It's time for a short progress update on paid subscriptions CB plugin !

If you didn't notice yet, we have started a limited field trial on this site of a pre-release of the still-under-development Paid Subscriptions Community Builder Plugin. First results look really good, as all payment processes seem to work well and we don't see a single error in our logs.

You can see it in in action on this site:

• in your own profile as logged-in user: there is a new tab called "Subscription" (link to your own Subscription tab, if you are logged-in)
• as guest (or logged-out user): there is a new section at the end of our registration page ("Register" link of login module).

The front-end is almost complete, but for now you see only a small portion of the functions in action on this site.

The back-end part is still under development, as well as a front-end module and the automatic reminder emails and account expiration parts (for this site we have some time until end of year for this... ;-) ).

So far, the plugin has following features complete:

• Supports a fixed number of subscription plans (up to 5 for now, will be quite easily extended to unlimited later).
• Plans have a wide range of time (from 1 hour up to 3 years, or lifetime) or calendar duration (from 1 day "Today", up to "This and next 2 years"), including for free plans, so you could have a 1-day free trial plan, which can be upgraded to a e.g. monthly or yearly paid plan.
• Supports registration fully integrated and extending Community Builder registration processes: you can choose individually for each plan if you wish to (and in which order) to 1) confirm user email, 2) process payment, 3) approve user.
• Plans can be user-managed: renewed, upgraded, re-activated using the "Subscription" tab from the CB User-Profile.
• Plan renewals advance periods can be configured
• grace periods for calendar durations (e.g. subscribing within last 3 months of a calendar year subscribes you for the next calendar year, and gives for free the last months of current year).
• For plans upgrades, the "remaining value" of current plan (means proportionally the price of the remaining subscription time) is automatically discounted from the price of the upgraded plan (if both plans are non-free), and the benefit presented to the customer in the upgrade part, as an incentive to upgrade now without loosing anything.
• Purchases can be redirected directly from "Register" button to paypal, or a purchase "invoice" can be presented to the user, with configurable texts, as well as configurable "pay" buttons.
• In backend user-edit interface, admins can also manage users' subscriptions (similar functions as in frontend user profile).
• All payment processor events and Subscription purchases are fully logged.
• Any purchase can be interrupted at any stage, and continued later, as the last workflow state is kept, avoiding for double-payments and/or non-payments.
• It has a fully automated full support of full PayPal website API, including PDT, IPN, and automated treatments of refunds and reversals (yes, a refund in paypal will automatically cancel the corresponding paid subscription !). Other payment processors are in development or will be developed on demand, as the API has been designed to support multiple payment processors).
• It supports multiple user levels and integration with Joomla-ACL compliant 3PD ACL extensions, such as JACL.
• The payment authentication and security is done using 2 secured direct communications between the website server and paypal's processing server (double-checks), to exclude all frauds.
• Asynchronous support for subscription changes (e.g. upon successful clearing of E-check or receipt of funds from bank account).
• Automatic user-level change without needing for the user to logout.
• fine-grained CSS templating
• multi-currency support: you can specify the main currency, as well as a secondary currency (indicative prices).
• Currency conversion is done automatically, using daily automatic updates, cached on website for performance.
• Prices and currency display formats are user-defined.
• Supports User-installable plugins for this CB plugin (yes!)
• 2 plugins already done:
1. for docman groups and CB field settings: when you take a documentation subscription here, it will add you automatically to the corresponding docman group for the Downloads section (and on expiry or cancellation of course remove you from that group).
2. CB Field plugin: so it also adds automatically the "2007 Documentation subscriber" status to your user profile upon payment.
• import of userid-lists as subscriptions to given plans with given subscription states and subscription dates (corresponding expiry dates are automatically computed during import).
• extended tests
• support of real Paypal and sandbox paypal.

This was the minimum we had set to ourselves before starting to use it on our own site, and all code has been written from scratch, as we didn't find any implementation meeting our security and complete-features and integration requirements.

So you will ask: what's missing until we can release ?

