Joomla! Discussion Forums

I agree. In this opensource market, I have gotten used to being able to tweak the programs to my liking. I understand why developers do that, but I usually will try extra hard to find open-source alternatives (paid or free). It would be great if developers offered an open-source version on request. I think I've seen some do this.

Chuck

A lot of them just charge extra.  Kind of defeats the purpose of "opensource" to pay more for the source, but I guess every developer has their perogative.  But I know quite a few scripts that will charge a flate license fee for the script, not open, and then twice as much for the source.  I know opensource does not mean it has to be free, based on the type of license that it has, but a lot of us have gotten use to it being free.

i thought you can freely distribute all open source software (i thought it was for all open source, so i'm not only basing it on gnu gpl, correct me if im wrong)

so...for  most scripts you buy that come with the source, technically, it isnt open source.

you get the source, but you its not open source


i dont see much wrong with paying for scripts, as some ppl make a living from this,  however, i hate restrictions such as closed source, only being able to use it on one domain...
I know there are reasons they encode and restrict, but i beleive that the reasons not to overweight the reasons to do so.

I understand the charging and encoding the scripts too. If you leave it open but charge, the honest people will pay but the dishonest people will be rewarded. It would be great if you could encode a certain part that was encoded that had 2 things:

1) an include that was required in order for the software to run
2) a certificate that only allowed the one person to use it

I think this would be great.

Chuck

Yeah, you're right.  It probably isn't considered open source then.  I don't mind paying for scripts either.  I know if I was a better coder, I would like to be rewarded for my hard work if I could write desent scripts.  And there should be a way to encode it like ChuckTrukk said to keep scripts open.  Because if I sell my script and leave the source code open, then anyone can distribute, regardless of whatever license I have on it.  Copy, Copy, Paste.  But lets face it, todays Internet doesn't want all their websites looking the same and closing the source makes it so that we can't add or own ideas and customize it for our site and our needs.  Encoding is really the only way to keep the developer and customer happy.

Theres actually a system that prevents that. it isnt very reliable, but its present. that system is called "trust"

I know nothing about amember but I've got a couple of clients who have come to me about issues relalting to it.

Namley it didn't work for them.

Not sure why but their loss is my gain.

If you don't mind me asking, what services do you offer Yerg?

u could just take a look at his site...cant u?
http://www.directedfocus.com.au

Yeah, I could.  I keep forgetting that is what that little icon means. 

Since my site isn't up yet, I get in a hurry and forget to check the obvious when I am posting.

Charles

The encoding of scripts can be a horrible or a great thing depending on how it's done.

We believe our approach provides flexibility and security at the same time.

We have chosen to only encode the script that interacts with paypal which you should not be changing since it's completely related to the PayPAL system and doesn't require updates unless PayPAL changes something and in that case we will provide an update. All the other scripts and screens, etc are all left untouched in their original unencode state so you modify until your heart is content.

You will see other companies following the same methodology which is to encode 1% of their code and leave the other 99% unencoded.

The bottom line is that we do have lots of great people who don't share things they purchase and those people help to keep the community growing!!! On the other hand we also have a ton of people who do buy products, charge it back and then keep the program and use it or give it away on irc, message boards, etc for free. This hurts the potential for the product and causes people to not want to develop new products or even be part of communities anymore.

You will find many places on the internet that are considered underground and we have seen most of the commercial mambo templates, products, etc you name it on these systems ready to download for FREE. How can the developer keep a good feeling about his work if this is happening?

We don't agree with encoding 100% of it and keeping people in the dark! This is our two cents and hopefully you give us some change back!  

encoded or unencoded, if it is a good script and if there is a huge demand, ppl will share it
if it is a good script, there will be nulled versions
if the script doesnt receive much demand, i dont see the point of encoding it in the first place


the most important thing is to  keep the price low-i dont beleive any script shouldcost above $120 or so.
or have different editions: educational edition, home edition, commercial edition and enterprise eidition....etc

Many thanks to all who posted so positively about MamboCharge.

