Question on "overlapping" subscriptions and Plan images

Unless you have CB Auto-actions preventing normal processing, my only explanation is that those plans were not exclusive, or not having the same parent at the time of the user's upgrade.

Best is to test it yourself with a test-user. Just make yourself a 100%-discount coupon or rule for that test-user only with CBSubs Promotion, and go through the process yourself.

Please let us konw if your test upgrades properly or also has this strange behavior.

Hi!

I am poking at these issues and will let you know specifically what I uncover. I have had some other CBSubs activity properly work on the site, including for a "Sponsor" who had an account expire, and they were properly kicked back to "Free Membership" (including having the Joomla User Group also automatically and properly switch back and forth).

I've also seen some proper/expected activity with a new user signing up directly for a full, paid "Subscriber" subscription, and their properly receiving the expected "Free Membership" parent and "Subscriber" child subscriptions after their payment.

I can't figure out the cause of the Sponsor-upgrading-to-Gold-Sponsor issue, but other things seem to be working OK. Perhaps because I made changes to the "Sponsor" Plan while members were actively subscribed to it?

In the meantime, however, I need to correct the discrepancies for my Gold Sponsor (e.g. getting the proper "Plan image" to display). What's the best way to make this change on the account? E.g. am I looking at going into PHPMyAdmin and manually changing some values in the database? Or is there a CB/CBSubs way to do this?

Also, speaking of manual manipulation of member accounts from the back end, is there a preferred process so that CB members and their CBSubs subscriptions don't go out of sync? E.g. is it OK to make CBSubs subscription changes from the member's "Subscriptions" tab in their profile from the back end? And/ or is is better to go through the CBSubs interface, and the subscription settings?

In the course of making changes, I'm demoting "Neighbors" to "Free Membership," and they'll then be presented with a special discount via CBSubs promotions to sign up for a "Subscriber" account.

Finally, I wanted to ask about your proposal of a 100 percent discount to test plan UX and access, etc. With a 100 percent discount (or $0.00 basket), will CBSubs just go through the checkout process without involving my payment gateway?

Thanks!

Something else I've noticed are some of my Sponsor accounts not changing the user group back when the Plan expires.

However, this is working properly for some other accounts ...

Some of these unexpected changes may have taken place on accounts I've set up manually, or for which I've made edits through the Joomla administrator/back end.

Will I throw things out of "sync" if I make changes to a member account that's on a CBSubs Plan?

I'm still trying to pinpoint why some things seem to be working well, and others are working unexpectedly.

In the meantime, however, I need to correct the discrepancies for my Gold Sponsor (e.g. getting the proper "Plan image" to display). What's the best way to make this change on the account? E.g. am I looking at going into PHPMyAdmin and manually changing some values in the database? Or is there a CB/CBSubs way to do this?

CBSubs Plans Image is entirely dynamic. There's nothing to change as long as they've an active subscription to a plan that outputs a plan image it should display that image. It directly uses CBSubs APIs to grab a list of active subscriptions.

Also, speaking of manual manipulation of member accounts from the back end, is there a preferred process so that CB members and their CBSubs subscriptions don't go out of sync?

When you change details in your plan those details won't be applied to existing subscriptions. For example if you edited your plan to now give a usergroup then existing subscriptions won't have that usergroup. I suppose that could be considered as going out of sync.

E.g. is it OK to make CBSubs subscription changes from the member's "Subscriptions" tab in their profile from the back end?

Yes, but you need to keep in mind that's a user store happening directly after subscription change. So there's some things that may conflict. For example if your plan changes a field value or changes their usergroup those may not apply when editing them in CB > User Management and changing their subscription since the user store may override those changes. Those would be the only potential issues.

Will I throw things out of "sync" if I make changes to a member account that's on a CBSubs Plan?

No, you shouldn't have any issues editing a user even if they're subscribed to a plan.

Finally, I wanted to ask about your proposal of a 100 percent discount to test plan UX and access, etc. With a 100 percent discount (or $0.00 basket), will CBSubs just go through the checkout process without involving my payment gateway?

Yes, a 100% discount will skip the payment gateway entirely and be active immediately.

Thanks much for the useful and prompt support!

I am guessing that the weirdness I'm now seeing is due to me Saving Changes to Plans that had active subscriptions to that Plan. For example, even though both my "Sponsor" and "Gold Sponsor" Plans are at the same level and set to be "Exclusive, other plans of the same parent cannot be subscribed at the same time ...," the MAT Asphalt account retained its existing "Sponsor" account when it purchased the "Gold Sponsor" upgrade. As you can see from the attached screen shot of the Subscriber tab from the CB User screen on the back end, this account has both exclusive Plans subscribed simultaneously.

