Member areas: manual account creation / require approval

I have come across this platform recently: https://circle.so/

Not sure if it could work in anyway with Squarespace but I would love to hear more from anyone who has used it. In fact any thoughts at all would be helpful.

Hey there, 

Ward from MemberSpace here. 

I have to add to the above comment and request for SquareSpace to improve the function for members' login. Do you think SquareSpace development team look at the forum here? 

We created the website for condominium residents and bought the Members Area to provide info for residents. After all the pages were created, we realized that the default LOGIN can't prevent non-residents from creating accounts and getting access to private documents.

I have been on the support email for more than 24 hours with several emails going back and forth, no answers were given to satisfactory. First I was told to toggle off the LOGIN nav on the header and create a page with passwords. I can accept an alternative route but once toggle off, the ACCOUNT nav in the members' area is missing, which includes missing the ability to update email, passwords etc., and missing the SIGN OUT button too.

On 8/31/2022 at 3:46 PM, YHT said:

Do you think SquareSpace development team look at the forum here?

Officially no.

Please see item seven on the forum guidelines.

Has there been any updates as of yet? 

Looking at setting up a members only pricing on my shop items. Hoping to allow customers to apply for a free membership but one that needs approval (check they are a legit trade customer) and then they would have access to a discounted price on existing items.

Also does anyone know if you can use the same inventory so the stock levels stay synced? 

Thanks 

2 years and still zero progress from squarespace. I will be changing CMS the second it's feasible. 

It shouldn't be this hard.

Managing membership access seems so basic, but still nothing has been done. It is a real world problem, and I feel the SQS team have not been listening or maybe fully understanding what a shortcoming this is commercially. Fiddling around the eye candy edges of the CMS is not what we need right now for our clients. SQS need to read through the 3 pages of feedback here.

Someone please tell me I'm wrong about this. Just spent countless hours building a website and multiple online courses only to find out SquareSpace requires potential customers to sign up for a Member Areas account BEFORE they even see gain access to their cart and the checkout process. This absolutely unbelievable. This might be the biggest flaw (out of many member areas flaws) I've seen. There has to be some sort of mistake. This is basically pissing money away. Come on Squarespace, this is utterly ridiculous. You must change this. #mindboggling

Has Squarespace already ditched Member Areas support? There's been no sign of improvement in two years. It's still missing so many basic options it's ridiculous. The fact that "customers" have to sign up before they even get to their shopping cart is beyond words. That's just one of many, many issues. I have an entire list of missing features if anyone's interested compiling a list together on here.  

I've seen a few recent updates. Still hoping for automated emails! 🤞

Update 1: Members can now update their account emails

https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/360060545811-The-digital-product-member-experience

Update 2: Previously when members cancelled, they immediately lost access to their subscription. Now they maintain access until the end of the billing cycle. 

The exception to this is if you cancel their subscription for them. Access is immediately lost, though they can sign up again. 

https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/360050832691-Managing-individual-members#toc-cancel-a-membership

MemberSpace has a number of features that we've been asking for, such as:

• Manually approve members
• Membership tiers
  • Tier 1 for $: Access to /page-1
  • Tier 2 for $$: Access to /page-1 and /page-2

Best part is that they have a FREE plan, so while there's more admin work, it doesn't cost more.

MemberSpace  |  MemberSpace vs. Member Areas  |  Instructions for how to install it  |  Pricing Tiers

If anyone wants to try MemberSpace's Profession Plan, here's an affiliate link for 10% off your first year. (PLEASE NOTE: I do receive compensation from purchases made through the link.) Most people don't need to the paid plan though, especially if they already have Email Campaigns through Squarespace. MemberSpace allows you to send messages to your subscribers, but only through the paid plan.

Just wanted to chime in - member areas has great potential and it would be so convenient if it had a few more features. In its current state it's still not usable for most things. 

There should be a variety of different walls not just a paywall. ie, paywall, agewall, employee wall, approval required wall. 

There should also be a feature to invite members to join. 

I say this with love because I love Squarespace wholeheartedly and have been a Squarespace designer for years. But it bums me out to see them launch new programs without fleshing out the existing ones. 

On 9/16/2021 at 4:00 AM, paul2009 said:

This is one of a number of known issues with Member Areas. I've raised this internally. It cannot be resolved immediately, but I'm hopeful that this will be addressed in the near future.

Hopefully this is addressed soon!

Just wanted to chime in to say I'd also love to see the ability to manually approve new members when they sign up using Squarespace Member Areas.  For my client's website, they  have to ensure folks who signup are enrolled in a graduate program, and currently the only way they can do that is through manual verification.  Because SQSP lacks this feature, we are choosing to use MemberSpace instead.  

