We have a client site where users purchase items & we would like to offer anyone who buys something a 'key' or other way of getting access to the forum but assigning them to a specific role (say for example if they buy 'item 1' on the site then they get access to the 'item 1' role on the forum & can discuss that item with other users who have purchased the same item.

My thinking is that we simply send them a link to the forum when they make a purchase (easy) but also provide a password or key.

Do you think this is feasible?

Add the Users who have bought "item 1" to the "Item 1 Role"

and Set "Item 1 Role" to have "Read / write " Access to the "Item 1 Forum "

you want something like this ?

I've done that already and that works well, however - I'm trying to make things easier for my client so its more automated and so she won't have to 'add' the users manually to the correct role.

What I was wondering if there is a way to:

A: Automatically register users when they make a purchase

OR

B: Send users a link to the forum when they make a purchase but the link has a 'key' that will register them in the correct role.

It may be something that we will have to build in which is fine but I wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts on how it might be done.

Technically its all possible, but you have to build it. You could also automatically add an existing user to a role after purchasing, or if you want that you can register the user. Everything you need to know how can be found inside the yaf page. For example Register the user can be found on the register.ascx.cs file.

On the other hand if you dont know how to code, there is a second option you could use DotNetNuke as CMS. And use available Subscription Modules which are doing exactly what you want.