Does anyone have a pic of the "new look" before we update?

Thanks boofo

You're very welcome, sir. ;)

Have a look here until I update some pics.
http://www.billspaintball.com/vb3/billspaypal.php?

You can however change that appearance a bit from thr AdminCP depending on what options you choose.

I was so hoping you would get the user group aspect incorporated into this release. I really have to have that before I can use this--and I desperately want to use this.

Do you have a time frame or a general idea of when you might be able to incorporate automatically signing people up on a user group?

Also, I would very much like the option of having two flavors of donation on that screen. One is a straight donation, the other is a subscription donation of monthly, quarterly if paypal allows it (can't remember), or annual.

I know, give them an inch.... :)

OK, thank you sir ;)

This is a double edged sword. You'd better be prepared to set up a refund system if you use an 'automatic' charging system. Also if you get a lot of chargbacks on your PayPal account they will ban your account just like a bank does. Maybe have a checkbox under the donation button which reads "Make this donation annually." It could be a link so that if someone clicks on it it'll explain what annual donations mean on your forum. This way you wouldn't 'need' two flavors of the same hack, and the donator has some say as to if their donation is annual or not.

<i>This is a double edged sword. You'd better be prepared to set up a refund system if you use an 'automatic' charging system. Also if you get a lot of chargbacks on your PayPal account they will ban your account just like a bank does.</i>

Hmmm. I'm not seeing the issue. I currently do this on my site, only it's not incorporated in the same way as this hack is. If someone donates a prescribed monthly amount, they are automatically assigned to a new additional user group. If they donate to the annual version, they are also assigned to a new and different user group. Immediately, they get the benefits associated with those user groups. It's very much understood this is a 'donation' (it's a rescue/animal welfare site) and they can cancel their subscription at any time. Are you saying that paypal has an issue if someone cancels a subscription? It happens once in a while, but it's not a big deal--at least it doesn't seem like it. I've had only one instance of sending back someone's money after a cancellation, and that was more my issue. I don't see how paypal would care.

I'm not even sure what a chargeback transaction looks like on paypal and don't quite get why I would need to set up a refund system.

Maybe this is in part why I can't install this until I can give the members the immediate benefit of additional features--even though many claim not to care. Or maybe I'm just not understanding this thoroughly?

Yes maybe on your site, but not everyone has their site set up like you do. Every site is different.

Not the first time, and probably not the second time, but if a pattern develops then yes. Contact PayPal about repeated chargbacks for more information. They will explain why repeated chargbacks are a big no-no ;)

Definitely understand that, which is why I would expect/hope it to be a configurable option.

In reading on Paypal, Chargebacks and Subscription Cancellations are two very different things. I can see why repeated chargebacks would be an issue. But over the years, I've definitely had my share of subscription cancellations and it's never been a problem.

Again, I'm just hoping for the flexibility to implement donations in a way that works for me.

Auto Usergroups require the use of PayPals IPN. Thats quite a significant addition to this hack. I actually have IPN working on my test site currently, but thats as far as Ive got. I still need to code everything else.
To quote a game developer "When its done" :)
Too hard to say with any certainty at present but it will be weeks not days.
I havent looked in any detail at subscriptions yet. I doubt if that will make the 1st release.Suggestions are good :)

Yes from what Ive seen there is a whole different set of fields for subscriptions in PayPal to allow for such things as end dates and other subscription specific tasks.

Donations of any kind are considered a 'virtual' goods and would be considered as a chargback by PayPal. If your PayPal account gets too many chargebacks they will close it, just like every other bank would ;)

In the first release there were zeros automatically entered in the amount box. Could you please post that code again so that we could re-insert it? It looked much more professional than just a blank white box. Thanks ;)

But then it doesn't really look like the PayPal page does and that's what we were going for. It looked tacky to me, to be honest. ;)

I spose I could make having a default amount (or just blank) as a CP option.
However before I release a 1.31 update I want to wait a few days to see if any bugs surface.

