Downloadable content and ACL

How do you handle downloadable content? Do you have a method for hiding the sourcefile URL to prevent leeching?


Do you have any suggestions about integration of a subscription system that would work well or integrate with HikaShop?

Downloadable content is stored in the media/com_hikashop/upload/safe folder which has an .htaccess preventing all access to it from the browser. You can also change that folder in the configuration under the tab files and put it outside your web server folder for even more security.
HikaShop never gives a direct link to your files. It's not possible anyway since the files are not accessible. Instead, it gives you a link to a php page of HikaShop which will check your access to the file you're requesting.

We made a small plugin for ambrasubs for another user so that ambrasubs is triggered when products are bought on HikaShop. He is currently testing it on his website and we will look at proposing it in the future.

Any possibility you could look at AEC(Account Expiration Controll)? valanx.org/

What kind of integration are you looking for with AEC ?

Just for a purchase in hikashop to activate a subscription in AEC so that users only see one shopping basket(hikashops) whether they are purchasing an object or subscription/content. Users expect to see only one basket and it will be confusing if they have to use hikashop's system and AEC's system separately, and I am having a hard time finding a shopping cart or linked subscription/shopping cart with this functionality. We need to have a relatively seamless frontend as far as the users are concerned, but we also need to be able to sell online content through subscription access. Thanks for your time!

On our end, creating a plugin so that it's triggered when an order is created/confirmed is easy to do. We even have a documentation on how to do it:
www.hikashop.com/en/support/documentatio...r-documentation.html

The problem is that we don't know at all how AEC works so we would need AEC to tell us how we can trigger them.We contacted them for more information. We'll see

Any updates to this AEC subscription integration?

I have a customer who wants to do this and would LOVE to add another Hikashop commercial license to the mix if this integration exists... without it I will have to go with another solution and I don't want to do that!

Hopeful for some good news...



Cheers,

Emmanuel.

Hi,

We didn't hear back from AEC so we couldn't move forward with that idea

Is there any way you can do this yourself? You would just need a recurring payment/subscription system and integrate it with Joomla 1.6 ACL system. (I said 'just' but im sure its not that easy) Would need a system where a purchase in hikashop moves a user to a different usergroup in 1.6, in 1.5 the ACL stuff would be much more complicated. I suppose a system where multiple simultaneous subscriptions with payments(which would be needed) would not be as simple, but I think 1.6 can handle this as well. Anyway if you can manage in that would make hikashop a complete e-commerce solution which is awesomeness :woohoo: !

There is actually a feature in the Business edition of hikashop that lets you select a user group for your products so that when the product is bought, the user is moved to that group (compatible with both joomla 1.5 and 1.6). However, it's not a real subscription system as there is no subscription period and no reminders, etc.

Does this mean there is no recurring payment system? Could it be added? Is there a way though the shopping cart that by buying a single non-recurring item I can trigger a recurring payment within our payment gateway? For instance Paypal has a recurring payment system, could this be triggered instead of doing it inside hikashop? If so how would I go about doing this?


- Also, you mentioned I can have a product purchase move a user into a usertype, which in J1.6 is great and creates an ACL system, but can I move a user into multiple usertypes, for instance If I sell them two objects with different usertypes each with different site access? Thanks for your time.


Hargo

There is no recurring payments indeed. It could be added. It would be easier to add it inside hikashop than with paypal.
Basically, we would have to add a new subscription table so that we can save which product was bought when via a cron task plugin and send an email before the period end and revoke the user group from the user when the end of the subscription period is reached.

Yes. in j1.6 when someone buys a product with that option set, he will be added to the group, but he won't be removed from the other groups he is already in.

Hi Nicolas.

Are there any updates regarding these features?

This is something that I really need, and as I love Hikashop, I am eager to know if you are planning to include these features at some point in time.
-If so, do you have a timeframe?

I am still developing my site, so I have no imminent need of the features.
However, it would be nice to know if I have to look at other options in order to obtain this functionality.

Thank you.

Hi,

Concerning the AEC integration, we are still in talks with their team regarding a possible integration so development didn't start.

Concerning the implementation of recurring payments directly within HikaShop, that is something we could do in the future. We were in talks with someone recently about doing it for him as custom work. We didn't hear back from him so the development didn't start either.

Basically, that's something we would like to add in the future but there is no ETA for now.

Thank you for the quick reply.
I don´t have much experience with any joomla paid membership/subscription.
I need one, but before committing to any of the several being offered, I was curios to whether you offer integration to any of them?
AEC looks like it will do the job for me, but if you support a different solution (AMBRA, OSE Membership, RSMembership etc), it would be nice to know.

Thank you.

Here is a plugin which was developed by a user for ambrasubs. It allows you to assign users to plans when buying products in HikaShop.

We didn't test it as we don't have ambrasubs but if you have any feedback, that would be great.

Is there any update on Recurring subscriptions? Just adding a recurring payment system would be enough since 1.6 and 1.7 ACL would probably be enough access control and Hikashop business edition already allows moving users into new user-types. A bridge to OSE subscriptions would work well too.

No update yet.
We started work on multi vendor. Subscriptions will be next during 2012.

Can't WAIT for Subscriptions!!!

Cheers,

Emmanuel.