How to restrict / limit viewing of certain categories with Subscription Plans App in DJ-Classifieds

First, create New Joomla Group by going to Users -> Groups -> Add New Group

Give your Group Title and select Group Parent to "Registered" (in certain situations you can use different groups, but for this tutorial we'll stay with "Registered"). Save & Close.

Now create a Joomla Access Level that will allow users that are in it to access the category. For the convenience of this tutorial I've created Access Level " DJCF-Restricted " in Joomla.

To set up a new Access Level in Joomla, do the following:

In Joomla backend go to Users -> Access Levels -> Add Access Level

Give your Level Title and select User Groups Having Viewing Access to "DJCF-Restricted". Save & Close

Now navigate to Components -> DJ-Classifieds -> Categories -> New or if you're editing the category open it. 

1. Set Viewing to the Access Level we've created ( DJCF-Restricted in my case)
2. Set Viewing ads details to the same Access Level
3. Set Adding ads to the same Access Level
4. Click Save & Close

We need to create the subscription plan that will allow for viewing and adding the adverts to the category "Restricted".

Go to Components -> DJ-Classifieds -> Subscription Plans -> New

Here in "New" and "Params" tabs, you need to set all needed settings. You can learn more about subscription plans settings here.

The most important part here is selecting the group we've created in Assign to groups setting.

This way after user purchases this plan he'll be automatically assigned to this Joomla User Group.

Things to check:

1. Check if the category "Restricted" is not visible for non-registered users - it should NOT be visible
2. Check if the category "Restricted" is not visible for regular registered users (those without the Subscription Plan we have created earlier) - it should NOT visible
3. Check if the regular user can't see the category when submitting new advert - they should NOT see it

If you've set all up correctly the category should not be visible for non-registered and regular registered user.

Now make a test if the plan was set correctly.

Go to your Subscription Plans page on your website's front end and purchase the Plan we've just created.

After the successful payment the plan is activated (you can manually accept the payment in DJ-Classifieds Payment section)

Now you should see the category on categories lit, and add adverts to this category.

Once the subscription from the Subscription Plan ends the user will be automatically unattached from the DJCF-Restricted user group and won't see the category "Restricted" until the plan is activated again.

You need to configure Cron job on your server so the user will be un-attached from the Joomla User Group when his Subscription Plan expires! See more about the cron task in DJ-Classifieds.

This is how Subscription Plans App for DJ-Classifieds works.