4.4.2 Improved display of non-recurring subscriptions?

[AlexWebsites]

Can someone elaborate on what this actually means in the 4.4.2 release notes? What's changed?

Commerce

• Improved the display and functionality of non-recurring subscription packages.
• Improved security of public endpoints that receive webhooks and other notifications from gateways.
• Fixed an issue where guests who cannot view the site cannot register if a subscription is required to be purchased during registration.
• Fixed not being able to check out through Braintree purchasing a subscription while using a credit card.
• Fixed upgrading of expired purchases resulting in account credit being issued.
• Fixed an issue where creating a subscription without renewal options would result in a error.
• Fixed an issue where deleting a subscription wouldn't delete the cover image.
• Fixed an issue where the recount background task would fail.

 

[AlexWebsites]

Still not sure what this is.

[bfarber]

In earlier versions of 4.4.x, non-recurring "subscriptions" were moved to packages (and thus would not display alongside your other recurring subscriptions). In 4.4.2, you can now have non-recurring subscriptions. The UI was tidied up here and there to account for this.

[AlexWebsites]

1 hour ago, bfarber said:

In earlier versions of 4.4.x, non-recurring "subscriptions" were moved to packages (and thus would not display alongside your other recurring subscriptions). In 4.4.2, you can now have non-recurring subscriptions. The UI was tidied up here and there to account for this.

Thanks for the explanation. I wasn't aware of that because in 4.4.1 my non-recurring subscription seemed to show alongside my annual recurring subscriptions, so I was wondering. If you folks are going to add anything in the future, I had made these suggestions:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[asigno]

I really really hope they bring back a method to display a 'free' option alongside the pay for subscriptions. I just don't understand the rationale from removing that functionality. It's a completely standard and expected offering for membership sites to have a free tier of an offering.

[AlexWebsites]

9 hours ago, asigno said:

I really really hope they bring back a method to display a 'free' option alongside the pay for subscriptions. I just don't understand the rationale from removing that functionality. It's a completely standard and expected offering for membership sites to have a free tier of an offering.

I agree. You can do it now but you are creating a subscription for everyone rather than just displaying the block as an option to the user. It's also 0.00 rather than just no charge or FREE. This is the only way to get a free option block to show with the rest unfortunately.

[asigno]

@AlexWebsites afraid not, since 4.4.0 the ability to set a subscription with a free value has been removed. My subscription tier page which had three choices, $0, $5 and $10 is not just $5 or $10. I spoke to support and it was a deliberate decision to remove the ability to have a $0 subscription as it isn't a subscription.

This is what I used to have setup https://invisioncommunity.com/forums/topic/450359-include-free-subscription-without-subscribing/?tab=comments#comment-2774174 which is no longer possible.

I've been told by support the only way to do it is to create a custom page which uses a subscriptions and commerce products. Not only is this a lot of work which I don't know how to do, you also can't force it to be part of the sign up process. And as far as I know you can't link directly to a subscription product, so you'd have fake subscription links which take you to the subscription page where the user has to select again.

 

 

[AlexWebsites]

15 hours ago, asigno said:

@AlexWebsites afraid not, since 4.4.0 the ability to set a subscription with a free value has been removed. My subscription tier page which had three choices, $0, $5 and $10 is not just $5 or $10. I spoke to support and it was a deliberate decision to remove the ability to have a $0 subscription as it isn't a subscription.

This is what I used to have setup https://invisioncommunity.com/forums/topic/450359-include-free-subscription-without-subscribing/?tab=comments#comment-2774174 which is no longer possible.

I've been told by support the only way to do it is to create a custom page which uses a subscriptions and commerce products. Not only is this a lot of work which I don't know how to do, you also can't force it to be part of the sign up process. And as far as I know you can't link directly to a subscription product, so you'd have fake subscription links which take you to the subscription page where the user has to select again.

 

 

I'm on 4.4.2 and have a free subscription option. I just tried to create another one to test and it works.

[asigno]

@AlexWebsites thanks for letting me know about that, this wasn't previously possible. My free subscription was converted after upgrading and I couldn't add a free one.

I've had several chats with support recently:

Quote

Subscriptions that do not renew are arguably not subscriptions at all. In 4.4, these are converted to regular products -- so you will find that under Store -> Products -> Converted subscriptions. 

Quote

As lindy mentioned, the ability to add a free subscription in 4.4.+ was removed as it's not an actual subscription in reality.

Quote

I'm sorry for the trouble, and if it helps, this was debated at an internal level, and this is the outcome that was decided.

I've just converted it back to a subscription and it works!

It's frustrating that IPB would remove this functionality in the first place and without it being in the release notes and then to add it back in again without telling anyone, especially the customers who have let them know they needed it.

[asigno]

@AlexWebsites I didn't realise this but @Adriano Faria has realised that when a value of $0 is set it now sends a invoice for $0, check your invoices tab in ACP.

[AlexWebsites]

42 minutes ago, asigno said:

@AlexWebsites I didn't realise this but @Adriano Faria has realised that when a value of $0 is set it now sends a invoice for $0, check your invoices tab in ACP.

yes it does and they have to still go through the checkout process but it doesn't prompt them for payment.

[PPlanet]

What happens to those users who get a $0 subscription? Are they able to buy a different one later without cancelling the $0 one? (While I am not sure, I thought it was not possible to buy a subscription while you already have one active. Is this correct?

[Adriano Faria]

Another question: what if a member (already registered user) wants to buy a package? How it works? Where to go? Does it show on store?

