Membership & Access Control

Goal

Restrict content and products to members of a tier. A membership ties a WordPress user to a tier for a period; the module then filters post content, excerpts and WooCommerce product purchasability against that membership. It is for stores that sell tiered access — a members' area, member-only products, or content released on a schedule.

Tier and entitlement

Field	Value
Tier	Premium
Entitlement key	membership
Admin tab	membership
Module key	membership
Settings prefix	aiowc_mb_

Like every module, it registers its hooks only when aiowc_module_enabled_membership is true and the licence permits the membership entitlement.

What the code does

• Membership records with a lifecycle: create, activate, pause, resume, cancel, renew, and change tier.
• Tiers held in their own table, with a public listing endpoint and an administrative CRUD set.
• Access rules stored per content type and content ID, resolved against the user's active membership.
• Content filtering on the_content and the_excerpt at priority 99, with an optional preview of the first N characters before the restriction message.
• Product gating through woocommerce_is_purchasable, with the add-to-cart text and loop link filtered so a restricted product reads as member-only rather than appearing buyable.
• A member-only notice on the single product summary.
• Renewal reminder and expiry emails, sent by two scheduled jobs.
• Drip content, gated by a setting.

What is not wired

MembershipService::processOrder() exists and accepts an order ID, but nothing calls it: the module hooks no WooCommerce order or payment action. In this release a membership is created through the administrative REST endpoint, not automatically from a purchase. createMembership(), renewMembership() and changeTier() all accept an order ID, so the record can reference an order, but the link has to be made by the caller.

Settings

Read through the shared ModuleSettings helper with the aiowc_mb_ prefix. Defaults come from MembershipModule::defaults().

Setting	Default	Meaning
restrict_message	"This content is restricted to members only…"	Shown in place of restricted post content
restrict_product_message	"This product is available to members only."	Shown on a restricted product
renewal_reminder_days	7	Days before expiry that the reminder email is sent
send_renewal_emails	true	Whether renewal reminders are sent
send_expiry_emails	true	Whether expiry notices are sent
grace_period_days	3	Days a lapsed membership keeps access before it expires
allow_content_preview	true	Whether restricted content shows an excerpt before the message
preview_length	200	Characters of preview shown when previews are allowed
drip_content_enabled	true	Whether scheduled content release is applied
default_tier_id	0	Tier assigned when none is specified; 0 means none

Admin screen

Admin tab membership. Three tabs, with the active tab held in the URL hash under mbTab:

• Members — the membership list and its lifecycle actions.
• Tiers — tier CRUD.
• Settings — the options above.

Database schema

Created by Schema/DatabaseSchema.php at schema version 1.0.0.

Table	Holds
{prefix}aiowc_memberships	One row per user membership, with status and period
{prefix}aiowc_membership_tiers	Tier definitions
{prefix}aiowc_member_access	Access rules mapping content to tiers

REST endpoints

Namespace aiowc/v1. All responses use the shared envelope. Where several methods share a callback they are listed together.

Memberships

Method	Path	Purpose	Required args
GET	/memberships	List memberships, filterable by status and user, paginated	—
POST	/memberships	Create a membership	user_id, tier_id
GET	/memberships/{id}	Read one membership	—
PUT / PATCH / POST	/memberships/{id}	Update a membership	—
DELETE	/memberships/{id}	Delete a membership	—
POST	/memberships/{id}/{action}	Lifecycle action; action is one of activate, pause, resume, cancel	—
GET	/memberships/overview	Aggregate figures for the admin overview	—

Permission: manage.

Tiers and access rules

Method	Path	Purpose	Required args
GET	/memberships/admin/tiers	List all tiers	—
POST	/memberships/admin/tiers	Create a tier	—
GET	/memberships/admin/tiers/{id}	Read a tier	—
PUT / PATCH / POST	/memberships/admin/tiers/{id}	Update a tier	—
DELETE	/memberships/admin/tiers/{id}	Delete a tier	—
GET	/memberships/access-rules	List access rules, filterable by content type, content ID and tier	—
POST	/memberships/access-rules	Create an access rule	—
PUT / PATCH / POST	/memberships/access-rules/{id}	Update an access rule	—
DELETE	/memberships/access-rules/{id}	Delete an access rule	—
POST	/memberships/access-rules/bulk	Update several access rules in one call	—

Permission: manage.

Settings

Method	Path	Purpose	Required args
GET	/memberships/settings	Read settings	—
PUT / PATCH / POST	/memberships/settings	Update settings	—

Permission: manage.

Customer-facing

Method	Path	Purpose	Required args	Permission
GET	/memberships/tiers	List tiers available to buy or join	—	Rate-limited public read
GET	/memberships/my	The signed-in user's memberships	—	Signed in
POST	/memberships/access-check	Ask whether the signed-in user may see one piece of content	content_type, content_id	Signed in

WooCommerce and WordPress integration

Filters

Hook	Priority	Effect
the_content	99	Replaces restricted content with the restriction message, optionally after a preview
the_excerpt	99	Same treatment for excerpts
woocommerce_is_purchasable	10	Makes a restricted product not purchasable
woocommerce_product_add_to_cart_text	10	Replaces the button text on a restricted product
woocommerce_loop_add_to_cart_link	10	Replaces the loop add-to-cart link on a restricted product

Actions

Hook	Priority	Effect
woocommerce_single_product_summary	6	Prints the member-only notice above the price
wp_enqueue_scripts	default	Loads the module's frontend assets

Shortcodes

Shortcode	Purpose
[aiowc_restricted_content]	Wraps content shown only to members of a tier
[aiowc_member_content]	Wraps member-visible content
[aiowc_membership_info]	Prints the current user's membership details

No block is registered.

Background jobs

Both use the WordPress cron scheduler.

Hook	Schedule	Purpose
aiowc_membership_expire	Hourly	Expires memberships past their end date and grace period
aiowc_membership_renewal_reminders	Daily	Sends renewal reminders renewal_reminder_days before expiry

Entitlement limits

The membership entitlement gates the whole module; there is no cap on the number of tiers, memberships or access rules in the module's code.

Related documentation

• Module Architecture