Auto-Login on Registration

Brief History Behind This

There have been numerous attempts at this throughout the s2Member forums and elsewhere. Some have worked, some have caused problems. For instance, there was a version of this hack circulating the s2Member forums which is now known to cause numerous problems, such as preventing s2Member’s post-processing routines from completing, or disabling the success="" shortcode attribute that’s possible with shortcodes produced by s2Member Pro.

WARNING: Please ignore any other hacks you might have seen that do not reference this KB article specifically. Please use the MU plugin posted below for the best compatibility; i.e., to avoid accidentally using a hack from the past that did not work.

MU Plugin for Auto-Login on Registration

I’m posting this here as a resource for those of you that would like to implement such a thing on your site. The purpose of this MU plugin is to automatically log a new user (or even a paying customer) into their account immediately upon completing registration or checkout. In other words, we log them into the site automatically (i.e., they won’t need to enter their username/password when they register initially).

The following MU Plugin is compatible with both s2Member and with s2Member Pro. It works for any user registration that occurs within WordPress (so long as s2Member is installed on the site). It also works with s2Member Pro Forms, where a new user/member/customer is creating a username on your site; either during a Free Registration, or during checkout for Membership Access.

In addition, this does not cause a problem with the success="" shortcode attribute in s2Member Pro.

Simple Installation Instructions

Please create this directory and file: /wp-content/mu-plugins/s2-auto-login.php

<?php
add_action('ws_plugin__s2member_during_configure_user_registration', 's2_auto_login_after_registration');
  function s2_auto_login_after_registration($vars = array())
      {
          if(is_admin()) return; // Not when an Admin is creating accounts.

          wp_set_auth_cookie($vars['user_id'], FALSE, FALSE); // Log the user in.

          remove_all_filters('login_redirect'); // BuddyPress compatibility.

          if(did_action('login_form_register')) // For `/wp-login.php?action=register` compatibility.
              c_ws_plugin__s2member_login_redirects::login_redirect($vars['login'], $vars['user']);

          $GLOBALS['_s2_auto_login_after_registration_vars'] = $vars; // For Pro Form compatibility.
          add_action('template_redirect', '_s2_auto_login_after_registration', 1);
      }
  function _s2_auto_login_after_registration() // Pro Form redirection handler.
      {
          $vars = $GLOBALS['_s2_auto_login_after_registration_vars'];
          c_ws_plugin__s2member_login_redirects::login_redirect($vars['login'], $vars['user']);
      }

Forcing A Specific `redirect_to` Upon Login

These lines are added to the plugin, as seen in full below.

$_REQUEST['redirect_to_automatic'] = 'http://example.com/my-thank-you-page/'; # Change this.
add_filter('ws_plugin__s2member_login_redirect', function(){ return $_REQUEST['redirect_to_automatic']; });

<?php
add_action('ws_plugin__s2member_during_configure_user_registration', 's2_auto_login_after_registration');
  function s2_auto_login_after_registration($vars = array())
      {
          if(is_admin()) return; // Not when an Admin is creating accounts.

          wp_set_auth_cookie($vars['user_id'], FALSE, FALSE); // Log the user in.

          $_REQUEST['redirect_to_automatic'] = 'http://example.com/my-thank-you-page/'; # Change this.
          add_filter('ws_plugin__s2member_login_redirect', function(){ return $_REQUEST['redirect_to_automatic']; });
          remove_all_filters('login_redirect'); // BuddyPress compatibility.

          if(did_action('login_form_register')) // For `/wp-login.php?action=register` compatibility.
              c_ws_plugin__s2member_login_redirects::login_redirect($vars['login'], $vars['user']);

          $GLOBALS['_s2_auto_login_after_registration_vars'] = $vars; // For Pro Form compatibility.
          add_action('template_redirect', '_s2_auto_login_after_registration', 1);
      }
  function _s2_auto_login_after_registration() // Pro Form redirection handler.
      {
          $vars = $GLOBALS['_s2_auto_login_after_registration_vars'];
          c_ws_plugin__s2member_login_redirects::login_redirect($vars['login'], $vars['user']);
      }