Introduction
Today, we are going to look at how to set up your site to sell Downloadable Content with Drupal, PayPal, and MoneyScripts File Downloads Suite. This is by far the easiest set up I have ever worked with. You can be up and going in less than 10 minutes. Drupal is amazing because of it's flexibility and the thousands of modules it offers. I made MoneyScripts File Downloads Suite to make it easy to sell your music, ebooks, videos, programs, or whatever else you want to. This guide will get you started as quickly and easily as possible, with step-by-step instructions and screenshots.
Setting Things Up
First, you will need to have the following modules installed:
- MoneyScripts File Downloads Suite (purchase only)
- CCK (Optional)
- Views (Optional)
Once these modules are installed, we are ready to get started.
Step 1: Configuring the Settings
One of the first things we should do is take a look at the settings and permissions for the File Downloads Suite module. Go to 'admin/settings/ms_files' to configure some basic settings.
Some of the things you can set here are whether to automatically login new users, remove a download in case of a refund, generate unique download links each time a file is downloaded (extra security against people who post links to files), what emails are sent to users when they purchase a file, etc.
We should also go to 'admin/settings/ms_paypal_api' to configure the PayPal settings. You can change the jump page text and anything else you need to here.
Last but not least, we should configure the permissions. Below are some good defaults that I suggest.
Step 2: Uploading Files and Making File Download Plans
Now that everything is set up, we can get down to uploading our files which we want to sell. Each file you sell will have a 'File Download Plan' attached to it. This allows you to set a price, PayPal account, expiration date, how many times the file may be downloaded, etc. Go to 'admin/build/ms_files' and click on 'Add File Download Plan'.
Here I have added an mp3 file that I want to sell for $4.95. I want the download to expire in 10 days and only be downloaded a max of 5 times, from a max of 3 IP Addresses. Now we can see that our new File Download Plan was added:
We can copy and paste the button code into any page of any site, and users can click on that button to purchase your file. This is very useful for pasting into landing pages, or making ads on other sites.
We could stop here if that is all that you need to do. But File Downloads Suite offers much more.
Step 3: Setting up a new Content Type (Optional)
MoneyScripts File Downloads Suite offers full integration with Drupal's CCK module. This means that you can create a new Content Type to showcase your File Downloads. We will set up a new Content Type to show how it works. Create a new Content Type. I'm calling mine 'File Product'. This will serve as a sort of Sales Page for your file you want to sell.
Next, we need to install the 'MoneyScripts File' module under the CCK section. This will allow you to add a special CCK Field called MoneyScripts File. This will be a button which will let the user purchse the file, and once they have purchased it, the button will automatically change to a download link so they can download the file straight from that page. So now, we go back to the Content Type we created and go to Manage Fields. Add a new field for the MoneyScripts File.
Now we can go and create a File Product (or whatever it was you called yours). You can select from the CCK field one of the File Download Plans you have created. This will associate that file with this node. It will also display a Buy It Now button if the user has not purchased the file yet, and if they have, then it will show a Download link.
Step 4: Setting up a View (Optional)
Views is a very powerful Drupal tool, and MoneyScripts File Downloads Suite offers full integration with Views. You can create all kinds of Views of the new CCK type you created, to make product listings, categories (for an online store) or anything else. But we will focus here on the new special Views that were added by File Downloads Suite.
Go to the Views section and click 'Add View'. There is a new View Type called 'MoneyScripts Files'. Select this to make a new view for your File Download Plans.
You can really do anything you want here, because all of the data in the module is exposed to Views. For example, you can make a listing of all of your File Download Plans displaying whatever data you want for each product, along with a Buy It Now button, and sort it however you want. You can even let users filter the view and make a Search By Title box at the top. The possibilities are really limitless. I have attached an example view that you can import that will get you started. To see the example in action, and even purchase a test file, click here. To download the Import View code, click here.
What the Customers See
An important part of any online store is how easy it is for users to purchase the thing they want, and how the product is delivered. Let's walk through what an Anonymous User would have to do to purchase a file.
From the example site here: http://members.leightonwhiting.com/files-for-sale, I am going to purchase a file.
I am looking for something awesome, so I narrow the files down by searching for things with 'awesome' in their title.
I find a file for sale named 'Awesome Song', and, after reading the description, decide it's what I want. I click the Buy Now button and am taken to a page where I can enter the email where I want to receive the file at. Since I am an anonymous user, I can also specify a username and password that will be used for the new user account that will be created for me.
I enter my information to pay for the file, and am redirected to a thank-you page.
I am presented a link where I can go to download my new file. I was also automatimatically emailed a message with a download link where I can download the file I just purchased. Easy as pie!
From my new user account, I can go to the 'My Files' tab to view all of the files I have purchased, redownload any of them, and view statistics for them.
I can also view my PayPal History from my User Account.
Since I have already purchased the file, I can also download it from the Files For Sale page! How convenient!
Conclusion
As you can see, MoneyScripts File Downloads Suite is truly a comprehensive solution for anyone looking to quickly and easily sell file downloads from their site. This guide only covered some of the many features of File Downloads Suite. For a complete list of features and for more info, check out MoneyScripts File Downloads Suite. Thanks for reading, and good luck in your endeavors!
