Subscription fee - setting up.

[.QUACK.Major.Pain]

Actuaaly the site I had installed a couple years ago, did work, but I have updated CT and phpbb version (I think that was the other update). Since then, it stopped working. Guessing it is something with one of those 2 updates that has messed it up.

We had an area with adult content that required paying to gain access.
Once the person paid, the admin had to manually set user up with sub.scription access with the 1 year expiration unless user paid again then the expiry was extended.

Never had it automatically added user to usergroup.

Right now, I can't even setup usergroup as a pay group. Setting wouldn't take.

[richiebgood]

there was an update to groupcp.php in the last phpbb update, but I do not know enough about it to see why it is causing trouble.

[.QUACK.Major.Pain]

Sounds like a good place to start looking.

A job kind of beyond my skills. LOL

[Michalis]

hehehehe
I have been waiting patiently to
see if anyone had fixed this prob <img>

[.QUACK.Major.Pain]

Ok - I finaaly figured out how I did this in the past.
Note: It doesn't automatically add members to the usergroup, and I don't really know if it was supposed to.

There was an issue with sub.scriptions just like the donation mod.
The security is set so high, that it conflicted with the use of paypal.

When donating or subscribing, several things have to happen.
The user chooses to donate or subscribe, they eventually have to go to paypal to complete the transaction.
After the transaction is completed, paypal attempts to send the IPN log to your site. (This is a record of receipt of payment)
Because the security is set to high, paypals IP will get banned on your site for DDoS attack.

So to get the donation and sub.scription mod to work, you need to do the following:

1) go to admin area
2) go to Security>Special
3) set "DDoS Protection Level:" to LOW - Note on strong or medium, will cause paypal ip to be banned - Must be on LOW
4) SAVE

This will now allow you to receive the IPN log, which you can view at ACP>Sub.scriptions>IPN Log
Leave the box blank and just click on "Look Up User" - This will show activity in the last 7 days.
You can change the period of time to go back further if you choose.

Now on to the sub.scription part.

a) Create a forum area and set it to "Private"

b)
1) Create a usergroup - eg: Subscribers or whatever name you choose.
2) Enter a de.scription
3) Select a moderator
4) Select Payment Group
5) Enter the fee.
6) Select recurring, length of sub.scription period, etc.
7) I would set "reattempt payment if failed" to yes to ensure you get paid.
8) Save

How it works:

1) User attempts to access private area (you may have one area, many areas, or entire site setup as private. Your choice to how you setup your site.
2) User will receive a message that it requires payment or similiar message, and user will have to click to continue to next step.
3) User must now choose a usergroup that requires payment. You can setup multiple groups.
eg: 1 month for $10, another group for 6 months for $50, etc.
User can choose the group preference they can afford or wish to join.
4) After user pays, you will receive an email of the payment from paypal.
5) You must check ACP>Sub.scriptions>IPN Log as above and see who paid and how much.
6) Now you must give user access by going to ACP>User Admin>Sub.scription
7) Enter the user name and click "Look Up User"
8) You will now see the available groups.
9) Select the appropriate usergroup that the user paid for and select "In This Group?" and set it to YES
10) Enter an expiration date (if there is one) and click on "Update"

That's it.

You will have to add each member as they pay for their sub.scription or renew their sub.scription.

Note: You should also add a forum area titled "I paid for a sub.scription and still have no access" or similiar.
This will allow members to post for help if they haven't received access yet. It happens, and we could forget, but this allows the user a place to request help and you somewhere to help users get what they paid for.

Hope this helps you understand how it works.

[Helter]

nice work Major.Pain, I think ill add this to the kb

[.QUACK.Major.Pain]

Your Welcome

Might need some cleaning up, or clearer explaination, but you get an idea anyway. LOL

[Michalis]

hey .=QUACK=.Major.Pain

gotta say thanx to you, as I follwed your advise
what you written out & I have managed to have
the sub.scription work. thanx alot dude really appreciate a semi fix hehehehehe

[Michalis]

I have found a problem.

when u member pays for a sub.scription and trys to enter a part of the forum which is set to to private they get the following message that they need to subscribe.

in group permission control in ACP/GroupAdmin/Permissions the simple permissions will not stay on "Allowed Access" when u press submit it always shows "Disallowed Access"

can you advise please

[Michalis]

I have found a way round the problem I have found but it takes ages. instead of selecting permissions in simple mode, it worked on advance mode which takes forever.

[.QUACK.Major.Pain]

You have to set the group to ALLOW ACCESS.

Then after user pays, you go to ACP/USER ADMIN/SUBSCRIPTIONS
Search the users name, and change "IN THIS GROUP" to yes. You can also set the expiration date if the sub.scription is only for 1 month, 1 year, or whatever. Then SAVE it.

This will add the member to the group forever if no expiry date or until the expiry date if you set one.

[Michalis]

Hi .=QUACK=.Major.Pain

any advise on the permission problem
about the advance & simple mode

[.QUACK.Major.Pain]

We don't have availibility of the permissions. Another glitch I think.

[Michalis]

I have the subscriptions working now have been working for 4 months without any problems

Thanx integramod team...

[viragotech]

Everything .=QUACK=.Major.Pain post is the way to go.
Just member to unban the paypal IP if ya tested it and it failed once.

Took me 3 tries to get that right.

ACP/ user admin/ ban control

Though I still did/do have problems setting it up to work with a forum with sub forums. So a bunch of them take up less space on the forum page.
When I made a forum with several sub forums, when I go to set group permission to allow access as they are private sections. It will not work no matter what I did. Soon as ya reload group permission they are changed back to disallow access. Using advanced mode did not help.

I was able to get things working by using all forums, that makes the forum page allot longer but at least it works.