Subscription Features Request

[ptrader]

Some of these may be new and radical and some may not.

First of all, let me describe my use of the subscription system for a non-profit organization. First, I request members complete an html membership application, which most do. It requires many more fields than the IPB registration fields provide (yes, I could add custom fields, will do it someday.) Then the register for the forums, picking their subscription package. Once registered, they are supposed to log in and complete the payment process by selecting either snail mail or paypal payments.

Our choke point is getting them to log in again for the payment feature. 40% or more have to be reminded to do that.

- Feature Request One: Enable some sort of ability to get to that payment page as soon as registration is complete, without the user having to re-logon to the system.

Our membership fees run on a yearly basis, from March - March. I also offer special events that are for a specific period of time (such as a two week workshop) and end on a particular date. IPB subscription services only allow a set number of weeks, months, or years which ends up as a rotating date, not a hard date.

Feature Request Two: Allow admin to set the package expiration date as a hard date, such as 03/31/2007.

Users are (hard to believe, but true) having a difficult time finding the selection of package options in the registration page drop down list. They often select options that are not currently offered, or other incorrect selections. So, for example, users will select my end-of-year prorated package because it's first on the list, regardless of whether or not it's appropriate.

Feature Request Three: Allow admin to toggle the display of subscription package options on the registration page.

Feature Request Four: Allow admin to set the display order of subscription packages so that specials may be listed on top.

My membership must purchase a more costly "new membership" package when they first join. Subsequent years they are offered a discounted package. However, when I tried to get this to work in the user CP, there was no way I could manage it because instead of offering any/all packages, only package with a higher price were shown. So I had to "fake" the price of the renewal package to be much higher since only the price difference between the existing package and the renewal package was shown. In other words, IPB did not account for different ways we might wish to offer packages.

Feature Request Five: Allow the admin to offer packages to existing members without the artificial "upgrade" differences - just show the package price.

Feature Request Six: Allow admin to select which packages can be offered to existing member groups.

Feature Request Seven: Allow admin to select whether the package should be ignored, appended to or overwrite the existing expiration date on member's original package. (Scenario: Member's current "new membership" expiration is due to expire on 3/31/2007. Member selects "renewal" package and the new expiration date is applied. Scenario 2: Member's expiration is 3/31/2007 for current user group. Member purchases a special event package that runs from 12/25/2006-01/02/2006 and temporarily moves him into a member group with special accesses. Upon expiration of the special event, member should be moved back into original non-expired package.

I have to think through my ACP issues on the subscription stuff and will post that as a separate feature request. Mostly, I'd like better management and the ability to display recent purchases better.