[jambojam]

So what I’m looking to achieve is for all users to be able to browse and add all listings throughout the site, without any membership restriction… which I have been able to achieve with a combination of bepro listings, buddypress and form builder (need form builder as there are going to be 3 different lists throughout my site)

What I would like to do though is allow users to pay to make a particular listing a premium listing, which would highlight the listing, move it up the search results and enable more photo listings on that particular listing. I would imagine that this is a very common desire for a number of people here.

to display the listings that way I would imagine it’s pretty easy just run two display shortcodes one after the other with the l_featured shortcode and mark the premium listings as a premium category. Then display all other listings which are not marked as premium category.

What I can’t work out is how I would make a paid user able to select a premium category when creating/editing a listing and an unpaid user unable to select this option. seeing as a lot of this is setup with estate agents in mind and this is how estate agents tend to operate their sites, I am sure there must be a way for me to use the short codes and categories here to accomplish this.

[BePro Software Team]

Hi,

You are right. The next release of BePro Listings will include packages (new feature). We are torn between the need for this new feature and its obvious overlap with existing addons like our membership solutions. The need for this new feature was created when we released BePro Cart. The BePro Cart option has circumvented the need for membership plugins, leaving us with the obvious need to control options in a new way (packages).

We are working hard on testing the new “package” feature and hope to release it later today. Once you get a chance to test it, then we can have a discussion about the best way to implement your category specific needs. I’m envisioning categories becoming enabled/disabled depending on the package selected??? :)))
___
BePro Software Team

[jambojam]

Would it be possible for me to get a beta version to trial and see if it solves my problem! I’m very excited by the prospect of this “packages” option!

[BePro Software Team]

Hi,

The feature is available in the latest release of BePro Listings (2.1.93). It was released yesterday and is available either via wordpress.org or via your admin plugin panel

___
BePro Software Team

[jambojam]

I’ve had a look at the update and I think we’re on the way there! And yes, how do you think we would go about enabling/disabling categories depending on package selected?

Also may have found a small bug with it… when you create a few packages and then remove them all, I find myself unable to create packages again. I also think that the various time period options are fantastic, but it may be worth adding in a checkbox for a subscription option. I know, plenty more coding, but it definitely makes sense if time period is something already considered.

I do also wonder if we’re able to exclude categories from being charged for this update too.

[BePro Software Team]

Hi,

Great ideas like yours have helped us to get where we are today. We will definitely strive to fulfill all payment needs

The idea now is to create a payment package addon. It will extend the payment features to mimic what we have been doing with our membership addons. In your case, you will be able to select required and excluded categories per flat fee package. In addition, you will be able configure and toggle each major BePro listings feature per package e.g. # of images. Our goal is to change the form options via ajax, depending on which package is selected.

As you can imagine, this will take a bit of coding. However, we are committed to implementing the most robust directory payment solution available online

Regarding the issue you are experiencing, we are investigating. As with all software, there are bound to be bugs. We appreciate your patience as we strive to eliminate all of them.

___
BePro Software Team

[jambojam]

I can see that will take a lot of time coding. And thank you for the update… do you have any estimation on time of release?

I’m also unsure how the required/exclude functions would work for this requirement, because I would initially need to make sure that a premium category option is hidden (exclude) and then when payment comes it automatically overrides the exclusion, would required do that?

It is a rather complicated logic to follow for you, but I would think there are a large number of users here who would very much like to use your software like that.

Also I absolutely understand about bugs cropping up and will always feedback if I feel it needs to be brought to your attention in aiding development of your software.

Regards

Jamie

[BePro Software Team]

Hi,

We currently have this feature setup on our Form Builder and membership addons. Packages with required categories will have those categories pre-selected for the user. So for e.g. a package with the featured category required, should be priced considering it will generate featured listings

Packages with categories excluded, would block the user from selecting those categories. So for e.g. a package with a featured category excluded, should be priced considering it will not generate any featured listings

We are hoping to release a payment addon in 2-3 weeks.
___
BePro Software Team

[jambojam]

ok,

I think I understand the logic here.

So to achieve what I want here, I would create the categories standard listing and premium listing. I would then select premium listing as my required category for the payment package. I would exclude standard listing from my payment package.

The obvious problems with this model are that a user would not be able to create a standard listing and then later upgrade to a premium listing, they would have to create the listing all over again. Also if this ends up being a subscription model, then once the payments stop then there’s no way to downgrade them to a standard listing, again we would have to create a standard listing all over again.

Are there going to be any additions that may provide a solution to those two problems?

Jam.

Again, I think I should reiterate that I think this is a fantastic piece plugin and I love how you are constantly evolving it to meet your users needs.

[BePro Software Team]

Hi,

Thanks again for the feedback. If you would share that as a review on the BePro Listings wordpress.org page, that would be very much appreciated. Its one of the best ways to support development

We definitely understand that users would like to also configure the packages as subscriptions. So for example, an end user would get 10 normal listings and 2 premium listings under one package. Our goal is to first facilitate better control over the features included in packages e.g. (# of images, contact info, available categories, etc). We will then extend a new payment option which will handle the subscription method. This will take us a few weeks but it is a priority for us.

At the same time, we are simultaneously releasing more payment gateways for BePro Cart. We will also be releasing BePro Points which will work with BePro Listings for free facilitating gamification. Our ultimate goal is to offer our users as many ways as possible, to create a steady revenue stream with BePro Listings and its addons

___
BePro Software Team

[jambojam]

I’m not one to usually leave feedback, but I have been so impressed with the way you work at bepro to meet end user needs. I’ve created an account and left you some very good feedback.

I think once these additions are released then I will be nearly ready to launch my site.

I still would have the issue of a user creating a standard listing and then later wanting to upgrade their package on that listing. Also what would happen if a subscription ended and I needed to downgrade a package to standard. My issue is that I’m going to allow users to comment on and rate all listings whether they are standard or premium, so I need to keep this data… creating new listings every time is not really going to be an option for me. Right now, I may be able to do this manually as an admin but it would be very useful if you considered how to automate this in the development of your updates.

Jam

[BePro Software Team]

Hi Jam,

We really appreciate the feedback

These are great ideas. We will implement a way to decide which package would be used as default when a subscription ends. Currently, the listing still exists but it won’t show up in results if a duration was set. You can expect to see this feature soon.

Regarding the ability to upgrade a single listing, that sounds tricky when it comes to subscriptions. We could create addons for subscription packages which you could price. Alternatively, we could allow an end user to manage multiple subscriptions. Maybe the answer is a little bit of both. This sounds like a great feature which we will definitely revisit in a few months, after we have implemented a robust “payment package” foundation.

We realize that several of our customers are patiently waiting for these features. Rest assured, releasing payment related features is a major priority on our end.
___
BePro Software Team

[jambojam]

I think that when premium package subscriptions end, I could manually go into the listing and publish it as a standard listing if it is simply taken out of the display results as you say. But the upgrade issue definitely is a little more tricky even from manual admin perspective, especially when the listing in question has already had views, comments and potentially facebook likes… really don’t want to have to lose that data.

I’m very much looking forward to seeing this payment package when it’s released.

[jambojam]

Hi, It’s been a few weeks… I was wondering if there is any update on the progress for this robust payment package?

[BePro Software Team]

Hi,

None yet. Be Sure to check our changelog if interested in new feature releases. We will also update this post when there is a change.

– https://wordpress.org/plugins/bepro-listings/changelog/
___
BePro Software Team

[Author]

Posts