wallet points for CB Subs automation

Our mutual client purchased CB Subs and has asked for my assistance to configure it. Subscriptions are based on points that are manually maintained in a custom cb field by staff in the admin area. I used the "wallet" promotion (Fixed Amount in CB field) and have it working to activate the subscription and subtract the points. We would like this to be automated so that when the subscription expires, the promotion is used to renew the subscription. I tried to add the initial subscription with the dummy payment gateway that is set to auto renew, hoping this might just work auto-magically, but I knew it couldn't be that simple. I could use some guidance on the best way to proceed. I see that plans have conditions and that auto-actions and/or sb subs sql actions probably need to be added. Can you get me going in the right direction ?

the promotion is used to renew the subscription.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. You want it to automatically renew, but using points? Basically like recurring payments similar to live payment methods?

yes. The points are maintained through the year by staff in a custom filed. When a subscription expires, we want the "system" to automatically renew the subscription based on the points in the field and subtract the amount. If there aren't enough, it should not renew. I have read in numerous places how a payment method maybe doesn't need to be used, however, I really didn't see how that could be done without any real examples. Once I got the wallet part working correctly I saw that the dummy payment processor had autorenew functions and thought it might be the easiest way to go since I will enter everything manually initially including a fake credit card to make it work.  Thanks

I would suggest not using a payment gateway at all. Instead create free plans to bypass gateways entirely. You can then use your points entirely through conditions and integrations.

So for example under the Workflows tab you'd configure conditions against your points field to ensure they can't update or subscribe to the plan if they don't have enough points. Example as follows.

Subscriptions upgrades workflows
Allow upgrade to this: Yes
Propose plan for upgrades only if it is more expensive: No: It will be possible to upgrade to this plan (for free with pro-rating) if all conditions below and elsewhere are met
First static condition: This condition must be NOT be met to allow upgrades:
Date A, Field A or Value A: Following CB field
CB Field A: SELECT_POINTS_FIELD_HERE
Date B, Field B or Value B: Constant Value or String (CB substitutions can be used)
Value B: POINTS_COST_HERE
Condition 1 (> for Dates): A < B (Value A is smaller than Value B )

This will hide the plan if they don't have enough points, but if you want the plan to always be visible there's solutions for that as well using CB Auto Actions to force some custom validation behaviors. I can provide an example of how to do this as well if that's needed, but it's a bit more complicated.

Next using CBSubs Fields you'd subtract the points that the plan costs. This will entirely handle deducting points so you don't need CBSubs Promotions here. Example as follows.

Field: SELECT_POINTS_FIELD_HERE
Operator: Subtract: Field = Field - Value
Value: POINTS_COST_HERE
Remove value on plan deactivation: No

Now the auto renewing you'll need CB Auto Actions for that. The below should work to first check if they have enough points and if they do auto renew the plan. This will trigger CBSubs Fields and deduct their points so you shouldn't need to do anything further from here.

Global
Triggers: onCPayUserStateChange
Type: CB Paid Subscriptions
User: Automatic
Access: Everybody
Conditions
Condition 1
Field: Custom > Value
Custom Value: [var3]
Operator: Equal To
Value: PLAN_ID_HERE
Condition 2
Field: Custom > Value
Custom Value: [var2]
Operator: Equal To
Value: X
Condition 3
Field: SELECT_POINTS_FIELD_HERE
Operator: Greater Than or Equal To
Value: POINTS_COST_HERE
Action
Mode: Renew
Plans: SELECT_PLAN_MATCHING_PLAN_ID_HERE

Be sure to replace PLAN_ID_HERE with the id of the plan being configured above. You'll need to do this once for each plan since I assume each plan will have a different cost. This should automatically renew the plan if they've enough points when it goes into an expired state.

The idea here is you have a points based payment system that does not interfere with normal payment processes. So for example you can have other plans that have an actual cost without these two systems conflicting. I do not suggest trying to use the dummy gateway as a solution as it's specifically designed for testing purposes only. If you really want a full payment flow then using the Offline gateway would be a better solution, but will require you to manually pay their baskets from backend.

Thank you for the detailed information. I will be attempting this within the next couple of days and report back.

This worked brilliantly ! Thank you so much.
I am now being told that the point field must be emptied out after the renewal (as opposed to keeping the leftover points). I looked at another forum post that seemed similar ( www.joomlapolis.com/forum/professional-members-support/239154-solved-cb-auto-action-not-triggering-as-expected#304686 ) but it doesn't seem like this is the way to go.
I am thinking I need a new action based on the renewal triggering the field to empty and not an additional condition with the working auto-action. Right ?