Integrating with WordPress

You can add member-only content from your Wild Apricot site into your WordPress site, and provide a single logon that authenticates Wild Apricot members and logs them into both their Wild Apricot and WordPress accounts.

If you don't yet have a Wild Apricot account, click here to start your free 30-day trial.

Using the Wild Apricot Login plugin for WordPress, you can also restrict content on your WordPress site to your Wild Apricot members, in addition to providing access to restricted Wild Apricot content such as member directories and member-only events. Any restricted Wild Apricot content – embedded using Wild Apricot widgets – can be accessed without further authentication.

WordPress plugins are only available for WordPress.org users, and not for WordPress.com users.

You can display a login button for single sign-on by adding a WordPress widget – installed along with the Wild Apricot Login plugin – to the header in your WordPress theme layout, or by inserting a shortcode in your WordPress page content. A shortcode can also be added to a WordPress page to restrict WordPress content to Wild Apricot members. As well, you can use the plugin to add Wild Apricot membership levels as WordPress roles.

Wild Apricot's single sign-on service uses secure access via HTTPS. Custom domainswithout SSL certificates will encounter problems integrating Wild Apricot with other sites. You can either obtain an SSL certificate or set your wildapricot.org domain as your primary domain.

Integrating with WordPress at a glance

Integrating your WordPress site and Wild Apricot account involves the following steps:

1. Authorize WordPress access to your Wild Apricot account
2. Install the Wild Apricot plugin on your WordPress site
3. Add shortcodes and other Wild Apricot content to your WordPress site

These steps are described in detail below.

Authorizing WordPress access

The first step in integrating your WordPress site with your Wild Apricot account is authorizing WordPress to access your Wild Apricot account via Wild Apricot's API.

To authorize WordPress to access your Wild Apricot account, follow these steps:

1. Click the Settings menu then select the Authorized applications option (under Integration).
   
2. On the Authorized applications screen, click the Authorize application button.
   
3. Within the Application authorization screen, click the WordPress option then click the Continue button.
4. From the Application details screen, copy the API key, Client ID, and Client secret. You'll need these values when you set up the Wild Apricot plugin in WordPress.
5. Enter the organization name and introductory text to be displayed on the single sign-on screen.
6. If you want to allow members to log in using their Facebook or Google+ credentials – assuming they use the same email address for their social network and Wild Apricot accounts – check the Allow login via social networks option. If you enable this option, then Log in with Facebook and Log in with Google+ buttons will appear on the single sign-on screen.
7. Under Trusted redirect domains, enter the full URL of your WordPress site (e.g. http://aaot.wordpress.com). This is a required field and has nothing to do with the social login option.
8. Click the Save button to save your changes.

Installing the Wild Apricot plugin on WordPress

After you have authorized WordPress to access your Wild Apricot account, you need to install and set up the Wild Apricot Login plugin on WordPress.

Plugins are only available for WordPress.org users, and not for WordPress.com users.

There are two ways of installing the Wild Apricot Login plugin on WordPress: automatically and manually.

Automatic installation

To install the plugin automatically, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your WordPress site.
2. Within your Dashboard, hover over the Plugins menu and choose the Add New option.
   
3. Search for the Wild Apricot Login plugin.
4. Once you've found the Wild Apricot Login plugin, click the Install Now button.
5. When prompted to confirm your choice to install the plugin, click OK.
6. After the plugin is installed, click the Activate Plugin link.
7. Within your Dashboard, hover over the Settings menu and choose the Wild Apricot Login option.
   
8. Within the Wild Apricot Login settings, enter your Wild Apricot API key, Client ID, and Client secret values. You can obtain these values when you authorize WordPress from the Authorize applications screen in Wild Apricot.
9. Optionally, you can change the default login button label.
10. Click the Save Changes button.

The API key, Client ID, and Client secret fields should now appear as set.

Once those fields appear as set, you can click the Update button to update your WordPress roles with your Wild Apricot membership levels.

No existing roles will be removed from your WordPress account.

Manual installation

To install the plugin manually, follow these steps:

1. Download the zip file containing the Wild Apricot plugin files.
2. Within your Dashboard, hover over the Plugins menu and choose the Add New option.
   
