Symbiostock Vendors expands upon the core Symbiostock Pro in a dramatic way, transforming the system into a multi user platform. Symbiostock Vendors allows you to set up a single Symbiostock website with multiple sub ‘Symbiostock Contributor’ accounts. There is one central administrative account (basically like the parent account) that is responsible for the overall operation of the Symbiostock site and just like a normal Symbiostock website, this admin account controls Symbiostock Settings, the website’s appearance, plugins, Woocommerce settings etc. It is from this administrative account that sub Symbiostock Contributors are created. Symbiostock Vendors is an advanced and scalable system wherein contributor accounts can be added or removed as required. There is no limit to the number of contributor account that can be added.
Adding A New Contributor
1) Within your WP Dashboard, go to Users > Add New User. Populate the necessary fields with your contributor’s details and make sure to enter the correct email address of the new contributor. For ‘Role’ select Symbiostock Contributor from the drop down list. Select the ‘Send the new user an email about their account’ option. Click the ‘Add New User’ button to save. Once you have completed this step, your newly created contributor will receive an email containing their WP account’s username and a link to reset their password. Once the contributor has reset their WP account password, they will be able to login to their own WP dashboard control panel.
2) Your new contributor will appear in your User list. Go to ‘All Users’ then hover over your newly added contributor’s username and click ‘Edit’. Scroll down to the ‘Symbiostock’ section. You will see the contributor’s upload directory path and unfilled fields for their FTP information. Go into your cPanel (or whichever web hosting control panel you use) for your website and add a new FTP account for your contributor, making sure to use the FTP directory path specified by Symbiostock for their home directory. Make note of the FTP username and FTP password that you create for your contributor, you will need these details for the next step.
3) Now go back to the Edit User page and add that FTP username and FTP password to those fields. Click the ‘Update User’ button to save. Once you have done this, your contributor will be able to see their FTP credentials within their WP Dashboard by going to ‘Profile’ and scrolling down to the Symbiostock section.
Uploading Media
Contributors can only add media by uploading files via FTP. To upload media files, your contributor will need to install an FTP client (such as FileZilla) and connect to their FTP directory using the credentials you’ve created. Contributors can view their FTP information by logging into their WP Dashboard > Profile and then scrolling down to the Symbiostock section. Once media files are uploaded via and parsed by your Cron processor, your contributor will be able to view and edit their media files via their WP dashboard > Symbiostock > Media. Each contributor can only access and edit their own images.
Note: Unlike contributor accounts, the administrative account can upload media either via FTP, or the web uploader, just like a standard Symbiostock site.
Deleting A Contributor
Within your WP Dashboard, go to Users. Hover over the username of the contributor you wish to delete and click ‘Delete’. If that contributor does not have any media files in their account, all you need to do is click the ‘Confirm Deletion’ button and that contributor will be deleted from the system. However, if the contributor has media files, you will be asked ‘What should be done with content owned by this user?’ and you need to select one of the following options:
- Delete all content.
If you select this option, all the media files uploaded by the contributor will be deleted.
or
- Attribute all content to: [Dropdown List]
If you select this option, all of the media files uploaded by the contributor will be kept but you need to assign those files to another account. Select the account you want to assign content to from the drop down list.
After you have made your selection, click the ‘Confirm Deletion’ button to delete the contributor.
Once a contributor has been deleted, they will no longer have access to their WP dashboard control panel. Deleting a contributor does not automatically delete their FTP account and you will need to login to your cPanel (or whichever web hosting control panel you use) for your website and delete the associated FTP account.
Information Pertaining to Your Central Administrative Account
It is through your administrator that the overall settings for your website is controlled. Your contributors cannot access control settings such as Symbiostock Settings, the website’s appearance, plugins, Woocommerce settings, Users, Posts, Pages etc.
Whilst your contributors can only access and edit their own media files through their WP account, as the administrator you will see and have the ability to edit all of the media uploaded by all of your contributors through your Symbiostock > Media page.
Compatible with Symbiostock Premium Plugins
Premium Symbiostock plugins including Symbiostock Video and Symbiostock Submitter are compatible with Symbiostock Vendors and these can be added through the administrative account. So if you’re using Symbiostock Video, for example, your contributors will be able to add video media to your store. And with Symbiostock Submitter, the administrative account can submit media to third party agencies.
Plugins can only be added and controlled through the central administrative account.
Symzio Integration
Symbiostock Vendors is compatible with Symzio. To be integrated with Symzio, just like a normal Symbiostock powered website, all you need to do is meet the eligibility criteria and apply. Integration is exactly the same as process as with a regular Symbiostock site. Once connected, your website integrates into Symzio as one business. This means the combined pool of published media is piped through only one single Symzio account.
Symzio integration can only be added through the central administrative account.
WooCommerce Product Vendors
Symbiostock Vendors is fully compatible with WooCommerce Product Vendors. The version it is compatible with is view-able via the Symbiostock Vendors purchase page. When choosing to use WooCommerce Product Vendors in conjunction with Symbiostock Vendors, ensure you enable this setting in your Symbiostock > Settings area. Once enabled, when you create WooCommerce Vendor Admins or managers, they will automatically also become Symbiostock Contributors. It is recommended that you restrict each admin to one vendor, and no longer create Symbiostock Contributors directly. Please note that if you use a different version of WooCommerce Product Vendors than is listed on our purchase page, we cannot guarantee bug-free functionality. Additionally, if you experience any shortcomings or bugs in the integration, don’t hesitate to reach out to us via our forum and we will do our best to look into it.