We’re often asked how data is handled and stored/retrieved in MemberPress. MemberPress relies on the WordPress database for all of its data storage. We use many of the built in WordPress tables, and we also add a few additional tables as well.
WordPress Tables
Users/Usermeta
MemberPress relies completely on the WordPress API for creating, storing, managing, and authenticating Users. Therefore members are stored in the typical WordPress
users and usermeta tables. This also means that a MemberPress User would not need a second account to login to other plugins that also rely on the WordPress API for user management such as BuddyPress, bbPress, WooCommerce, etc.
MemberPress custom field values that your members fill out when registering or updating their account pages can be found in the
usermeta table. These values can be grabbed using the standard WordPress usermeta calls like get_user_meta().
Posts/Postmeta
MemberPress uses multiple Custom Post Types to store various data. Because we use Custom Post Types, the data for these objects is stored in the WordPress
posts and postmeta tables. We use the following Custom Post Types:
Memberships – Memberships are stored as a public custom post type (capabilities of a Page by default). The custom post type key is memberpressproduct
Groups – Groups are stored as a public custom post type (capabilities of a Page by default). The custom post type key is memberpressgroup
Rules – Rules are stored as a hidden (non-public) custom post type. The custom post type key is memberpressrule
Coupons – Coupons are stored as a hidden (non-public) custom post type. The custom post type key is memberpresscoupon
Reminders – Reminders are stored as a hidden (non-public) custom post type. The custom post type key is mp-reminder
Courses – The Courses from MemberPress Courses add-on
Lessons – The Lessons from the MemberPress Courses add-on
Files – The Files from MemberPress Downloads add-on
Options
MemberPress stores most of its options in the WordPress
options table in a row with the option_key of mepr_options. The options are serialized and stored in that row. Various other options and settings are also stored in the options table. Their option_key‘s start with mepr_ or mp_.
Our various add-ons may also store some information in the
usermeta or options tables as well.
The MemberPress database version is also stored in the options table with an
option_key of mepr_db_version.
Additional MemberPress Tables
MemberPress tables will try to mimic the character set and collation of your regular WordPress tables. This is most typically
utf8mb4_general_ci or utf8mb4_unicode_ci.
Payment Data
MemberPress relies on secure payment tokens or ids when creating and managing subscriptions. No Credit Card or other payment data is stored in your WordPress database with exception of the
last 4 digits and expiration date so reminders can be triggered when Credit Cards are expiring on automatically recurring subscriptions. All other meaningful payment data is stored securely at the gateway level (Stripe, PayPal etc).
Subscriptions
The
mepr_subscriptions table is where we store the objects for Automatically Recurring Subscriptions. These objects are essentially containers for managing automatically recurring payments and associating Transactions that belong to this subscription together.
Transactions
The
mepr_transactions table is used for storing all of a user’s payments (free or paid). MemberPress uses the Transactions to determine if a user has access to a Membership, and for how long. It does this by looking at the expires_at date of the Transaction, and if it’s status is complete or confirmed.
A Transaction with an expires_at date of
NULL or ‘0000-00-00 00:00:00’ is considered to Never expire.
Both One-Time and Auto-Recurring payments are stored in the Transactions table. If the transaction has a subscription_id, then it is considered to be part of an automatically recurring subscription.
Transactions of type “subscription_confirmation” with a status of “confirmed” are hidden in the UI, and are used as a way to provide free trial periods and the 24 hour grace period on a recurring subscription signup.
Members
The
mepr_members table is purely for speed/convenience in some of the MemberPress queries. Anytime a member triggers some event, like signing up, being refunded, cancelling a subscription, renewal payment etc. Certain information about that member is calculated and stored in this table. All of this information can be gathered by inspecting the users, usermeta, mepr_subscriptions, and mepr_transactions tables as well, however we consolidate it also in this table to help with some of the MemberPress queries and CSV exports.
Events
The
mepr_events table is used to store a log of events that have happened. Such as a user logging in, new signups, renewal payments, reminder notifications etc. This table can grow quite large over time, so it would be okay to trim events that were at least a year old. We don’t recommend trimming events that aren’t at least a year old, especially if you rely on a number of reminders that span large time periods.
Jobs
The
mepr_jobs table is used for storing background jobs (via WP Cron) that need to be completed such as Background email sending. MemberPress has utilities that Developers could use to schedule their own background jobs if needed. For example, maybe you want to integrate a new payment gateway, but it doesn’t support auto-recurring payments, so you need background jobs to make sure the payments happen manually on schedule.
Rule Access Conditions
Although Rules are stored as Custom Post Types the
mepr_rule_access_conditions table is used to store what memberships or members have access to the content the Rules are protecting.
Add-ons
Corporate Accounts add-on adds a mepr_corporate_accounts table for associating parent accounts to their sub-accounts.
MemberPress Courses add-on adds the following tables:
- wp_mpcs_sections – course sections;
- wp_mpcs_user_progress – each user’s lesson progress and completion;
- wp_mpcs_questions – quiz questions;
- wp_mpcs_quiz_questions – which questions belong to which quiz, and their order;
- wp_mpcs_attempts – quiz attempts;
- wp_mpcs_answers – the answers given in quiz attempts;
- wp_mpcs_attempt_questions – a copy of each question as it was shown in an attempt, with the student’s answer and grade;
- wp_mpcs_question_originals – the original version of an edited question, kept for older attempts;
- wp_mpcs_submissions – assignment submissions;
- wp_mpcs_emails – Courses email settings;
- wp_mpcs_jobs, wp_mpcs_completed_jobs, wp_mpcs_failed_jobs and wp_mpcs_grdlvl_tables – used for background tasks.
The wp_ part is the database table prefix. Your site may use a different prefix.
MemberPress Courses also uses the WordPress meta tables:
- Course and lesson settings are stored in the postmeta table. Their meta keys start with _mpcs_course_ and _mpcs_lesson_.
- Student data is stored in the usermeta table with the following keys, where the number at the end is the course or lesson ID: mpcs_course_started_{course ID}, mpcs_lesson_started_{lesson ID}, mpcs_lesson_time_spent_{lesson ID}, mpcs_lesson_last_ping_{lesson ID}, mpcs_video_watched_{lesson ID} and _mpcs_certificate_token_{course ID}.
MemberPress PDF Invoices add-on adds wp_mpdf_credit_notes and wp_mpdf_invoice_numbers tables.
MemberPress Downloads add-on adds wp_mpdl_file_downloads and wp_mpdl_file_stats tables.
