Hi,
1. Unfortunately, there is not an easy way how to set the start from date. The current implementation works only with Valid to field, which is set when the membership is payed. This value is stored in the CMS_MembershipUser - ValidTo column.
You can configure manually when the membership ends. For example if the membership should start 1th of January 2011 and it should be valid for a year, you can configure the end date of membership in the CMSDesk- E-commerce - Products - Membership validity - Until. Here you can set 31th of December 2011. Before the membership expires, user will receive a notification email which allows him to renew a membership.
2. While creating membership in the
CMS Desk - Administration - Membership you can assign a role to the membership, for example Gold Partner role. This way you can create 3 memberships with different roles. If the user payed his membership he will have the same permissions as the role which is assigned to membership. It means that you can configure document level permissions to limit access to the Chapter 1-3. How to configure document level permissions is described here:
Document level permissionsBest regards,
Ivana Tomanickova