Members Section With Credit Management

[indy10]

Hi All,

 

This is my first post, so please accept my apologies if it is in the wrong section.

 

I am trying to create a website that has a members area with the functionality to allow members to make a purchase based on the number of credits they have.

 

My problem is understanding how I can create a solution that verifies if enough credits are there.

 

Basically a member would subscribe to the website, and would be granted access to the members area. The products on sale are download based so the member would be able to preview the file (with the sensitive/valuable information ommitted). They can then buy credits from the site, and can purchase products using the credits they have bought.

 

What I don't get, is how I allocate their purchase as a credit to their own account, and how I deduct the correct credits when a purchase is made - which then releases the whole product.

 

I hope that makes sense and I really appreciate any advice anyone can offer.

[akitchin]

there are several aspects to your question, and it's tough to narrow down which part(s) you're having the most trouble with. do you know PHP, and do you program regularly, or are you looking for a pre-made solution?

 

if you're using a third-party merchant processor for the credit cards, they often have a method for interfacing with your website to perform an action once the purchase is made. with paypal, it's called IPN - not too sure about other processors.

 

consider the purchase of credits and the exchange of credits for downloads as separate actions. this ensures that your merchant processor is only implicated in the purchase of credits, and the actual usage of credits is isolated to your own website. dealing with a refund/return policy for documents can be tricky (for example, what if the download "doesn't work?"), but provided it's solely related to the user's credits, it keeps arguments about credits a little bit removed from real money as long as the purchasing of credits is flawless. be sure to remind users that the purchase of credits is non-refundable if this is the route you go.

 

not sure if this helped, just some general thoughts.

[indy10]

Hi Akitchin,

 

Thanks a lot fot coming back to me, I really appreciate it.

 

I know php but im certainly not an expert - hence why I am struggling with what appears to be quite complex.  I tend to struggle a bit when writing from scratch.

 

I had a look at paypals IPN and think this would be good to handle one off payments, but if I understand correctly, I think I would have to create a new button for every product/download - which may render this option unviable.

 

I would be very interested to know if there was a pre made solution available that handles this side of things?

 

Essentially I can get the members area up and running, and can handle taking the payment - but I come undone a bit when it comes to allocating credits to members and calculating how many credits are left after a purchase is made etc.

[akitchin]

you won't need a paypal IPN button/script for every download product, presuming you want to go the credits route. presumably, purchasing credits is separate from actually using those credits for a download. in this case, you need only one form/button that will communicate with paypal, which is to "Buy Credits." spending those credits doesn't need to be at all linked with paypal, as the exchange of credits for a download is entirely at your site's discretion - the user has already paid for the credits.

 

perhaps i'm misunderstanding your plan for using credits - if you want to use paypal for every document, why incorporate credits at all, rather than simply selling the documents directly for cash?

 

as for pre-made solutions, there are open-source shopping carts available out there that interface with a variety of merchant processors. i haven't used any personally (apart from the old version of osCommerce), but a quick google for "php open source shopping carts" might be helpful.