Lack of Subscription Integration
By David Judah on Tuesday, 29 October 2013
Posted in General Issues
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Hi there,

I am very happy with EasySocial and think it is absolutely an amazing component. I wouldn't even dream of using another one for my soon to launch social website. The problem I have is very simple:

There is no subscription app!!

I mean, how are EasySocial web masters suppose to make money to fund their site without such a basic capabilities. Stackideas were amazing to work with JReviews and Invitex and were boasting how quick and easy it was to integrate both components.

I contacted JPayPlans sometime ago and this is the response that i got:

Right now Payplans does not have any integration with Easysocial. We have already planned to provide integration.
After studying it we will schedule it. (23rd October 2013)


Now I know that Stackideas are not responsible for other companies and JPayPlan are only one company that offers subscription components, but I think it is hard for me to understand why go through all of this hard work to create a social component and basically not think how will my customers (such as myself) will be able to use it beyond offering it as a free service.

I don't mean to start a whole stream of people giving out, I just think it would be nice to get a simple explanation (and hopefully a solution) because at this stage, it is the only major thing holding the release of my site to the world wide web.


Thanks in advance:)
Hello David,

I am sorry for the delay of this reply, got a little bit occupied with the development of 1.1 Please find the answers to your inquiries below:


1) how will the registration take place. Will EasySocial registration form still be the gateway for users?

Yep that's right.


2) I would prefer for users to always start with the 'Free' account, which means, I don't want them to see the 'Premium' account when they register first. This would make it easier on me as there is no integration so when a user will theoretically choose 'Premium', I want have a way to integrate the subscription component and collect the payment details while with the 'Free' account I don't need and payment details.

Unfortunately, we can't "hide" a profile from the registration currently but perhaps I could add this as a feature request for 1.1.0


3) I am not sure if it is a bug, but when I switch a profile of a user from one profile level to another ('Fre'e to 'Premium' in my case), nearly all of their registration details are not visible while they are in the new profile system. Basically, even if I create 2 registration processes exactly the same (gender, relationship, education, etc.), it won't share the fields which means the user will have to fill them up again (which is not good!).

Yes, that's correct. As stated in the "Switch Profile" form, the data needs to get reset again because there's no way to know which field maps to which field (Assuming that they are all different fields). We are planning to re-use the same fields mapping in the JomSocial migration for the Switch Profile process but this may only come in when 2.0 is out.
Mark
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Wednesday, 30 October 2013 23:31
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Hello David,

EasySocial was initially never intended to be a "subscription system" but after what we have done on the profile system (With the access), it can be a truly amazing user subscription system. Now, I know that you are frustrated looking for a subscription component that works with EasySocial but I can assure you that the guys at JPayplans are working on this. I am also trying to get in touch with Shyam to see how we could speed things up.
Mark
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Wednesday, 30 October 2013 01:37
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Thank you Mark. I am sorry for my impatience, it is just that it is frustrating to be so close but yet so far. I did think that it was fairly straight foreword for a 3rd party developer to develop a good integration with EasySocial. I kind of presumed that would not take as log as it did. Especially with JPayPlans being so vague about it all.

I know you are doing your best. It would have been amazing if Stackideas would have created one by I appreciate that it wouldn't have been the wisest.

I am going to have to find some kind of a solution soon.
David Judah
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Wednesday, 30 October 2013 04:36
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Can I ask you Mark a question?

Would it be possible for me (while JPayPlan work on their integration) to create a two tier profile, while one is paid and the other not, all using some 3rd party subscription developer (like JPayPlan)?

What would I need to do?
David Judah
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Wednesday, 30 October 2013 05:43
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Hello David,

Hm, not too sure how this would work because you need to write an app to "intercept" the registration process since you are going to link it to the payment gateway to make payments?
Mark
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Wednesday, 30 October 2013 12:09
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If I was willing to switch the profiles manually while receiving an email notification from my subscription plugin, letting me know a user upgraded their account. I could let the user know that their account will be upgraded within 24 hours.

Also, presuming all of this could work, how will the following work:

1) how will the registration take place. Will EasySocial registration form still be the gateway for users?

2) I would prefer for users to always start with the 'Free' account, which means, I don't want them to see the 'Premium' account when they register first. This would make it easier on me as there is no integration so when a user will theoretically choose 'Premium', I want have a way to integrate the subscription component and collect the payment details while with the 'Free' account I don't need and payment details.

3) I am not sure if it is a bug, but when I switch a profile of a user from one profile level to another ('Fre'e to 'Premium' in my case), nearly all of their registration details are not visible while they are in the new profile system. Basically, even if I create 2 registration processes exactly the same (gender, relationship, education, etc.), it won't share the fields which means the user will have to fill them up again (which is not good!).


Thank you for your support
David Judah
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Wednesday, 30 October 2013 15:36
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Thanks for your answers
David Judah
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Wednesday, 30 October 2013 23:58
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You are most welcome David
Mark
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Thursday, 31 October 2013 00:17
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