My Situation

Joomla 1.5.23, Community Builder 1.4

Currently using AEC (Account Expiration Control) 0.14.4, Revision 3255.

Right now, I have it setup so that whenever a "Heartbeat" (this is when AEC checks its database to make any changes) happens, it will change a Radio option named "Expired?:" to "YES" and disable the user account. However, this is not ideal, as AEC will not automatically check for changes to the "Expired" date field, you have to re-add a subscription plan to the user manually. At least, with the documentation and support options I was given, this was the best I could figure out (and now my support is expired! I can't even login to view support forums!). Further, if a user is supposed to be expired, but the "Heartbeat" doesn't occur, then the system doesn't properly expire the user! I've had many instances where I'm 8 hours into the day a member expires with the system still telling my receptionists that the person is valid, simply because the "Heartbeat" didn't happen! Very Frustrating.

Ideally, I would like CSubs to monitor the date field "Expired", match it against the current date, and automatically expire and disable the account if expired OR re-enable an expired account. So that if say, a change is made to the "Expired" field, CSubs would detect it, then expire the person or re-enable them accordingly. Can this be done? Or at least something as close as possible.

To be honest, if you just tell me your willing to work with me on this, I'll purchase it now. It's not the cost, so much as the need for decent support on our particular use of the product. Thank you!

Quick reply before already overdue sleeping time here (1am) :

I'm not sure to fully understand the request here. So I will shortly explain how CBSubs does it:

CBSubs does manage expirations and re-activations automatically:

1) auto-expirations: No need to do manual expirations every "heartbeat" (we don't have heartbeat concept as that won't work with 400,000 members like on this site.

The expirations can happen with a cron job or automatically with user visits or backend views, at admin's choice (configurable).

Each subscription has an expiry_date and a status (those are SQL column names in jos_cbsubs_subscriptions table. The auto-expiration feature will check expiry_date for all subscriptions with status 'A' (active), and expire those where the expiry_date is overdue (taking in account a configurable grace period for the plan).

2) re-activation:

It is automatically done when the user completes payment for an expired subscription. Or if the admin re-activates an expired subscription in the backend in CB user manager.

3) support:

We are always willing to help our members. You can browse through our forums to get a feeling. With Professional membership you get guaranteed same-or-next business day first reply SLA guarantee for unlimited sites!

And CBSubs comes with a 30-days refund guarantee, so easiest is to purchase it, then take an hour to go through the documentation (450 pages detailed documentation!) to get a feeling for it and to try it out.

And of course browse forums and post if not found if you have questions.

Best Regards,

Thanks for the quick reply! Please do get some rest before responding to this again!

Let me give you a little better idea of the deployment scenario.

We have two levels of membership. The first, top-level, makes sure that a person is eligible to be a member of our establishment. To be eligible, the date field "Expires" that we fill in must be after the current date. Free. Due to the nature of our business, we cannot offer Online Registration. We register all members physically. If a member is not eligible to be in this first level, they should be restricted from login access, and a notification (Radio / Checkbox) named "Expired?" set to "YES"

The next level, provided that the conditions of the first-level are met, would cost $1 per month. If this expiration passes, I simply need a notification (Radio / Checkbox), the member account can remain active for login.

As of right now, all payment processing will be handled in-person through a separate Point of Sale. So the Receptionists/Admins would be responsible for creating and extending people's memberships to either level.

A daily cron job to check and expire people would be ideal.

Upon re-subscription, can the account be re-activated if it was disabled by expiration? Is there a way to set it to check to re-subscribe people based on the "Expires" date field being changed?

Thanks.

From what i understand now from the above, I don't see something that can't be done. To be sure, I'm showing below how it would be done, and detailing how:

Level 1: Eligible:

- You can use CB Approval workflow and CB "Approved" status for the "eligible" requirement. That CB workflow integrates with CBSubs as well.

Level 2: simple subscription, without effect on expiration, as you would allow free registered and CB-approved users to login. CB Fields integration in CBSubs allows you to set/unset the fields on activation/deactivation of the subscription automatically.

Payments: CBSubs allows to automate those payments, but you can also use "offline" payment method for subscriptions initiated in frontend, and where admins do enter payments manually in backend, which then activates the corresponding subscriptions.

Just to avoid surprises: CBSubs 1.2 works as follows:

- Orders can only be initiated in frontend by the logged in user, and with offline payment method, the payment can only be completed in backend.

- subcsriptions without orders can be initiated for other users in backend in CB Users manager user edit subscription tab (but in frontend only by user himself, through an order)

> Upon re-subscription, can the account be re-activated if it was disabled by expiration?

yes, happens automatically

> Is there a way to set it to check to re-subscribe people based on the "Expires" date field being changed?

CBSubs 1.2 has conditions for each plan sign-up and/or different conditions for renewals, that can be based off a CB field