Thursday 21 April 2005 1:04:31 am

Hi Bruce,

Just saw your question, about 9 months late. Don't know if you're still interested in the answer, but here goes.

I've created content objects for each product which contains information about when the product expires, what discount it has if any, for what length of time the product should be renewed, and whether or not it should be cancelled when it expires.

This information is all stored in separate attributes built upon default eZP datatypes. I then have a script set up as a cron job which loops through the objects and renews the ones (by incrementing the expiry date) that should be renewed and creates invoices for those.

This kind of works for us, but has of course a very low "recycling factor".

Sincerely,

Eirik Alfstad Johansen
http://www.netmaking.no/

Tuesday 24 June 2008 2:08:40 pm

Hi Peter,

As far as I know, there have been no improvements to the handling of subscription based products in eZ.

Since it's been 3 years since I last mentioned how we were handling this, I thought I would give anyone interested a little update. Here's the README file from the extension we ended up creating, and which still is in production today:

GENERAL OVERVIEW

The subscription extension creates a flexible framework for handling subscription.

It works by adding an attribute based upon the "Subscription" datatype to the content
class which stores your subscription data. The attribute will store the following data
associated with the subscription:

* Product count
* Product (a select list of all content objects on the site containing a price)
* Subscription cycle (in days, weeks, months or years)
* Subscription renewal date
* Subscription cancellation date (if any)
* Subscription discount (if any)

If you require additional information about a subscription, these can be stored as separate,
"normal" attributes.

Once you have created your subscriptions, the extension comes with several views for
presenting/handling the subscriptions. These views are accessible through the "Subscription"
tab which appears in your admin interface once the extension has been activated.

There is also an event type for creating a new subscription based on an order.

VIEWS

List subscriptions

Lists all subscriptions sorted by subscription renewal date. The view can be configured
display additional information about each subscription, fetched from either other attributes
of the subscription node, or from attributes of parent nodes.

Subscriptions which are due for renewal (a configurable x days until renewal) will appear in
red. When the "Renew" button is pushed, the renewal process is initiated. You can program your
own subscription handler which decides what happens when a subscription is renewed.

Turnover development

A simple, graphical representation of how the subscription revenue is growing, devided by
month.

Turnover detailed

All subscriptions grouped by subscription product and sorted by product generating the
highest recurring revenue.

Sincerely,

Eirik Alfstad Johansen
http://www.netmaking.no/