But for a quick fix, you just need to edit your XML file and import it again with overwrite selected, or you can just edit the template called 'billspp_main', whatever you feel more comfortable doing.

With either method find
and replace it with

So? :rolleyes: I'm pretty sure that people know ahead of time that they're not at Paypal, when they're donating from our site ;)

Actually I think it looks cheesier without it. Look at other places (professional) that take in donations and they have it more like the first version. If you don't want to post it that's fine, it would just save us a LOT of work sorting through the file.

Thanks Bill! Appreciate the help :)

great product, thanks!

2 questions:

1. can i change the billspaypal.php to a different name?
2. is there any modification i can make to the code to send the user back to a "Thank you" page?

eric

1 - You will also need to change the filename in a number of different lines else it will stop working.

2 - Oh yeah. I dont know why I didnt include a thank you page in this hack, espically since I have it in V2. :confused:
Will add to the 1.31 update.

cool, thanks for the quick reply!

I hope you still add it to 1.31 but I thought PayPal sends you to a thank you page?

no, i did a little test and they just send them to their (the donater's) account page at paypal.

Did you complete the information at their site for the thank you page? Unless you tell the system to do it, it won't thank the customer...

no, i didn't know about that... where can i find that feature at paypal?

To be honest I don't remember the exact link, but it had two flavors, one was for HTTPS images, and one was for just your name in a text title. There should be a space for a URL if you have a custom page. Contact PayPal for more information. It will be better when this hack has its own thank you page, because then it will be easier for most people and made to look like it came from the forum instead of PayPal.

I just thought of a great new feature for this that would be EASY to include :bunny: A summary page. A lot of people who use vB own more than one vB license. However PayPal only allows you to have one account unless you have more than one bank account (which most people don't have). By having a summary page you could tell your donators at EVERY site not to worry that the name on the PayPal account is different from that sites name. For example:

This is just an example and the wording would of course be admin customizable :)

Great, thanks!

Well It looks like there is a distinct lack of bugs being reported :)
So I will get stuck into adding the couple of feature requests listed above over the weekend.

Any more suggestions or bugs, betta report them quick...

Any thoughts about adding a feature that would list the members who donated and perhaps listing them in order of largest donation. It could be a separate page with just the link appearing on the main donate page. I have seen this on other sites and always thought it was a good idea to recognise and give members "credit" for their donations. I think it would also encourage other memers to donate as well.

Donors listing and recording is a feature in version 2 (or advanced or deluxe or whatever it ends up being called)

I am using this for a membership class on my board and was wondering if there is any possible way to add a "referal" field that gets sent with the email.

I give points (vbplaza) for each referal and it would be sweet just to have that info in the email.

Any chance this is possible?

Im a little confused by how you would use this for referals?
Can you give me some more detail please.

I have a paid membership program that gets them into the vbplaza system (accumulate points) in which they can buy real products. As an incentive I said I would give them points if they referred more people to sign up to the paid membership. So when people sign up for the paid membership there is a field where he can put the referrer name in there, then I can go give that person points for the referral. Get it? :)

Person A is regular member

Person B is paid member

Person B tells Person A to sign up for paid membership to get into vbplaza system.

Person A orders through the Paypal option then puts Person B in as referrer.

I give Person B points for referal.

That better? :)


In other words I need a Comments section added. lol..

Nice hack, very useful :) how do i change a font colour?, the currency details and amount to pay are not visible in my forum theme

Nice and simple to install. It works great. Thanks

Ok, that makes sense now.

Version 2 will have a message field that could be used to list a referer.
I will have a look and see if its something that can be added easily to this one, if so, I will do an update soon.

That would be great. Thank you very much. :)

I will have to have a look when I get home, it should pick up the styling from your forums style options.

You can manually edit the template billspp_main and just apply the styling of your choice if you want it done straight away.

Nice hack

/me installs