I especially wanted to personally thank John from mambosolutions.com who provided the new template for MamboResources.com / JoomlaCharge.com and gave the site a much-needed facelift!! Of course I probably messed it up when I "adapted" it for the Joomla sites.

Also wanted to clear up a couple of items about MamboCharge and source code. MamboCharge is now distributed with source code for all user-facing scripts and handlers. The core classes and php scripts and admin pages are still encoded however you can customize all pages that the user sees, as well as all handlers.

If you have not looked at MamboCharge recently for products such as mosDirectory, mTree and Hot Property, you will be pleasantly suprised to see that we have patch kits that provide very tight, in fact seamless integration with those products.

Best regards to all
Jeff

All good programmers need good artists...

Chuck

I just recently setup a site using amember and multiple user levels. I was going to use mambocharge but my client wanted payments through authorize.net. I used the AGL hack (maybe ALG I forget) to add the new user levels. The installation was easy and within 30 minutes I had everything functional and the subscription choice updated the user to the level set for that choice.

I haven't worked with any other payment scripts but for ease of use I would suggest amember if you want more payment options than Paypal. If the price wasn't so high, it would be even better.

I just wanted to let someone know that there was also this hack that scubaguy wrote, that is suppose to help Acct Expiration have paid memberships even if you already have free members and want them to have the possibility of upgrading.  I haven't quite got it implemented yet to see how well it works, but if you read the posts before hand, I wanted to have the option of having free members being able to upgrade to a paid membership with the Account Expiration Component. Account Expiration only excepts PayPal and does not have all the features that MamboCharge, Amember, and MamboPal have, but it with this hack, it is suppose to allow you to have simple paid membership options for your website, and should also add the user to the correct membership level upon payment (gid).

http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,1999.msg30700.html#msg30700 

If anyone tries to implement this before I do, can you tell us how it turns out?  Thanks.

Charles

I have it up and mostly working on my site.  I thought I had it all working, but when a new member just joined their permission level and expiration date were not automatically updated after sucessfully completing a PayPal transaction.  I'm not sure what went wrong, but I'm looking into it.

The way I have it set up on my site is a new member fills out the registration form, hits submit and is taken to the payment options screen.  Initially their expiration date is set for 2 days from the date they join to give them a mini free trial.  You can set this to whatever period you want.  They can, of course choose to subscribe to a paypal plan right away and extend their expiration for whatever payment plan period they choose.  If a member tries to login after the expiration date they are taken to the payment plan page and are not able to login again until a new plan is started.

Like I said.  Everything works except for the automated update.  I have done a lot more hacking since I posted my original hack.  I guess I will have to get off my lazy butt, organize it and post it here.

Thanks Scubaguy.  It all sounds good.  I know I appreciate you sharing your hacks here.  If I knew a little bit more, I'd help out, but I am still reading the PHP books and trying to get a grasp on it. 

Thanks again.

Charles

I'd love to see if I can help you with it.

Chuck

Heya charlie,

Im wondering if you managed to get acct exp working. I  got to test the component today but have some problems with users signing up only to be put in the excluded list even before they make a payment(using sandbox testing) ... have you tried it yourself. I just want some feedback regarding the outcome of the said component. Thanks

Actually I didn't even try it after Scubaguy said that it didn't work.  I thought I would work on the rest of my site before I used this component just incase I don't end up using it at all. 

I am sure you already tried this, but in the Acct Expiration components configuration, there is a section, I can't remember what tab, that has a default -1.  Again, I didn't mess around with this component too much, but check the configurations, because if I remember right the -1 does automatically exclude new users unless they go thru the Acct Expiration Link.  You might want to change that number to something like 2, to test if you can then create your account and then check to see if it expires after two days. 

If that isn't it, then I am not sure, since I didn't get to mess around with it too much.  Sorry.  If you figure it out, let us know.  Scubaguy may know something too.

Charles

Thanks for the quick reply charlie ..


quote: Actually I didn't even try it after Scubaguy said that it didn't work.



