Mass updating download availability for individual products?

[Graffi]

First, background:

My shop sells downloads only. I currently have the standard setup of 7 days/3 downloads, and it hasn't been a problem at all. (I know I can set this to unlimited, but for now, I'd rather keep it as it is).

I create updates to these downloaded utilities every so often (3 ~ 6 months or so), and updates/upgrades are always free. The update isn't just a patch - it's a new version number of the same utility with added functionality.

Anyway, I had previously manually gone through orders to find which customer had ordered whichever utility that's updated, and reset their download count and availablity -

Now I have a large enough customer base that I really don't want to do it that way anymore - so my questions are:

Questions:

Is there a way to search orders by program downloaded and get a list of customers from that list?

Is there a way to batch update the availability and count of just a certain product, so folks who bought it 6 months ago can stop by and download the updated version without a hassle?

Thanks for any ideas -

[Ajeh]

Not sure if this is of help but on the Reports ... Product Purchased ... you can search for a product by products_id or products_name or products_model and it will give you a list of all who bought it ...

[Graffi]

ha! I just realized that! - never used the search threre before.

But all that gives is a list of who bought the recent version - it doesn't help as far as updating all those download links....

I suppose I could go through phpmyadmin - but I didn't want to do it that way if there's an easier way or a contribution I'm not aware of.. ?

[Ajeh]

If you were to manually update these ... what steps do you take?

Type slow ... I am not a fast reader sometimes ...

[Graffi]

from within the Admin panel, I'll find a customer with an order for the product in question -

click "Edit", down at the bottom I click the "Yellow Light" beside the download link until it turns green again (where it usually reads something like "104 days, 3 downloads") - - repeat for each customer with this particular download.....

For update via phpmyadmin, I haven't even really examined the data files yet -

a quick look seems like I'd need to update the download_maxdays and downloads_count fields in zen_orders_products_download and make it 190 days or so (more than when it was originally downloaded, plus 7, anyway)

Still manual, but a whole heckuva lot less clicking.... unless you have another idea?

[Ajeh]

Anything can be custom coded that you can think of to do the manual steps ...

The Products that contain download filename test.zip could be searched for ... then the max and downloads could be updated for those files ... just like what you do manually but expedited with custom code ...

All depends on your imagination, coding skills or pocket book ...