This is not a suggestion to use S2member – there are other ways to add custom fields. I am NOT an expert on S2member. This is purely my observations to assist people using S2member and who want to use amr-users to report on the data.
Warning for S2member Custom fields: These are stored in the db in one usermeta record. This means that it is not possible to do a SQL query with a “WHERE s2member_customfield=’xxx'” or to “ORDER BY s2member_customfield”. Future non-cache versions of amr-users will still be able to extract the data but will not filter, include or exclude or sort by s2member custom fields.
Play around with the S2member field creation options and their interaction with amr-users. See what works for you. Choose your values and lables carefully. You may find this addon helpful: https://wpusersplugin.com/downloads/amr-users-plus-s2-member/
For S2Member support, please contact S2Member.
Summary
- S2member allows one to create additional user fields for profile or registration
- S2member stores MANY of it’s custom fields in one user meta record. This makes it difficult to query or filter based on the values.
- amr-users will list the values that S2 members stores for a field, not the labels, however one can also get the lables by using the S2 member addon.
- think carefully about your choice of field ‘codes’ as these are what appear in the csv extract.
Choosing field types and values
- S2member multi option boolean (on/off) fields are stored as “on” by their existence (not with a true/false as per other radio button fields), so users who have not yet updated that field are indistinguishable from users who have said ‘no’
- amr-users can access S2members ‘plain’ fields fairly easily and can list multi option fields – that may be all you need.√
- Filtering single option in own columns or shared column works √
- If you don’t want boolean values to show in amr-users, either use
- the amr users S2 member addon
- radio buttons – one field for each value you want to display
The following example applies if you are not using the amr users plus S2 members addon.
S2member example configuration
- sample data :
- Service types to be recorded. User can have one, many or none of the values:
- lift passes,
- rentals,
- activities
- 3 representations explored (chosen for the resulting data representation)
- a multi option (select or checkbox similar)
- single checkboxes in a section
- radio buttons in a section
S2 member example configuration
Option values
Note that the option values are entered and what will be listed
s2member detail with section – note option values
In the User Profile (note 3 different options displayed for same data):
All 3 optons in the user profile
In a simple amr users list
Option 1 the multi dropdown
Using Single Checkboxes (in separate columns, see other option below)
Radio button values
Or combine fields into one column!
Combine the 3 values into one column, to achieve similar look as the dropdown multi option. (Not good for filtering)
3 S2m fields combined into one column
amr-users configuration for shared column:
- Give them all decimal “x.y” display orders where they all have the same x values
- Edit the headings to make it look nicer
Putting separate fields into 1 column
Filtering Options
- filtering requires the amr-users-plus plugin (v 2.0 about to go up)
- filter in separate columns (“column values” or “column empty or not”)
- filter in shared columns (“field values”)
What do we want
Filtering in the reporting view (and/or on the front end):
Filtering checkbox in single column
Filtering with blanks/no blanks only. This only shows if you have ‘blanks’ in your data. If there are no blank values in your data, then neither ‘blanks’ or ‘non-blanks’ will show.
Filtering with “column empty or not”
Combining fields into columns does NOT work so well if you also want to filter. (one can only filter on combinations). Rather keep the fields in separate columns.
Without further coding, filters or pluggables, the values are combined. Due to way S2 stores the detail, it is hard to deliver a generic function – a dedicated S2member answer would be required
Filter configuration for fields in separate columns
Configuration of filter with column values in separate columns
Filter configuration for shared columns (multiple fields in one column)
Filtering with field values in a shared column
More examples:
Collect and show country of residence, using a controlled list of countries
- each user has one country code
- consider using a radio button, listing all the possible countries. then you can control the value stored and displayed.
Collect and show possible multiple countries in which user operates, using country codes, not boolean values
- each user can have multiple country codes
- either use multiple separate radio button fields
- operates in canada/n, operates in US/n etc where the positive values are Canada, US etc
- OR a single checkbox and reformat the displayed boolean to show country code based on field name (complex)
For the more technical:
Filters and pluggable functions exist for further customising. EG:
- want the boolean ‘1’s to show as a translateable ‘Yes’ , or as the label value ?
- want to dig deeper into the S2 multi options yourself and do your own processing ? See how the other add-ons work
How S2 stores their data for examples above
Multi Options:
- “service_type”
- “Life passes”
- “Ski rental”
- “Activities”
Single Checkboxes
- “rental2” => “1”
- “activities2″ =>”1”
- “liftpass2″=>”1”
Multiple Radio Buttons
- “Lift passes” =>”Lift passes”;
- “No lift passes” => ””;
- “Activities” =>”Activities”;
- “No Activities” =>””;
- “Rental”=> “Rental”
- “No rental”=> “”
