DrByte:

That means you're operating inside a function that doesn't know about $zco_notifier.
If you're needing to use the notifier, then you'll have to global that object first.
If you're not needing notifiers, just remove that line from your customized code.

DUDE! I am so doing a Snoopy Dance over here! Thank you so much. You have made my Friday the 13th.

BTW, what does zco_notifier do?

Lbravo

lbravo:

BTW, what does zco_notifier do?
More than you ever wanted to know about notifiers/observers: http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Developers_API_Tutorials#Observer_Class

Hi there!

I've searched and I found some references but nothing too concrete about a product type that allows you to sell Phone Card Pin Numbers.

The "shop" would be really simple with TWO or THREE products of different prices (i.e. 10$ and 20$ recharge cards).
There would be X Pins (let's say a hundred pins each product).
Once somebody pays a 10$ prepaid card Pin, he/she would receive an email with one of the Pins, and obviously that particular pin would be deleted from the database.

I guess the functionality should be very similar to selling Software Licenses.
You have a number of X licenses, once somebody buys one, he's emailed the license so he can activate the application.
The only difference is that the licenses are not automatically generated, but they reside in a database.

Is there anything or anyone outther who has done this or know how could it be accomplished??

Thanks in advance :)

cheers

We are now selling downloadable ebooks as well as our othr products.

Our ebooks use a security feature requiring a unique PIN number which the customer must have to unlock the ebook after they download it.

What I would like is a way of delivering the PINs to the customer automatically.

There is a simple script that will display a PIN number when the page it is on is viewed.

Here's the catch, you cannot put this script on the 'checkout success' page because it has no way of differentiating between the sale of an ebook vs any other product, nor will it display more than one PIN if two ebooks were purchased.

Is there a module that might do this? Keep in mind, we only want a PIN displayed to the customer once they have made a successful purchase and only on the purchase of an ebook.

Many Thanks,
-Sheryl

You can hook into the logic in /includes/classes/order.php here:```
/* START: ADD MY CUSTOM DETAILS

• 1. calculate/prepare custom information to be added to this product entry in order-confirmation.
• 2. Add that data to the $this->products_ordered_attributes variable, using this sort of format:

•  $this->products_ordered_attributes .=  {INSERT CUSTOM INFORMATION HERE};
  

*/

$this->products_ordered_attributes .= ''; // $custom_insertable_text;

/* END: ADD MY CUSTOM DETAILS */

There are some other forum discussions on similar topics, such as phone cart pins, software serial numbers, etc. The concept is the same.

DrByte:

You can hook into the logic in /includes/classes/order.php here:```
/* START: ADD MY CUSTOM DETAILS

• 1. calculate/prepare custom information to be added to this product entry in order-confirmation.
• 2. Add that data to the $this->products_ordered_attributes variable, using this sort of format:

•  $this->products_ordered_attributes .=  {INSERT CUSTOM INFORMATION HERE};
  

*/

$this->products_ordered_attributes .= ''; // $custom_insertable_text;

/* END: ADD MY CUSTOM DETAILS */

> 
> 
> There are some other forum discussions on similar topics, such as phone cart pins, software serial numbers, etc. The concept is the same.


Well, I appreciate your reply but as a non-programmer that just means nothing to me. (and I actually have done a fair amount of zencart mods)  I can see the order.php file but I have no idea what to do with the info above. Where is the product defined to which the script pertains ? Where is this to be inserted in the order.php file?

Thanks,
S

bump ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Rather than bumping (see the forum Posting Rules, link at top of forum page), I suggest you put a post in the Commercial Help Wanted area to hire someone to write the customization you require.

Well the bump is because things get buried very fast on this forum, I could have simply added a line saying something else other than the word 'bump' but I preferred to call a spade a spade :). Regarding a request in the commercial forum for custom work written, correct me if I'm wrong but your previous reply seemed to give the impression this could be done /had been done by adding some lines to an existing file.

trillian:

correct me if I'm wrong but your previous reply seemed to give the impression this could be done /had been done by adding some lines to an existing file.

Yes, if you've written the custom code to generate or retrieve a PIN or serial number or code or key or whatever you need when needed, you can insert a function call to that custom code in the indicated section of Zen Cart code in the file indicated, and that will cause the PIN/serial/code/key value to be included in the order details and on the email confirmation. If your custom code also stores what order number was used at the time, then you will have that information for reporting purposes etc as well.

But if you don't yet have a way to run a PHP function to obtain the required serial number for the product you specify when you run the function, you'll need to have that done first.

Sample concept:
replace this code from the section I quoted earlier:$this->products_ordered_attributes .= ''; // $custom_insertable_text;with something like this:```
$product_serial_number = my_custom_get_serialnumber_function($this->products[$i]['id'], $this->products[$i]['qty'], $zf_insert_id);
$this->products_ordered_attributes .= $product_serial_number;

You could further enhance it by passing the specific attribute number as well if you needed to differentiate that further.

What I have now is a simple script that will display the next available PIN as an image on a web page.

So if there was some way to bring up that web page upon a successful ebook purchase, it would work.

But what has to happen is that something must specify only certain products (only the ebooks).

The PIN script can be inserted in the checkout success page and will display the PIN just fine and that would work if we only had one product, but we need it displayed only for the ebooks and not all the other products.

That approach will require a completely different method than what I've described.
The method I've described allows the customer to view the PIN number on their receipt and re-view it again in their My Account area if needed. Yours makes them have to view the image on checkout only, and never again. Different methods require different implementations.

I suggest you hire someone to write the functionality you require for your specific case.

I'm keen to see where you got to with this.