On our to-do list we currently have:

• subscription information module showing user which plan he has, and his upgrade or renewal possibilities.
• expiration of accounts
• finish language files (right now it's English-only) and more customization possibilities for the workflow texts and layouts.
• support for 2 more payment processors on the way (at least).
• support for multiple subscriptions in parallel, with upgrade/crossgrade possibilities.
• but most importantly to finish the backend user interface (which is not very intuitive for now), to be able to do more stats and see all the information available about subscriptions.

We have also carefully listened to feedbacks from the community these last months, and thanks to positive feedbacks on that matter, and given the big amount of professional development work invested into this plugin, we have chosen to give a commercial status to this plugin. As somebody pointed out on this site, it makes sense, as finally it is made to collect money ;). In addition, as such, it is a critical extension.

So we plan to release it with very affordable and flexible licensing schemes and services. Release date is tentatively planed actually in second half of February mid-March 20007 (subject to confirmation ;) , as usual). DISCLAIMER: this is not an official announcement ! :-)

Please feel free to discuss this plugin on this forum thread or comment this blog below. Looking forward to your feedbacks :-)

Update of 22 February:

Here a small update on the CB Paid Subscriptions plugin:

• The first tests on first build here at Joomlapolis showed no errors at all, everything runs very smoothly, which is very encouraging. Only problems were with some texts on this site still referring to the donations button, instead of the subscription tab on the profile, which have now been updated. Thanks a lot to the CB documentation subscribers for their support to the CB project, it's a nice feeling receiving the payment notifications emails, and seing the code under development working well :)
• Since my last blog, we accepted a few features requests from paying customers to extend this plugin's features, which will provide some very nice additions and extend the possibilities of the plugin. More on that soon.
• The status/upgrade advertisement module is finished as well (we added also an API to next CB release for joomla modules to be able to interact with CB plugins), and will be tested on this site as soon as we stabilize the next build.
• We're a little behind schedule regarding backend functionality, and need to complete some more exceptions workflows after account expiration, to help people find their way to renew their expired subscription.
• At this time, we are feature-freezing the project, and finish implementation and stabilization. Implementation should be finished within 15 days approximately, and stabilization within around 3 weeks.
• Sorry for the ones having asked, there is no final pricing fixed yet, but as said, it will be reasonable and affordable :)

So we are aiming a release starting mid-march (yes, sorry, release date slipped by two weeks due to added features :) , and february is a short month :whistle: ), which is (as usual) subject to stabilization and tests completed.

Update of 25 March:

A new blog update on the CB Paid Subscriptions plugin reaching final development has been published.

Thanks for all your feedbacks. Please comment on the newest blog or in the forum thread.

Comments

I'm looking forward for testing it Written by Walter Ego on 2008-02-25 19:53:16 Great...  It will be great and useful.    Thank you very much.  I hope to use it soon.    Walter

What about 2checkout? Written by glassparman on 2007-12-10 15:00:16 Just thought I would see if you are planning a payment processor for 2checkout.com?    Thanks!

did this get released yet Written by discdemo on 2007-11-03 03:17:31 i'm sorry to echo what is likely a common question here, but did this get finished, yet?     thanks. -jz

Count us in! Written by dangier on 2007-10-01 18:20:34 We're looking forward to this CB module. It's really the only "missing module" in our site.

nice Written by sharly on 2007-08-31 16:37:10 thanks

Extemely keen on getting this plugin. Written by hk1k2n on 2007-08-13 12:25:43 This will really help out on my website.    Keep up the amazing work Beat !    Thanks  Harini

Can you please hurry up Written by jciconsult on 2007-06-23 13:39:35 This is a component we all need. Particularly if it supports other payment mechanisms. It would be very helpful if you looked at the requirements to support clearers such as Moneris in Canada. It is our largest payment processor.

Update and ETA comming soon Written by beat on 2007-05-10 00:02:35 see the other blog for update :)

It is now early May Written by darkfrog on 2007-05-06 07:22:47 I am VERY eager to get this plugin. Any update on when it will be available?

News posted on a new blog Written by beat on 2007-03-25 04:52:24 Just posted a new blog with some screen-dumps.

