Blog packages in Blog System

Blog System lets you create various blog hosting packages (free or paid) with different space and bandwidth allocated for each of them. When new bloggers sign up they could choose for their blog one of the packages you have created. The bloggers can also switch between the different packages later from their admin space. 
In order to illustrate how blog packages work, let's consider that on your website you have created two blog packages  the first one Basic with quota 2MB and free of charge and a second one Premium with quota 10MB with price $10.00 paid every 3 months (for the billing, currently you may choose between 1-3-6-12-24 months).
When a new blogger sings up he could choose between:
1)Basic - since this package is free the blog will be instantly activated and the blogger will be able to start using his blog immediately and login directly in his admin space
2)Premium - in this case the blog will be created (no other user will be able to sign up with the same username) but it will not be active until the blogger payment is received
- if the blogger has chosen to pay with PayPal, his blog will be instantly activated when the corresponding PayPal IPN for the payment is received, if for any reason the payment fails, his blog will be activated but the Basic package will be set for this blog (not the Premium one, the user could upgrade later his package from his admin)
- if a blogger choose to pay with cheque or money order, his blog will be activated as soon as his cheque/money order is received and validated from the back office by the administrator

If a blogger reaches the quota set for his package, all the pages in his admin for posting new notes, uploading new files or adding new pictures to photo albums will be deactivated. The blogger should in such case either delete any of his old files/notes/comments or upgrade his package with a new one providing more space.
The blogger can upgrade his package from the Package page in his admin. The new selected package will be activated as soon as the blogger payment is confirmed (based on IPN for PayPal or by the administrator from the back office)

Please note that if you plan to run a completely free website, you could turn off the paid packages and payment features by simply changing the value of SERVICE_IS_FREE to true in blog_config.php

You may find answers of some frequently asked questions related to the blog packages management below.

1.How to create a new blog package?
2.How to modify the allocated space of an existing blog package?
3.What payment methods could I use for the paid packages?
4.What happen if a PayPal payment of a blogger fails?
5.What happen if a blogger reaches the quota for the package he has selected?
6.How the bloggers can switch from one package to another?

1.How to create a new blog package?

You can add new blog packages from the Bloggers->Packages page in the back office.

Fields in the Add a new package form:

NAME  name of the package, please use short and descriptive names, such as Basic, Premium etc. (since the name of the package appears also as name of the product when using PayPal payments, if you set a too long name this could provoke an error in PayPal)

DESCRIPTION  description of the blog package, this description is visible for the bloggers on the forms for selecting a blog package

SPACE (KB)  the space quota for this package in KB, please note that if you wish to create a package with 2MB quota, you need to insert as value 2048, 2*1024KB 

BANDWIDTH (KB)  the bandwidth for the package in KB

PRICE  the price of package in the following format 14.99 , enter 0.00 if the package is free

BILLED (MONTHS)  number of months, at the end of this period the blogger will be billed, if you enter 3 he will be billed every 3 months

ACCEPT PAYPAL  if set to TRUE, PayPal will be accepted for this package

ACCEPT CHEQUES  if set to TRUE, cheques will be accepted for this package

ACCEPT BANK TRANSFERS  if set to TRUE, bank transfers will be accepted for this package

2.How to modify the allocated space of an existing blog package?

On the Bloggers->Packages page in the back office you could see the list of your existing blog packages. Click on the Modify icon to change the current values for a given package and you'll be able to edit the information for it.

3.What payment methods could I use for the paid packages?

For every package you could specify the available payment options between the followings:

PayPal

Please note that in order to use PayPal, you need to enable IPN from your PayPal admin interface. To enable IPN for your Business Account on PayPal, simply visit your account on the PayPal Web site and turn the feature on. As part of this process, you also need to supply PayPal with the URL of the script capable of trapping IPN signals and taking appropriate action based on each on your site which is  http://www.yourdomain.com/ipn.php

After you enable IPN from the PayPal site for your account, you need to edit blog_config.php and put there the appropriate PayPal settings:

//THE CURRENCY SYMBOL SHOWN ON THE WEBSITE
$CURRENCY_SYMBOL="$";

//THE CURRENCY CODE WHICH WILL BE USED FOR PAYPAL PAYMENTS
//SOME OF THE AVAILABLE OPTIONS ARE: USD EUR GBP ...
$PAYPAL_CURRENCY_CODE="USD";

//THE PRIMARY PAYPAL ACCOUNT USED FOR ACCEPTING PAYMENTS FROM PAYPAL
//paypal@paypal.com

-Cheques

Please note that the cheque payments should be validated manually by the administrator as soon as they are received.
The Cheques Payments can be validated from the back office Bloggers->Payments page.

The address to which the cheques should be sent, has to be modified in blogs_config.php

//ADDRESS TO WHICH THE CHEQUES SHOULD BE SENT
$CHEQUE_ADDRESS="[cheques address goes here]";

- Bank wire transfers

The bank wire transfers should be managed in the same way as the cheque payments.

The bank account information should be set in the blog_config.php file:

//IF BANK WIRE TRANSFERS ARE ACCEPTED YOU SHOULD PLACE THE BANK
//ACCOUNT DETAILS HERE, IN THE FORMAT YOU WOULD LIKE THE USERS TO SEE IT
$BANK_WIRE_TRANSFER_INFO="[BANK ACCOUNT INFO]";

4.What happen if a PayPal payment of a blogger fails?

If a payment fails, the system will set the free package for this blogger. Obviously if the blogger has used more space than the allowed quota in the free package, his blog will be disabled from posting new notes/files/pictures.

You may see below the different IPN signals that can be received:

subscr_payment - a subscriber has paid for the service
subscr_failed - a subscriber tried to pay for the service but things didn't work out
subscr_cancelled - a subscriber cancelled a subscription
subscr_eot - a subscriber has reached the end of the subscription term
subscr_modify - a subscriber profile has been modified

If subscr_payment is received, this will activate the user's blog or extend the expiration time for the selected paid package. All the other, will cease the blogger subscript for the paid package and the system will set automatically the free package for this blogger.

5.What happen if a blogger reaches the quota for the package he has selected?

All the pages for posting new data in the blog admin space will be deactivated  this means that the blogger will not be able to post new notes/files/pictures until he upgrades his package or deletes any of his current notes/files/pictures.

6.How the bloggers can switch from one package to another?

The bloggers can switch from one package to another, from the Package page in their admin space.

Please note that the new package will be activated when the blogger payment is validated, until then the settings of the current package will take effect.

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