Download Attributes Question

[dfs_durham]

Howdy All:

This may be a stupid question... (but I'm good at them)

I'm setting up store with only download products.
---
Current order status:
1. Pending.
2. Download Available.
3. Download Complete.
4. Update.
---
Current attribute settings:
Downloads Controller Update Status Value: 4
Downloads Controller Order Status Value >= lower value: 2
Downloads Controller Order Status Value <= upper value: 4
---
Q1: ?Why should upper value be set to 4? Shouldn't it be:
lower value >=2 (allow download after purchase)
upper value <=2 (download disabled once status reaches 3:complete)

Download/test purchase worked on first test (except for download expiration - might be fixed now), but the settings didn't make sense.

Also:
Q2: Assuming the download expiration is set correctly, the order status should progress automatically from 2 (download available) to 3 (download complete)... Yes?

Thanks!

[Ajeh]

And Order might be marked Delivered ... orders_status 3 ... but the customer should still be able to download files ... unless the Max Days or Max Downloads is expired ...

An Order may need to extend the Max Days or Max Downloads from the Order Date, such as some issue with payment or download problems so the Update is used ... orders_status 4

[dfs_durham]

And Order might be marked Delivered ... orders_status 3 ... but the customer should still be able to download files ... unless the Max Days or Max Downloads is expired ...

An Order may need to extend the Max Days or Max Downloads from the Order Date, such as some issue with payment or download problems so the Update is used ... orders_status 4

Heya Ajeh:

Q1: If order status progresses to '3:delivered', why would I need the download button to stay active? (I assume the status only shifts at expiration, not at successful download.)

Q2: If download expiration is set correctly (# days/# attempts), does status automatically progress from '2:available' to '3:delivered'? Or do I hafta do this manually for each purchase?

I set expiration in one spot (admin/configuration/attribute settings), but didn't work. Found another spot to set this for each individual product (admin/catalog/categories-products) that seemed to work - expiration deadline now shows on purchase status; will hafta monitor to see if it actually expires and status shifts to 'delivered'.

And a low priority ?, just for my curiosity...
Q3: What is the point of order status '4:update'? If there's a problem on an order, why not just reset it to '2:download available' and notifying customer that the download window is again open? And once manually reset, does window (7 days/5 attempts) automatically close and status again shifts to '3:download complete' at expiration (as in Q1 above)?

Thanks!

[Ajeh]

The orders_status 2 - 4 allow the Downloads to be done ... the act of Downloading does not alter the Order Status ...

Downloads can happen providing

1 the orders_status is within the range of 2 - 4

2 Maximum Download and/or Maximum Days have not been used/expired

Update is a special orders_status that when you change the Order to Update it will update the Maximum Days and Maximum Downloads based on Order Date so if the Order Date was May 15 and you only now found out the customer needs to still Download the Product it will make the days however many days since the order + 7 days (assuming the default) and 5 downloads ...

[dfs_durham]

This makes no sense to me. (But I greatly appreciate your efforts...)

Let me back up and ask one question at a time.

XXX MY SETTINGS XXX
Order status:
1. Pending.
2. Download Available.
3. Download Complete.
4. Update.
---
Attribute settings:
Downloads Controller Update Status Value: 4
Downloads Controller Order Status Value >= lower value: 2
Downloads Controller Order Status Value <= upper value: 2 (default was 4)
---
Download window: 7 days/5 attempts
XXX XXX XXX

Q1: Is this not the process, given the above settings?:
Stage 1: Customer purchase. [Order status: 1-pending. Download inactive.]
Stage 2: Payment validation (instant via PayPal assuming no problem). [Order status: 2-download available. Download feature is active.]
Stage 3: All done (after 7 days or 5 attempts). [Order status: 3-download complete. Download inactive.]

Thanks!

[Ajeh]

The Order Status is managed by either:

1 The Payment Module setting to set the initial settings

2 The Admin editing the Order

Doing the Downloads themselves does nothing to the Order Status ... all that does is alter the number of downloads allowed by reducing it by 1 each time it is attempted by the customer ...

When the number of days expires, regardless of the available downloads, the downloads stop working ...

If you, the Admin, change the Order Status to Updated, it will reset the Maximum Days and Download Count ... should these expire and you need to make the Download available to the Customer beyond the original settings ...

If you do NOT change this setting back to 4:
Downloads Controller Order Status Value <= upper value: 2 (default was 4)

Then the Update will not work to allow Downloads to work when the Order Status is Delivered (orders_status 3) or Updated (orders_status 4) ...

In any case ... you, the Admin, have to change the Order Status to Delivered, this does not happen by itself ...

[dfs_durham]

Maybe a faulty premise in my question is causing my confusion...

If the download window expires automatically (& independently) of the order status, then I don't need to worry about customer access to downloads after status is shifted to '3:complete'.
Which also means I can leave the 'order status upper value' at the default value of 4.

Yes?

[Ajeh]

Leave the value at 4 ... when they use up their number of days or number of downloads ... which ever happens first, it doesn't matter what the Order Status is ... that is it ...

[dfs_durham]

Ok... That settles it.

Vote Linda McGrath in 2012 !!!

(I will be available for any cushy, high paying czar positions if you actually get elected...)

Thanks again.

dfs