PMPro Update 2.6: Stripe Connect, Customize Emails, Native Zapier, Hourly Memberships

Paid Memberships Pro 2.6 is released and out in the wild. Update now to access all the new features and enhancements.

There are five major features included in this release:

• Stripe Connect for improved security and support
• REST API improvements enable native integration with Zapier
• Edit your site’s system-generated member emails in a user-friendly interface
• View each member’s unique membership history, including past levels and orders
• Offer hourly memberships and improvements to WP Cron

You can update Paid Memberships Pro from the plugins page of your WordPress dashboard or get the latest version of PMPro here.

Continue reading for more about these features and the full changelog for v2.6.

Stripe Connect

No more copying and pasting API keys.

The new Stripe Connect feature allows users to click through a few screens and *ahem* connect your Paid Memberships Pro website to Stripe.

Not only does Stripe Connect offer a much easier setup process, it also makes your payment gateway more secure. When you connect Stripe through Paid Memberships Pro, we will be able to see the status of your account. Insight into account status will help us (and Stripe) resolve support requests faster.

Stripe Connect sites do not have to manually copy and paste their API keys into any settings fields. While the API keys are stored in the WordPress database, they are not readily accessible by users with the admin role. Additionally, connected sites do not need to manually maintain the API version linked to their API keys. This means that your membership site will always be using the latest, most secure, most fraud-proof method to connect to Stripe and accept payments.

It takes considerable time and financial investment to improve and maintain open source software — including Paid Memberships Pro. To keep improving our plugin we are now collecting 1% per transaction for Stripe–connected sites without an active license key. 

This fee goes to Stranger Studios, the developers of Paid Memberships Pro. We use it to support the Connect server, Stripe gateway development, and the Paid Memberships Pro platform overall. 

This fee will not apply to members of our Premium PMPro levels with an active license. 

However, we understand this can be a burden for some businesses. With a bit of simple coding you can use this recipe to adjust the fee to an amount that works for your organization.

Improved REST API & Native Zapier Integration

v2.6 improves the REST API powering Paid Memberships Pro. In addition to helping developers do more things and integrate with more systems, this also enables a full and complete Zapier integration, natively.

You can now select Paid Memberships Pro triggers or actions directly within Zapier, allowing you to build zaps that connect your membership site through the authenticated REST API. Read this companion guide on Zapier for more information on using this app.

Sites using the Zapier Integration Add On can now rebuild their zaps natively in Zapier and then remove this plugin. Our Zapier Integration will still be maintained, but will specifically be recommend for use with other webhook-based tools like Automate.io and Integromat.

Merging Member History & Email Templates Editor Into Core

We have had a free Email Templates Add On for ages but we noticed that our customers had a hard time finding it. And it is a fairly common support request. We decided to make it easier for you and include both the Email Templates Editing and the Member History features into core.

We have started migrating our documentation pages, but please bear with us as this is a huge change! You can get started customizing emails in your membership site using this guide. To check out how the Member History looks, just pop into your WordPress site’s admin and navigate to edit any user on your site. You will see a new heading “Member History” there with all the info you need to track their activity.

If you already have these plugins installed on your site, they should be disabled by Paid Memberships Pro when you upgrade to version 2.6. After upgrading, you can go ahead and delete these plugins. For the security of your site we recommend removing any code you are not using.

Hourly Memberships

We improved our internal functionality with WP-Cron to let us check membership status renewal every hour, instead of once per day. This enables sites to not only have hourly memberships, but to also have more accurate membership expirations across all terms. 

Running your expirations cron every hour also supports sites with a large number of members that would otherwise “time out” when processing the daily event. Now, when someone’s membership expires mid-day, they will lose access within the hour, instead of at midnight (when most sites check WP-Cron).

Full Changelog

• FEATURE: Updated Stripe integration to use Stripe Connect.
• FEATURE: Improved REST API endpoints to support Zapier integration natively.
• FEATURE: You can now set levels to expire after a certain number of hours and set users to expire at a specific time—down to the minute.
• FEATURE: The Member History Add On has been merged into the core PMPro plugin. A table of the user’s membership and order history is shown on the Edit User page of WordPress admin.
• FEATURE: The Email Templates Add On has been merged into the core PMPro plugin. You can edit PMPro-related email templates from the Memberships > Settings > Email Templates page in the admin dashboard.
• FEATURE: You can now use PMPro blocks in the new widget area of WP 5.8.
• BUG FIX/ENHANCEMENT: Establishing style for scrollable boxes throughout core plugin.
• BUG FIX/ENHANCEMENT: Using HTTPS to set the pmpro_visit cookie if over HTTPS. (Thanks, freax on GitHub)
• BUG FIX: Fixed fatal error in PHP 8 when deleting a Stripe webhook. (Thanks, Zebulan Stanphill)
• BUG FIX: Fixed warnings shown on the widget page when using WP 5.8+.