Hello all, I have a few questions to pose to the community about the new iteration of the MoneyScripts modules. I have been really busy working on the new modules. I have rebuilt them from the ground up, and also built a brand new 'Core' module that will be required by all of the modules and will act as a central brain for the modules. It is coming to a point where it is almost ready for beta. I need some beta testers, so anyone who is interested please post here. You must already have purchased Membership Suite to be considered as a beta tester.

I have a few ideas that I want to bounce off of you guys, so please leave your feedback and opinions on these items:

Rules

I have been looking at the Rules module and I think that some users could benefit from having some Rules integration built in to the MoneyScripts modules. I am working on a new MS Core module that will facilitate many new features and a more stable base for the modules to build on in the future, and I am considering providing some Rules integration. What are your thoughts on this?

Some of the things I had in mind were creating Rules Triggers so that users can create Rules that will be called when users pay for an order. This will allow you to send emails to anyone when an order is completed, or publish nodes, or add a role to a user when they cancel a subscription, or do anything that the Rules set offers. It should give users who want to have more control over the workflow an easy way to customize the solution to work for them. Many of these things are already offered as features by MS Membership Suite, but I am considering converting some of this functionality into default rules that users can change and tweak...

Does anyone else share this idea? What are some uses that you can think of for Rules, and what are some Triggers that you would like to see? In your opinion, would reliance on Rules be a pain or a feature?

Currently I am considering providing Rules support, but not dependency, by providing some Triggers, Conditions and Actions that users can use if they have the Rules module installed.

Tokens

There will be support for Tokens, but I'm not sure if I should make a dependency or not. What I am thinking is that the tokens that are currently offered in the email templates will be moved to work with the Token module, so if you don't have the Token module installed, you won't be able to use Tokens in the Emails anymore. What are your thoughts on this? This will simplify and clean the code, while providing support for the more powerful and flexible Tokens module, which will give access to more numerous tokens in the email templates.

Reports

I am also revamping the Reports section and the Charts module is getting the axe, in favor of charts that are a part of the Reports section. Since MS Core will add a centralized way of tracking 'orders' and payments, there will be a more stable and intuitive reporting section that will show you monthly and yearly revenue, sales, etc. Instead of Flash Charts, I will be moving to Flot charts, a jQuery Charts solution, which is faster and cleaner, while still looking amazing. Any opinions on this? Do you like the Flash charts, and want to see them kept in the modules? Also, what are some reports and/or charts that you would like to see implemented?

Multiple Payment Gateways

This is the primary reason for rebuilding the modules from the ground up. I have stripped all references to and dependency on PayPal from the modules and have created an elaborate way to interact with many different Payment Gateways.

At the heart of the new system is the idea that orders can either be 'Recurring' or 'Cart'. Recurring orders can only have one product associated with them, and will be used to keep track of the entire lifetime of the Recurring item, including all of the payments, modifications, and cancellations. Cart orders consist of 1 or more products that are purchased with a single payment, such as Non-Recurring memberships, Pay to Publish nodes, File Downloads, etc.

Based on this idealogy, Payment Gateways will be required to specify if they provide support for Recurring or Cart orders, or both. This is because some payment gateways don't have support for Recurring Payments. If you are trying to sell a recurring item (such as a membership) and one of your gateways doesn't support Recurring Payments, then that gateway will not be available as an option when purchasing that item.

Taxes and Coupons

Another new cool feature that is made possible by the new Core module is the ability to make adjustments to the order total. This can come in the form of adding or subtracting a fixed amount or a percentage. For taxes, you could for example add a percentage to all orders (like 15%). Another thing you can do is create Coupons that can be applied to orders, which will give a discount of a percent or fixed amount. These modules are still being created (ms_taxes and ms_coupons) but the functionality base is in place.

There are other cool new features, but these are a lot to swallow in one go, so please let me know what you think and what your ideas/opinions are.

Sincerely,

Leighton Whiting