secure Zone Login Box will now be visible on the Home Page.
Inserting a Secure Zone Subscription Form
In order for users to sign up to the Secure Zone, you will need to create a Web Form for them to submit.
- Go to Modules -> Web Forms -> Create a New Web Form
- Name your Web Form, and click next
- Add the System Fields that you would like to record by ticking the checkboxes. You may wish to check "Username" and "Password", if you wish for the user to choose their own.
- Scroll down to Choose Secure Zone to automatically subscribe and redirect customer to. Use the Radio buttons to select our newly created Secure Zone, then click Save. (Note: If you wish to add custom fields or set up an autoresponder, you can do so by means of clicking next)
- Create a new Web Page for the form to be placed on and call it "Secure Zone Subscription Page".
- Open the Module Manager and select Web Forms -> Web Forms. From the drop-down menu, select your newly-created form.
- Position the cursor, insert the form, then Save and Publish. You can now view your Secure Zone Subscription Form on the live site! By submitting this form, a new user will be created. This user will then be able to access the pages contained in your secure zone by logging in with the credentials provided.
Setting up Recurring Billing for Access to a Secure Zone
In some cases, you will want Users to pay for ongoing membership to a Secure Zone. You simply need to modify the existing secure zone and the secure zone's subscription form to accomplish this.
Important: Not all payment gateways support recurring billing
Not all payment gateways support this feature. Your Payment Gateway must support recurring billing if you wish to create recurring orders to charge your customers periodically. For a list of the gateways which support this, see HERE
How to Enable Recurring Billing for Access to a Secure Zone
First, modify the secure zone.
- Head over to Web Site -> Secure Zones, and select the Secure Zone that you created.
- Tick the "Sell Membership Access to this Secure Zone" box.
- Choose the currency that you want to use.
- Enter the membership cost that will be charged each period.
- Choose how frequently you want your members to be charged, there are period increments in the dropdown menu that range from daily to yearly.
Now, modify the Subscription Form.
- Go to Modules -> Web Forms, and select the Web Form that you created.
- Under System Fields, ensure that the Customer Details, Customer Email Address, Username, Password, Credit Card Processing and Image Verification links are ticked.
- Scroll down and select the Sell Ongoing Access to a Secure Zone radio button.
- Remember to Save.
- Go back to your Subscription form Web Page.
- Remove the existing form, then insert the new form in its place.
- Save and Publish. Now, if you head over to your live page, you will be able to see that the form has the option of selecting which membership type, and it also has some fields for Credit Card details to be input. This will allow customers to buy a subscription of their choice, if you have more than one secure zone.
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