This may also be why the prorated amount from the remaining time from the less expensive plan was not discounted from the new, more expensive Gold Sponsor plan when this member conducted the upgrade.

I know this is a CBSubs no-no and that I am a bad boy for changing a Plan with active subscribers.

Will I be OK with manually manipulating the settings et al for the affected Sponsor/Gold Sponsor plans? I'm guessing I can just select "Delete" from within the Joomla administrator > CB User > Subscriptions tab > Sponsorship ala the attached screen shot.

Come to think of it, this may also be why this account is simultaneously associated with the Sponsor and Gold Sponsor user groups, where other accounts have automatically had their user groups properly changed as expected. Perhaps the active Sponsor subscription is also the reason for the Sponsor, versus Gold Sponsor plan image.

Also in the attached screen shot, the upgrade possibilities for less expensive accounts are listed (Subscriber and Gold Subscriber). I'd note that both have settings in Edit Plan > Workflows tab > Subscriptions upgrades workflows > Propose plan for upgrades only if it is more expensive of "Yes: It will be possible to upgrade to this plan only if it is more expensive (default)." Both also have "Yes" set for "Propose spontaneously plan for upgrades."

Since there's relatively few Sponsor/Gold Sponsor accounts now, and because new activity within my Plan hierarchy appears to be working correctly, I'm guessing that these issues are tied to my saving changes to the Sponsor plan while there were active subscriptions.

My main question now is whether you think anything needs to be "torn out and rebuilt" in terms of the Plans, or the couple affected accounts. Or could I get away with what I have, which now appears to be working correctly, and manually make a couple account tweaks as needed? I want to make sure my "foundation is solid" before I start more public marketing of these programs.

Understanding more about how the back-end mechanics of the Plan structure works is very useful for me. I know CBSubs is a giant, complicated and highly capable system, and it's been amazing to see what it can do. In the documentation, there's a reference to getting the hang of the system by working with it ... I wonder if an upcoming blog topic could talk about "the life of a subscription in CBSubs" from a systemic perspective, as another way to share information about how the mechanics works.

Thanks again!

I am guessing that the weirdness I'm now seeing is due to me Saving Changes to Plans that had active subscriptions to that Plan. For example, even though both my "Sponsor" and "Gold Sponsor" Plans are at the same level and set to be "Exclusive, other plans of the same parent cannot be subscribed at the same time ...," the MAT Asphalt account retained its existing "Sponsor" account when it purchased the "Gold Sponsor" upgrade. As you can see from the attached screen shot of the Subscriber tab from the CB User screen on the back end, this account has both exclusive Plans subscribed simultaneously.

Yes, that's possibly why you're seeing that issue. Changing plan details after a user has already subscribed can result in odd behavior. If the plans were originally not exclusive the user could've subscribed to both before they were made exclusive. If they were always exclusive it shouldn't have been possible for them to get both though.

This may also be why the prorated amount from the remaining time from the less expensive plan was not discounted from the new, more expensive Gold Sponsor plan when this member conducted the upgrade.

It's likely having a hard time figuring out what they're upgrading from and would explain prorate amounts not being accurate.

Will I be OK with manually manipulating the settings et al for the affected Sponsor/Gold Sponsor plans? I'm guessing I can just select "Delete" from within the Joomla administrator > CB User > Subscriptions tab > Sponsorship ala the attached screen shot.

Yes, you should be able to safely remove the invalid subscription there assuming it's not a recurring subscription otherwise you also need to stop the recurring payments at the payment gateway as well.

My main question now is whether you think anything needs to be "torn out and rebuilt" in terms of the Plans, or the couple affected accounts. Or could I get away with what I have, which now appears to be working correctly, and manually make a couple account tweaks as needed? I want to make sure my "foundation is solid" before I start more public marketing of these programs.

As long as it's working correctly now you should be fine, but you'll likely want to fix any existing accounts that double subscribed like in your screenshot by removing the invalid second subscription.

Understanding more about how the back-end mechanics of the Plan structure works is very useful for me. I know CBSubs is a giant, complicated and highly capable system, and it's been amazing to see what it can do. In the documentation, there's a reference to getting the hang of the system by working with it ... I wonder if an upcoming blog topic could talk about "the life of a subscription in CBSubs" from a systemic perspective, as another way to share information about how the mechanics works.

That's an interesting idea. At some point it might be good for us to start doing some more technical blogs.