3. Click the Upload Plugin button.
   
4. Click the Browse or Choose File button and locate the zip file you downloaded.
5. Click the Install Now button.  
6. After the plugin is installed, click the Activate Plugin link.
7. Within your Dashboard, hover over the Settings menu and choose the Wild Apricot Login option.
8. Within the Wild Apricot Login settings, enter your Wild Apricot API key, Client ID, and Client secret values. You can obtain these values when you authorize WordPress from the Authorize applications screen in Wild Apricot.
9. Optionally, you can change the default login button label.
10. Click the Save Changes button.

The API key, Client ID, and Client secret fields should now appear as set.

Once those fields appear as set, you can click the Update button to update your WordPress roles with your Wild Apricot membership levels.

No existing roles will be removed from your WordPress account.

Using the Wild Apricot plugin on WordPress

Once you installed and configured the Wild Apricot plugin on WordPress, you can use the plugin to:

• display a login button for single sign-on to WordPress and Wild Apricot
• restrict WordPress content to Wild Apricot membership levels (using WordPress roles)

You can also add Wild Apricot widgets to pages and blogs on your WordPress site.

The Wild Apricot Login plugin cannot restrict access to an entire page or blog by role/membership level, but there other plugins that can restrict page access by role – e.g. Members or Access Control – but these will not check a member’s membership status, making it possible for lapsed members to access a restricted page.

Displaying a login button for single sign-on

You can display a login button for single sign-on by adding a widget – installed along with the Wild Apricot Login plugin – to the header in your WordPress theme layout, or by inserting a shortcode in your page or blog content.

The login button automatically appears when you use the wa_restricted shortcode to restrict WordPress content to Wild Apricot members.

Displaying login button in WordPress theme header

To display the login button within your WordPress theme header – which can appear as a sidebar for some themes – follow these steps:

1. Under your Dashboard, hover over Appearance then select the Themes option.
   
2. On the Themes screen, click the Customise button for your current theme.
3. Click the > button to the right of Widgets.
   
4. Within the Widget area, click the Add a widget button.
   
5. Search for the Wild Apricot Login widget, and click it once found.
6. Within the settings for the Wild Apricot Login widget, you can change the Login button label and specify the name of the WordPress page you want to redirect members to after logging in.
   
   Leave the Redirect page field blank if you want them to remain on the current page.

Displaying login button on a WordPress page or blog

To display the login button for single sign-on on a WordPress page or blog, add the following shortcode in either visual or HTML mode:

[wa_login login_label="Log in" redirect_page="/"]

where the following attributes are optional:

login_label
Label appearing on the login button. The default is taken from the Wild Apricot Login plugin settings.

redirect_page
The WordPress page to redirect the member to after logging in.

In visual mode, you can insert the shortcode by clicking the    icon. From the dialog that appears, you can specify the login label and redirect page.

Restricting WordPress content to Wild Apricot members

With the Wild Apricot Login plugin installed, you can restrict access to WordPress content using Wild Apricot membership levels. Only members with a status of Active or Pending - Renewal can access restricted WordPress content.

To restrict WordPress content using Wild Apricot membership levels, add the following shortcode to a page or custom menu in either visual mode or text mode.

[wa_restricted roles="Gold, Silver" login_label="Log in" message="Log on to view restricted content."] Restricted content. [/wa_restricted]

where the following attributes are available:

• roles
  WordPress roles corresponding to Wild Apricot membership levels to which you want the content restricted. To include all roles, set the roles attribute to All.
  
  Multiple roles must be separated by a comma. If your membership level name includes a comma, you must use %2C in place of the comma. For example, if the level name is "Students, 1st class" then the shortcode would be [wa_restricted roles="Students%2C 1st class"].
  
  If the name of a membership level changes, the shortcodes must be manually updated even if the corresponding roles are updated.
  
  You can add a not: operator at the start of the roles attribute to specify all roles other than those listed.
  [wa_restricted roles="not:Bronze" message="Log on to view restricted content."] Restricted content. [/wa_restricted]
• login_label
  Label appearing on the login button. The default is taken from the Wild Apricot Login plugin settings.
• message
  Message to appear in place of the restricted content. A login button will appear below the message. You can include HTML markup in your message, but be careful since your code will not be validated by our plugin.

