EXCELLENT FEATURE IDEA for 2015 - this is a very good question Finn, and one that should be of interest to most administrators.

Commerce User Points Redemption Discussion

Based on Finn's question about allowing members to redeem User Points in EasySocial, we should have a good discussion to start a project that ties together commerce and user points. It would allow member users to redeem user points for member rewards that can be set by the administrators of the site, and also the administrators of Groups. When member users redeem their User Points, the user points are converted into an amount which is then saved as a commerce line item with negative value.

BASIC EXAMPLE
As an example, lets say each user point is worth 0.1 USD (option for other currencies) and the site is focused on a local community (town, city) and member users can redeem up to 300 points per session, for such gift items offered up by site Sponsors.

- A site sponsor gains exposure for their store, business, and the sponsor makes a special item available to the social site where Members can redeem User Points for positive community cause or action. Lets say a ski lodge offers up ski lift tickets where there is a Points Value set and Members can gather and redeem points to get a day pass at the ski hill.

- The amount of points that can be redeemed for the gift items would be set by the administrator. What the Member must do to get the Points for the items can be set by the administrator. Points will then be taken off from Member user's Points account when user redeems his/her points for the item a Sponsor has offered up to members.

- As Points are redeemed for special gift items made available from Sponsors, there would be a notification in the timeline (main site timeline and/or Group timeline) that gives valuable exposure for the community cause or action. A list of redeemed items with Sponsors Profile information and cover/profile photo would display much like the current Leaderboard system.

This gives the Points system some real value and it can be made extendable and it is a very flexible to attract new Members and keep Members engaged coming back to the site.

IDEAS? SUGGESTED FEATURES?

Please offer up your ideas and feature suggestions. Once the features have been refined, then the final version 1.0 of this Points Redemption feature can be submitted to the EasySocial Voices feature suggestions area for votes.

Hi Randall,

Thank you for your comments and suggestions.

Your idea is good, and I could add many other ideas for new features and functionality for the EasySocial point system. Unfortunately, I don't think the point system has high priority for StackIdeas which I understand 100% because they are very busy with other new developments and upgrades.

We are using Alphauserpoints for EasyBlog and EasyDiscuss and our own customizations and developments of Alphauserpoints. For us, it is a "crucial time to market" issue, and I don't think that the EasySocial point system will reach this level soon. So if we decide to buy EasySocial, we will properly need an integration for EasySocial and Alphauserpoints, or that we pay a Joomla developer to develop what we already have in Alphauserpoints so it becomes a part of the EasySocial point system.

It would be great to know if there is someone here at the StackIdea Forum, which has developed the EasySocial point system further. I would also like to get in contacts with developers who are interested in providing us with a quote for such a development.

Hello Finn,

Unfortunately at this point of time, we do not have integrations with AUP but because the points system in EasySocial is pretty centralized, it would be possible to hire someone to actually proxy the points assignment in EasySocial to log them into AUP as well.

Hi Mark,

First of all, My Best Wishes for a Healthy and Prosperous New Year to You, Your Family and the Team at StackIdeas.

Thank you for your reply.

I am glad to hear that this is possible.

How is "proxy the point assignment done in EasySocial so they are log into AUP"? By developing a plugin?

Can you recommend any one to do this development for us?

As I can't access the Settings in your EasySocial demo I can't see if it is possible to disable the EasySocial points system from showing up in the front-end, which we would need if all points only can be showed through AUP. Or is it possible also to show all points from our site at EasySocial?

Finn Hyttel wrote:

Unfortunately, I don't think the point system has high priority for StackIdeas

You are absolutely right about that. Points and badges is one of the features that attracted me towards easysocial over jomsocial or cb. But it's a shame to see that the improvement on the points system is not on their priority list and I don't see any major updates or plans on this feature for a long time.

Hi Neel,

Thank you for confirming me in my conclusion about the EasySocial points system.