But i think he is using it on his site .. hmm seems there are still problems with the component.

Yeah ... you are correct about the -1 .. was wasnt too sure what to do with that option so i just left it as default .... I will try to experiment with it to see if that's a possible solution.


Thanks again, I'll let you know if I got it working. Cheers!

Scubaguy does use it on his site, but he only allows two day free memberships and then the users have to pay for full-memberships.  He hacked the files to have everyones free memberships expire after two days.  Then, I think, they are redirected to the full-membership area to pay and sign-up.  I just meant that the hack that Scubaguy posted before doesn't work.

What the hack posted before was for was to be able to have free memberships and to allow users to pay for full-memberships without having to expire their account and move them manually, and do all that kind of stuff.  Scubaguy couldn't get that hack working yet.

The component actually does what it says it does, I guess, but it doesn't do what any of us wants it to do 

If you are like me, we want to have a membership solution that is OS and comparable to Mambo-Charge, or MamboPal.  But, if you are only wanting paid memberships on your site without free memberships of any kind, then Acct Expiration component should work for you. If you want free memberships and NO paid memberships, then this component will still work for you.  I just wanted both free and paid, which it won't work for.  It does not have the ability to upgrade or to move users to different account levels.  Basically all the component does is expire users accounts and if you want a paid membership solution, it has PayPal subscription integration.  But the subscriptions are still done all through PayPal and once the IPN has came back to your site, the Acct Expiration Component then sets the time on your account until it expires and automatically expires the account when your time is up.

Thanks for the clarification charlie!    ....

quoting scubaguy in his earlier post:

I have it up and mostly working on my site.  I thought I had it all working, but when a new member just joined their permission level and expiration date were not automatically updated after sucessfully completing a PayPal transaction.  I'm not sure what went wrong, but I'm looking into it.


This is my problem as well .... i tried a test user sign up then chose a plan and paid for it in paypal sandbox .... but after that, i checked on the expiration period for my account but it was not updated. Still have to do it manually.

Seems it still needs a bit hacking ... anyway I am really glad about it working with CB even with no payment options  .. thanks to scubaguy for his tremendous contribution on this.

Well, we will just have to wait and see what comes. I hope there will be an update for ACCTEXP soon.

You can find the forum for the Account Expiration Component here.  Maybe we can find out from hlbog (the developer) how we can help and when the next release is.  The component is still at $amboforge, and we can leave feature requests there too.  I just think this component has some great potential and like most developers, hlbog is busy and has this probably at the end of the list.  Whatever we can do to help out!

Charles

You bet! ... I actually posted in the old forge if he could transfer or put his project in joomla forge too because I know there will be much more activity over here. I am willing to help out and will post what I have found to the current development site for the project.

Well this is good news, Helder Garcia, the developer of Account Exp. has now entered his project to the joomla forge So i think this will be a continuing development ... cheers helder 

Amongst all this payment of money I'm doing some work with a client and he's asked me a question that I honestly don't know.

Should I offer more than just Paypal as a payent gateway? I don't want to look like a fly by night business but what are people's expectations and how do they perceive organisations who just offer paypal?

Most systems here offer PayPal by default  What do people think about the need for additional payment processing like 2checkout, WorldPay, NOCHEX, myvirtualcard and Authorize.net?

There is also the issue as a merchant ... how safe is my $$ and the buyer will I get my goods/access?

Most of my payments have come via check. However for recurring billing, I have been using Paypal. Now that said, Paypal is not worth it for me anymore. I feel it makes me look less professional, and the % of payment it takes is no longer worth it to me. I am looking at switching to CDG Commerce since it plugs into ClientExec.

After a year of doing this full-time, I believe a billing software, such as ClientExec, is a must. And merchant accounts offer more functionality too, than Paypal.

Chuck

This is for a subscription site hence my query.

All the components here are Paypal focused and I'm concerned, for the same reason as you, about not looking professional but have little option.