The content between the wa_restricted tags will only appear to authorized users. The restricted content can include other WordPress shortcodes or Wild Apricot widgets.

In visual mode, you can insert the shortcode by clicking the    icon. From the dialog that appears, you can specify the role(s), the login label, and the restricted content message.

Using Wild Apricot widgets

With the Wild Apricot Login plugin installed, activated, and set up, any Wild Apricot widgets that you have added that require Wild Apricot authorization will automatically display a Login button in place of the content – unless the visitor has already logged in.

Clicking the Login button will take the visitor to the single sign-on screen.

Using the single sign-on screen

When a visitor to your WordPress site clicks the Login button for single sign-on, a screen similar to the following appears.

The title appearing at the top of the screen is the Organization name setting on your Wild Apricot Authorized applications screen. The text below the title is drawn from the Introductory text field.

The single sign-on screen is hosted on your Wild Apricot site. On this screen, your visitor enters their Wild Apricot credentials then clicks the Login button. If your member does not remember their password, they can click the Forgot password link. On the page that appears, they can enter their email address to receive a reset password link via email.

Once authenticated on your Wild Apricot site, the member is also signed into your WordPress account. If a user with the same email address can't be found within your WordPress account, a new user will be added with the following username:

wa_contact_USERID

where USERID is the member's Wild Apricot userid. Other user profile fields – First name, Last name, Nickname (combining First name and Last name), Email, Organization, and Member status – will be filled using information in the member's Wild Apricot contact details. Their role will be set to their membership level.

If their membership level does not already exist as a role, one will be created. If they do not have a membership level, they will be assigned a role of WA non-member contact.

You cannot log into the single sign-on screen using a Wild Apricot account with the same email address as your WordPress administrator account.

If the user changes the email address for their Wild Apricot account and logs into the single sign-on screen again, the userid embedded in their username will be used to connect their two accounts. Any changes made to their contact details on Wild Apricot since their last logon will be used to update their WordPress user profile.

WordPress users with a role of Administrator will not have their user profiles updated.

Where the member ends up after logging in depends on your widget or shortcode settings.

Once your member is logged in, the Login button on your WordPress site becomes a Logout button. Clicking the Logout button will log the member out of both their Wild Apricot and WordPress accounts.

Testing your WordPress integration

You cannot log into the single sign-on screen using a Wild Apricot account that uses the same email address as your WordPress administrator account. If your Wild Apricot administrator account uses the same email as your WordPress administrator account, you might want to create a test member on Wild Apricot to test your WordPress integration.

Troubleshooting

Below is a list of commonly encountered issues and possible solutions or explanations.

I can't see a Plugins option within my WordPress Dashboard.

Only WordPress.org users can download plugins. If you are a WordPress.com user, you won't be able to set up integration between WordPress and Wild Apricot.

I'm trying to test my WordPress integration but I can't log into the single sign-on screen.

You cannot log in with the same email address as the one in your WordPress administrator account.

I've made updates to user profiles in WordPress but the changes aren't showing up in the Wild Apricot contact details.

Automatic updates go in only one direction: from Wild Apricot to WordPress.

I've deactivated and deleted the Wild Apricot Login plugin on WordPress, but the roles and users it added are still in my account.

Deactivation or deletion of the Wild Apricot Login plugin will not remove the Wild Apricot users and roles from your WordPress account. You'll have to remove them manually.

I've updated a WordPress user profile but my changes were overwritten when the user logged on using the single sign-on form.

Change to the WordPress user profiles will be updated with the information from their Wild Apricot contact details when they log on using the single sign-on form. if you're planning on integrating your Wild Apricot site with WordPress, you should get in the habit of making changes to contact details on Wild Apricot only.

Can I restrict access to an entire page or blog by role/membership level?

Yes, but not using the Wild Apricot plugin. There are other plugins that allow you to restrict page access by role – e.g. Members or Access Control – but these will not check a member’s membership status, making it possible for lapsed members to access a restricted page.

After I enter and save the Login plugin settings, the fields go blank and a message says they are empty or invalid

This might be caused by a conflict with another WordPress plugin. To solve this problem, deactivate the Wild Apricot plugin from the WordPress Plugins screen then activate it again.