[PPlanet]

4 minutes ago, Adriano Faria said:

Another question: what if a member (already registered user) wants to buy a package? How it works? Where to go? Does it show on store?

The subscription packages have their own page (https://example.com/subscriptions/) , in my case I have a menu item (the one before last here)

Since I don't have the subscriptions enabled at registration everyone on my site go to that page and choose from 3 packages.

[AlexWebsites]

59 minutes ago, PPlanet said:

What happens to those users who get a $0 subscription? Are they able to buy a different one later without cancelling the $0 one? (While I am not sure, I thought it was not possible to buy a subscription while you already have one active. Is this correct?

I believe they can only have one and in subscription settings you can enable upgrading and downgrading:

 

 

57 minutes ago, Adriano Faria said:

Another question: what if a member (already registered user) wants to buy a package? How it works? Where to go? Does it show on store?

as @PPlanet mentioned, they go to the subscriptions page /subscriptions. There they see blocks for subscriptions.

Coming from using products as subscriptions, subscriptions is easier to manage and cleaner. Unfortunately its missing some key features, specifically around having a free membership and registration process if you do have a free subscription and want to show /subscriptions during the process of registration. The other thing is that if you offer a free membership, why not just include a block on /subscriptions page alongside your paid subscriptions (as an option) but have that just lead to a registration with no subscription so you don't invoice free membership.

 

[Adriano Faria]

20 minutes ago, AlexWebsites said:

Unfortunately its missing some key features, specifically around having a free membership

It doesn't even need to have this. It's quite simple: if the setting to force users to purchase a subscription is ON, then it should be as it is today. If the setting is OFF, keep showing the subscriptions instead of the register screen but add a link to the registration screen as already happens with packages.

Today this setting is there simply to redirect from regular registration form to subscriptions page.

[AlexWebsites]

1 minute ago, Adriano Faria said:

It doesn't even need to have this. It's quite simple: if the setting to force users to purchase a subscription is ON, then it should be as it is today. If the setting is OFF, keep showing the subscriptions instead of the register screen but add a link to the registration screen as already happens with packages.

That link like in packages? Something like "continue without subscribing for now..." on the bottom of the blocks? That would work and as long as it shows like it would if the setting to force a subscription purchase was on, then that's good I suppose. For those that want to show a block for FREE members alongside your paid on the subscriptions page, you still need to then create a free subscription. I have two sites that use subscriptions. 

Site 1 -Force Subscription purchase when registering?- OFF. No subscription package for FREE but offer a free membership without subscribing. Use Login/Logout/Signup Redirect by @A Zayed to redirect to /subscriptions. 

Site 2 - Force Subscription purchase when registering?- ON. Have a FREE subscription package and its showing as part of registration in a a block alongside my other paid subscription options and creating a subscription and invoice for every free membership.

 

 

[Adriano Faria]

14 minutes ago, AlexWebsites said:

That link like in packages? Something like "continue without subscribing for now..." on the bottom of the blocks? That would work and as long as it shows like it would if the setting to force a subscription purchase was on, then that's good I suppose.

Yes.

32 minutes ago, Adriano Faria said:

Today this setting is there simply to redirect from regular registration form to subscriptions page.

Today: if the setting is ON, go to Subscriptions page via redirect. So basically you can change that if you have FTP access by changing to the script to:

		else if ( \IPS\Member::loggedIn()->canAccessModule( \IPS\Application\Module::get( 'nexus', 'subscriptions' ) ) and ( \IPS\Settings::i()->nexus_subs_register or !isset( \IPS\Request::i()->noPurchase ) ) )
		{
			\IPS\Output::i()->redirect( \IPS\Http\Url::internal( 'app=nexus&module=subscriptions&controller=subscriptions&register=1', 'front', 'nexus_subscriptions' ) );
		}

So changing the condition to the above and adding the link in the template (with noPurchase=1 querystring) will do it.

I don't think they will accept a resource in marketplace because I would have to overload the manage() function.

[Adriano Faria]

29 minutes ago, Adriano Faria said:

So changing the condition to the above and adding the link in the template (with noPurchase=1 querystring) will do it.

@AlexWebsites @PPlanet if you have FTP access and wants to make it in your install, drop a PM and I'll show you how to do it.

[AlexWebsites]

2 hours ago, Adriano Faria said:

Yes.

Today: if the setting is ON, go to Subscriptions page via redirect. So basically you can change that if you have FTP access by changing to the script to:

		else if ( \IPS\Member::loggedIn()->canAccessModule( \IPS\Application\Module::get( 'nexus', 'subscriptions' ) ) and ( \IPS\Settings::i()->nexus_subs_register or !isset( \IPS\Request::i()->noPurchase ) ) )
		{
			\IPS\Output::i()->redirect( \IPS\Http\Url::internal( 'app=nexus&module=subscriptions&controller=subscriptions&register=1', 'front', 'nexus_subscriptions' ) );
		}

So changing the condition to the above and adding the link in the template (with noPurchase=1 querystring) will do it.

I don't think they will accept a resource in marketplace because I would have to overload the manage() function.

They should, I would buy it to not have to make a template change every time I update and have it as a plugin.

 

[AlexWebsites]

2 hours ago, Adriano Faria said:

@AlexWebsites @PPlanet if you have FTP access and wants to make it in your install, drop a PM and I'll show you how to do it.

Thanks for this, much appreciated.

[asigno]

@Adriano Faria that's awesome so much faster than the horrid pop up redirect which comes up.

Would there be any way to append that link to one of the subscription blocks?

I'd like to keep the block for the free option along side the paid ones.