I am about to try and figure out how to automatically generate license codes based on the purchaser's computer serial number (which I want to have them enter into a form).

I plan to use a php algorithm to generate the code, and the software manufacturer will implement the same algorithm within the software.

So the process I want to have is:

1. Customer buys a number of software licenses;
2. Upon successful payment, they are taken to a page that has a number of fields, based on the number of licenses they bought, to enter computer serial numbers where the software will be installed;
3. They enter the serial numbers, and an email is automatically generated sending them the license codes.

You can email me directly at [email protected]. Thanks for any help you can give.

Glenn

Ok, first I want to say how utterly AMAZED at how smart you all are, and as I read through the threads it is just crazy to think that people are actually that smart- unfortunately I am not one of them and that leads me to my post. Similar to what the thread is speaking of, I am trying to sell gift cards, that would be printable from the purchasers machine, after confirmation of payment. What the purchaser would then do is print this gift card out and take it to a local merchant for redemption at thier store. So what I need to be able to do is accept a payment through paypal (already set up) then have a gift card sent to the email of the purchaser with a individual gift card code that would also be emailed to the merchant they purchased the gift card from.
I dont think the gift card module would work here because they are not purchasing gift cards to my site, I am selling gift cards to other merchants. They all need unique numbers, I need to be able to track them and the store owner needs to be able to track them so people don't print them multiple times with the same number and try to redeem the savings without paying for additional cards. Any help would be great!

glennnz:

I'm keen to see where you got to with this.

I am about to try and figure out how to automatically generate license codes based on the purchaser's computer serial number (which I want to have them enter into a form).
I would not do that. What if the user mistypes the machine ID? Better use a utility (or routine as part of the software) that reads the ID and sends it to you so that the user does not have to type the number in manually.
I plan to use a php algorithm to generate the code, and the software manufacturer will implement the same algorithm within the software.

So the process I want to have is:

1. Customer buys a number of software licenses;
2. Upon successful payment, they are taken to a page that has a number of fields, based on the number of licenses they bought, to enter computer serial numbers where the software will be installed;
3. They enter the serial numbers, and an email is automatically generated sending them the license codes.
   Glenn

Have you been able to implement your scheme?
I have been sucessfully using a similar system for a while now. The license key is generated using the customers name and email adress. (the registration info is then displayed in the software.)
You can see it in action here:
http://foksmarx.com/?recolorLE_register-en
and here:
http://www.soundbytes.de/HurdyGurdy/?register_le-en

I am currently in the process of incorporating the scheme within the new zen-cart based shop

If you still need any help with your implementation let me know.

Andreas

DrByte:

That means you're operating inside a function that doesn't know about $zco_notifier.
If you're needing to use the notifier, then you'll have to global that object first.
If you're not needing notifiers, just remove that line from your customized code.

Hi DrByte - I had similar problems like lbravo. The last I am stuck now- it is that when I press "Confirm order" button - I can only see:

1146 Table 'web96db3.products' doesn't exist
in:
[UPDATE products SET products_quantity=0 WHERE products_id=9]

-> No e-mail order conformation to the customer, althou I can see the order in the shop and I can proceed it further - then customer can receive conformation.

Could be a problem that the table of customers in my e-shop has name "zs_customers" ? In the table "products_licences" I filled "licences_code" and some fields of products_id, products_attributes_id - but I am not sure about the mechanismus if it is necesary to fill and how.

Sorry if my questions are stupid - I am not expert at all. Thanx for any help.

So, after some testing it seems working - so, I can confirm that solution is working: http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?page=2&t=36391
I found my last error - if you use a different name of "products" you must change it in code (I use different names of tables of ZC - all have prefix "zc_" )

original:

    $db->Execute('UPDATE products SET products_quantity='.$dbres->fields['count'].' WHERE products_id='.$this->products[$i]['id']); 
  } 

// END: MSL - Licences Mod

my edit to work well

    $db->Execute('UPDATE zs_products SET products_quantity='.$dbres->fields['count'].' WHERE products_id=' . (int)$this->products[$i]['id']);
  }

//END: MSL - Licences Mod

Only one thing is not clear for me yet - Why is the key send BEFORE the customer pay in the order confirmation e-mail. What I should do to send it in e-mail AFTER purchasing??

Thanx for any help if you have advice

vashik:

Only one thing is not clear for me yet - Why is the key send BEFORE the customer pay in the order confirmation e-mail. What I should do to send it in e-mail AFTER purchasing??
I'm not sure I understand what you mean.
If the email is being sent as part of the send_order_email() function, then it's only being sent after the payment module has allowed the order to be stored, which normally means it has collected payment at that point.

Hi DrByte - thank you for your quick answer.
I am completly new at this field - so excuse me if my questions are a bit "sily". I think my problem now is that I can not set up the product properly.

I sell also some download product and there it is working well via money order. The customer order, then pay, I will change the order from"Pending" to "Processing" and the customer will get link where he can download product. To set up this I had to set download product via attributes I found on internet.

But with this licence product I am not sure what I should set with the product. As an completely newbie I test something and then I see how it works. So far I found that when I fill ID of the product in "products_id" in the table "products_licences" (in my case ID of product =9) -> it works, but licence is sent with "pending" first e-mail.
I am sure that it must be something with setting the product and attributes like but here I am a bit stuck. Could advice how to set the product of licence and the atribut for that? (please step by step - if posible )

Thx in advance - I guess - if you answer - this could be interresting for more people

If you are using a payment module that doesn't actually collect payment, then you're going to have to issue your license numbers manually when payment is collected.

The code suggestions above are based on having the payments collected at the time of placing the order.