So we are properly several people and companies, which are "in the same boat" when it comes down to a working loyalty system for EasySocial. The only solution I can see is to do the integration between EasySocial and AUP. Maybe it would be possible to find those people and companies though the StackIdeas Forum and do the integration together and get a developer going on this integration development as soon as possible.

What do you think?

I thought I would let you know that our company yesterday bought EasySocial, so we are now 100% on board and very keen on getting the development of the Alphauserpoints integration for EasySocial started as soon as possible

I have raised the issue regarding an Alphauserpoints integration for EasySocial at the Official Joomla Group at LinkedIn -here is the link to this post; Title

I have been in contact with PayPlans and discussed the above integration. This is the reply from PayPlan; "We have also studied the EasySocial Point System. But right now we don't have any plans to develop an app to integrate it with PayPlans."

Mark, would it be possible for you to address this issue with the Forum or in a Blog at the StackIdeas web site, so we can get feeling for how many EasySocial users would be interested in an Alphauserpoints integration for EasySocial?

Hello Finn,

I am really sorry for the delay of this reply as it is a weekend for us here. The best place for you to gain our attention is to post your feature requests for this at http://stackideas.com/voices/easysocial The more votes on your feature requests would definitely catch our attention

Hello Mark,

Thank you for your reply and sorry for pushing this issue. As we bought EasySocial yesterday and it clearly not is an development task StackIdeas will take on for quite some time and that you replied "Mark on Thursday, January 01 2015, 02:04 PM"

Hello Finn,

Unfortunately at this point of time, we do not have integrations with AUP but because the points system in EasySocial is pretty centralized, it would be possible to hire someone to actually proxy the points assignment in EasySocial to log them into AUP as well.

...we want to find a way forward as soon as possible for the development of the AUP integration for EasySocial.

1.
Please explain to me; How is "proxy the point assignment done in EasySocial so they are log into AUP"? By developing a plugin or in another way?

2.
Can you recommend any one to do this development for us?

3.
Would it be possible for you to address this issue with the Forum or in a Blog at the StackIdeas web site, so we can get feeling for how many EasySocial users would be interested in an Alphauserpoints integration for EasySocial?

4.
If there is an interest we could maybe share the cost for the development of the AUP integration for EasySocial.

Thank you,

Finn

Hello Finn,

Kindly please find the response to your inquiries below:

1. Please explain to me; How is "proxy the point assignment done in EasySocial so they are log into AUP"? By developing a plugin or in another way?

Take a look in the file /administrator/components/com_easysocial/includes/points/points.php in the @assign method. We'll be adding a trigger here for the next version so that other developers could create apps that hook onto these triggers.

2. Can you recommend any one to do this development for us?

I would strongly encourage you to look for a 3rd party dev via Odesk , Freelancer or Joomlancers

3. Would it be possible for you to address this issue with the Forum or in a Blog at the StackIdeas web site, so we can get feeling for how many EasySocial users would be interested in an Alphauserpoints integration for EasySocial?

I am not really sure what you want us to address here?

4.If there is an interest we could maybe share the cost for the development of the AUP integration for EasySocial.

If you want us to develop the app for you, please feel free to contact us at https://crm.stackideas.com and request for a quote

Hi Mark,

Thank you for your kind reply.

1.

Take a look in the file /administrator/components/com_easysocial/includes/points/points.php in the @assign method. We'll be adding a trigger here for the next version so that other developers could create apps that hook onto these triggers.

When will you release the next version of EasySocial?

3.

I am not really sure what you want us to address here?

If any Forum members are interested in the AUP integration for EasySocial - I would like to know because they would maybe be ready to share the cost for this integration development together with us.

4.

If you want us to develop the app for you, please feel free to contact us at https://crm.stackideas.com and request for a quote

OK I will request a quote and a time frame for when StackIdeas can deliver the integration

Probably in a week or two. I have published the API for the points here, http://docs.stackideas.com/developers/application_triggers/points

Sounds great Mark and thanks a lot for the API for the points.

I guess you should probably start a thread here instead of us? It doesn't make sense for us to post such a message on our own website

I will start a new thread...

Thanks Finn