Any news? Written by winstonb on 2007-03-23 22:34:15 Hi Beat and CB team    Any word or something to munch on over the weekend in terms of updates?    you guys are amazing at what you do, how about a quick note... would be great!    Winston

Almost April... Written by j37h3r on 2007-03-23 20:11:37 Almost April...any ideas on a release date?

Late-March..? Written by lmay56 on 2007-03-22 02:34:06 Late March. Still No news ! Give us some news ! I want this plug in NOW!

WIll this plugin be able to import subsc Written by nowtutor on 2007-03-21 23:44:15 If i currently have subscriptions on AEC, will I be able to import those subscriptions into this new cd? I don't want to implement this new plugin and then have to manually import thousands of subscribers......    Anyway, I am really excited to see this plugin coming and try it out! GOOD WORK

COME ON ! Written by ahimsaraffier on 2007-03-20 16:31:05 Mid march. No news ! Give us some news ! I want this plug in !    ...and thanks !

mid-march..? Written by eyezberg on 2007-03-19 21:50:15 Hi Beat, I know it's cold and snowing again in Switzerland, so get indoors and finish coding this baby, I want to pay for it :)

Count me in as well Written by winstonb on 2007-03-19 02:11:14 All the stuff you guys do rocks!. I am very excited for this new plug in and like others are willing to pay you for your hard and great work.

Definately gonna buy this!! Written by tomhay on 2007-03-13 09:16:47 Like everyone else i am busting my chops to get my hands on this. Will definately go on a couple of my sites. Glad to hear that you are charging for it. A fair few people will be making some $$$ off it. Good on ya!

Count Me In Written by crecalde on 2007-03-03 23:29:10 I've been waiting for this plug in forever, and am willing to help test/review the back-end whenever you're ready for another opinion. I have three sites that will incorporate it virtually as soon as it's available.    Question: Are there any plans for 'Developer Licenses' that allow us to distribute the plug-in to multiple sites? How about a test license, for use in a dev/test environment - prior to deployment into a live site?    I am willing to be a guinea pig, if you're looking for any.

Cant wait too Written by montana on 2007-02-27 20:33:37 I get this feeling every modul or plugin that Beat and Nant create is worth like 10 Pound Gold

Can't wait! Written by tinus2003 on 2007-02-27 16:49:42 Is there any way to have a look at the backend already? Really curious what it will look like!

Cant Wait Written by Geronimo on 2007-02-20 04:25:13 Any update on the release date?

Yes! Written by chay on 2007-02-07 00:19:49 You can include me among those extremely eager to get this! I hope you experience minimum or no delays. Thanks!

Wow! Written by ldstudio on 2007-02-04 04:23:44 This is EXACTLY what I've been looking for. I will buy this the day it's released. Seriously. Please please please include some sort of support for CCBill though.

Having Problem with CB & AEC. Written by owolabi on 2007-01-29 15:23:03 I will be happy to buy this componet.  Good work.

Wonderful! Can content be easily linked Written by rracine on 2007-01-26 02:06:29 "It supports multiple user levels and integration with Joomla-ACL compliant 3PD ACL extensions, such as JACL." As JACL is such a vulnerable (to patches/3P Components) and poorly supported solution, I hope there will be some other recommendations (yes, even code examples) to help us control access to our content. Thanks!

February seems sooooo far away.... Written by neatworksinc on 2007-01-23 06:25:36 I'm having a few problems with CB and AEC Subscription and seeing this today is a Godsend. I don't think February will come around soon enough!!

Wow! Written by quirkee on 2007-01-19 22:02:05 I would buy this plugin.    Scott

hoho Written by duto on 2007-01-18 16:35:35 great news beat!         I´ll be very happy to buy this plugin

Written by Marc72 on 2007-01-18 12:50:43 That sounds awesome!!!

WOW!! the best news this year Written by matty_g on 2007-01-17 00:52:51 Thanks Beat this really is a major step forward in the development of CB and its related Joomla. "Give that man a medal" I can't wait to play with it myself.

Very exciting news!! Written by Aly on 2007-01-17 00:10:05 So far I am very impressed and excited - waiting anxiously for release of this component!! None of the others have quite as much of what I need as this promises to have -- especially with top-notch CB integration.

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