update custom member field value

Question

I have what I think is a simple and straight forward goal. I want to update a custom member field.

Here is the scenario.

Users will be offered to browse our web site for free for 15 days.

When they register (the have to register for me to get their email address) they can choose to activate the 15 day trial by submitting a form on the site.

I want to form to set the value of a custom member field to the current date plus 15 days. I also want to set another custom field to the value of "yes" so that I know that this registered user has used the trial...the user can only use the trial once.

Do I need an addin to set the value of custom member fields? What is the best way to accomplish this?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You definitely could do what you are trying to do using custom member fields, but depending on what else you plan to do on your site it might make sense to create a separate channel specifically to capture member information - for example linking the two together by using the member short name to name the matching entry in the member information channel. Using a separate channel is helpful in two ways:

• You get access to the full range of EE fields (member fields are limited to just a few types)
• You can access the member data fields more easily within templates - any / all of the tools that work with Channel Entry type data can be deployed

Another solution is to install a member add-on - such as User - which provides a similar approach to the 'member information channel' but with a few more bells and whistles attached, though these are quite expensive for what you get.

HTH