Totally Zenned
- Join Date:
- May 2008
- Location:
- United States
- Posts:
- 516
- Plugin Contributions:
- 2
Subscription / Auto orders
There is probably allot more behind the scenes things that have to be programmed so if I forgot anything which I guarantee I have then post it here so the Zen cart team can look over it and maybe add it to a future release of zen cart!
Subscription/Auto orders for Zen Cart
[Things that need to be in place]:
Add a Yes or No radio button to products type page that allows you to define if product is subscribable.
If yes additional defines can be added like attributes maybe?
So for example is item pauseable? Or can you skip a shipment if so by how many x frequency?
Add a new table to orders database that defines if order is a subscription order.
New orders statuses needs to be created:
- Subscription/Auto Order
- Subscription/Auto Order Paused
- Subscription/Auto Order Canceled
[Checkout flow logic]:
On cart summary page if all items in cart are subscribable then add a selection box that allows customer to select if order should be:
- Auto ship order
- or
- Ship once order
If Auto Ship order is selected Zen cart needs to know which payment modules to show and which to disable on final checkout page.
A payment module(s) that handles recurring billing AND can notifies Zen cart via call backs once a payment has been processed will be required.
Customer needs to select at checkout frequency they would like the order to be processed for example: Weekly, 2 Weeks, Monthly
Customer needs to select start date (popup calendar would be nice) calendar should only allow customer to select days business actually processes orders for example Monday-Friday would be select-able while Saturday and Sunday would not be select-able (grayed out)
Once order is placed order should be created and defined in the orders table as a subscription order.
[Order handling flow logic:]
Issues to address – order number generation and history tracking
So I would suggest once a Subscription/Auto order is successfully placed it should be given a order status of: Subscription/Auto Order. Then any orders with that status would be like snap shot “templates” for Zen cart to generate actual orders from. So for example every time a payment is processed and a successfully call back is received from the payment gateway Zen cart would create an order using that snap shot “template”. That way regular Zen cart order handling would takeover.
[Customer handling of Subscription/Auto orders logic:]
Customers need to be able to login to My Account and have access to:
- View their Subscription/Auto Orders
- Edit their Subscription/Auto Orders
- Pause their Subscription/Auto Orders
- Cancel their Subscription/Auto Orders
** I think if an order is modified it would be best to simply cancel existing Subscription/Auto Order and replace with new one.
**[Pausing/Skipping/Canceling an order logic]: **
Say customers wants to pause a shipment and company allows for it via subscription attributes then if customer selects the order to be paused then Zen cart need to communicate this back to payment gateway so it is not charged and move order to order status: Subscription/Auto Order Paused
Same goes for when it is un-paused. When un-paused new start date needs to be asked and communicated back to payment gateway changing order to order status: Subscription/Auto Order again.
Skipping an order by x frequency would follow the same logic communicating it back to payment gateway however order status would not need to be change since it will auto resume.
Canceling a Subscription/Auto Orders would also communicate this back to payment gateway and move order to order status: Subscription/Auto Order Canceled