Please stop recommending this as a solution, it's not.  You have to pay $40 per month if you want to give members free access.  You're not even trying at this point and just repeating worthless tips.  Read the posts from the users on these forums.  We need a method of having a page with private access that only select members can access, each with a unique password so we have the choice to remove members without having to reset the master password for everyone, and not charge fees for access.  Is it that complicated to understand, or better yet, is it that difficult to implement after all of these years?  Or does Squarespace simply not care???

On 9/15/2021 at 10:27 AM, ward320ny said:

👋 Hi @allisonbarret. Ward from MemberSpace here. 

Just to clarify, I believe that what you're trying to say (based on previous conversations) is that MemberSpace doesn't integrate with Member Areas. 

👉 We are a completely separate membership system from Member Areas, the native Squarespace membership option.  Currently, it is not possible to connect with that or their commerce accounts. But you can use MemberSpace as an alternative to Member Areas, if you'd like to get more complex features, like member approval, manually inviting members, and more. 

Let us know if you have any questions! I'll be happy to help out 🙂

🙏 Thank you!

Contrary to the defeatist in the comments, there is a solution.

However, it requires an upgraded plan with Code Injection.

The following script works logically in a couple ways.

First, it polls the pop up iframe (accountFrame) and hides the "Create account" button when clicking Log In in the site navigation. This effectively only allows users to log in. Now, users could still manually redirect themselves to the account creation url (/account/login/create), so we also poll for any iframe's with the (account/login/frame/create) src and delete the iframe from existence. Now this would also prevent you from creating accounts so the scripts are conditional.

They hide the creation button on all pages except for an admin, password protected, page which allows for account creation. The script which deletes the iframe also only runs on the homepage (as that is the redirect for any manual accessing of the creation url.

I hope this helps other lost souls build great community/member only areas.

 

<script>

function continuouslyWaitForElement(selector, callback) {
  	if (window.location.href.includes('/create-member-admin')) {
        console.log('Script execution skipped for this page.');
        return; // Exit the function early
    }
  
    let lastElementFound = null;

    let intervalId = setInterval(() => {
        const iframe = document.querySelector('#accountFrame');
        if (iframe) {
            const iframeDocument = iframe.contentDocument || iframe.contentWindow.document;
            const element = iframeDocument.querySelector(selector);
            if (element && element !== lastElementFound) {
                callback(element);
                lastElementFound = element; // Update the last element found
            }
        }
    }, 100); // Check every 100ms
}

continuouslyWaitForElement('#user-account-login-root > div > div > footer > a:nth-child(2)', function(element) {
    element.style.display = 'none';
    console.log('Element hidden again');
});
  
function isMainPage() {
    // Adjust the condition based on your main page's URL
    return window.location.pathname === '/' || window.location.pathname === '/index.html';
}

function pollAndHideIframeBasedOnSrc(iframeSelector, srcToCheck) {
    if (!isMainPage()) {
        console.log('Not on the main page, skipping script.');
        return; // Exit if not on the main page
    }

    const intervalId = setInterval(() => {
        const iframes = document.querySelectorAll(iframeSelector);
        iframes.forEach((iframe) => {
            if (iframe.src.includes(srcToCheck)) {
                iframe.style.display = 'none'; // Hide the iframe
                console.log(`Iframe with src ${srcToCheck} was hidden.`);
            }
        });

        // Consider if you need to clear the interval based on your requirements
        // For continuous checking, you might leave it running
        // clearInterval(intervalId); // Uncomment if you want to stop polling after the first check
    }, 100); // Check every 100ms
}

pollAndHideIframeBasedOnSrc('#accountFrame', '/account/frame/login/create');


</script>

@Colton1070 After a year of searching, this is the first time that I've seen this solution and I'm only finding it on this one post. Is this something that you wrote and have implemented elsewhere? I know that a bunch of folks have been looking for something similar to this for a while.

@Colton1070  Fantastic, thank you thank you thank you! 

Is it possible for users to login via other means? e.g. a hidden page or URL? 

I would like users to submit a form through a 3rd party  (e.g. via ElfSight), and once approved, I would send them a 'Create Account' login to my SquareSpace site.  

From what I understand, using your script,  that only Admin could create the User Accounts ? 

** Looks like I can remove the 2nd parameter , from the pollAndHideIframeBasedOnSrc function? 

ie. delete  "'/account/frame/login/create'"   from

pollAndHideIframeBasedOnSrc('#accountFrame', '/account/frame/login/create');

Thanks!

ps while i'm here, i'm assuming it's possible to update the the text in the iframe, to redirect them to another way to sign up? 

e.g. 

Here:

continuouslyWaitForElement('#user-account-login-root > div > div > footer > a:nth-child(2)', function(element) {
    element.style.display = 'none';