What AEC does do and what it does not do.

I am posting this here because I see a lot of emails and questions concerning some misunderstandings of what AEC can and can not do.

First off, if I had to state simple what AEC does in a few words it would be “AEC assigns users to ACL (Access Control Level) based upon the subscription they purchase.”  But by stating that I also leave out a lot of the additional features and benefits that AEC has tied to the subscription process. But before I get into those, let’s look at ACL.

Valanx.org has just released the new commercial version of AEC version 0.12.6.2 which has numerous new and enhanced features, payment processors, and micro integrators, for more information go to Valanx.org

“Joomla controls access to certain areas and features of a site through use of a basic ACL, or Access Control Level mechanism called Groups. Certain groups have certain access level features and they are directly related to the creation, editing and publishing of content (through the Front end and Back end interfaces) as well as to access to the Administrative (Back end) interface.”.  There are four (4) Front-end groups available: Registered, Author, Editor, and Publisher.  These are the levels we will be concerned with in AEC, since they control front end access. For more info on Access levels see http://docs.joomla.org/User_Group_Access_levels_explained_in_simple_terms.

In a simple configuration of AEC, where the content is either free or only available to one group (Registered), then AEC should be configured to but all paid subscribers into the Registered Group.  But if you have different paid access levels, then you will need to assign the subscribers of those plans to different groups. 

If you have only two paid levels, you can use the additional ACL of Author for the second paid level.  Remember the groups of Author, Editor and Publisher show as “Special” under the access level switch on Joomla Content control and Menu Item control.

If you have more than that, you can look into third party components to add additional ACLs and groups.  There are a few out there, for more information look here: http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/access-&-security/frontend-access-control .AEC has Micro Integrators (discussed below) that will integrate into JACL  and JUGA. We strongly suggest you use JACL.AEC handles subscriptions, not registration.  These are two different processes. Registration is a user function handled either by Joomla , JomSocial, or Community Builder (CB) if installed.  CB has features, one of which gives you the ability to add additional fields to the user profile and collect additional information either during registration or after registration.

The beauty of these processes being separate is this, if a person registers at your site, and they could not finish the subscription process, all that is required is for them to check out during the subscription process, so they do not have to register again.  The same goes for if they expire, all they have to do is to renew their subscription and not register again.

There is a switch in AEC settings “Require Subscription”.  If this is set to yes, the user will only have a successful login if they have a valid and current subscription. The subscription plans for AEC can either be primary (controls the underlying expiration date of the user) or secondary. This is controlled through the switch “Primary” on the plan settings page. Think of a secondary subscription as one that does not control the underlying expiration date of the user, but as an additional subscription that sells them access to other content that will expire before the underlying subscription does.

AEC offers a large variety of processor gateways.  If you do not see your processor on this list, then you can contact us and request a quote on sponsoring the development of your desired processor.Current List of Supported Payment Gateways:

2Checkout (One time payment)
Airtoy  (One time payment)
AlertPay (One time and recurring payments)
Allopass (One time payment)
Authorize.net (One time payment)
Authorize.net AIM (One time payment)
Authorize.net ARB (One time and recurring payments)
Authorize.net CIM (One time and recurring payments.)
CCBill (One time and recurring payments)
Chase Paymentech (One time and recurring payments)
ClickBank (One time and recurring payments)
Cybermut (One time and recurring payments)
epsNetpay (One time payment)
eWAY Shared Payment Solution (One time payment)
iATS Ticketmaster (One time and recurring payments)
iDeal Advanced (One time payment)
iDeal Baic (One time payment)
iPayment (One time payment)
Money Bookers (One time payment)
MoneyProxy (One time payment)
NetDebit (One time and recurring payments)
Nochex (One time payment)
Off Line Payments (One time payment)
Pay Pal WPP (One time and recurring payments)
Paybox (One time and recurring payments)
Paycom/Epic (One time payment)
Payer (One time payment)
PayOS (One time and recurring payments)
PayPal (One time payment)
PayPal Subscriptions (Recurring payments)
Paysignet (One time payment)
Paysite Cash (One time and recurring payments)
PSIGate (One time payment)
Verotel (One time and recurring payments)
Viaklix (One time payment)
VirtualMerchant! (One time payment)
WorldPay (One time payment)

WorldPay FuturePay (One time payment)Now for the frosting on the cake:  There are Micro Integrators (MI) that come with AEC.  Think of these as small programs that will let AEC “talk” to other components in Joomla.  This is usually a one way communication process, but through the use of “Hacks” some third part components are told to “talk” back to AEC.

These MIs can be triggered on up to 3 different subscription events (depending on the MI): Activation, Pre-Expiration, and/or Expiration. Combine these MIs with the AEC Rewriting variables, and you have a flexible system where you can work out just about any subscription flow and logic.

These MIs were sponsored by individuals who use AEC for further integration needs.  If you need an additional MI that is not listed below, please contact us for a quote on sponsoring such an MI.

Here is a list of the current MIs found in AEC:

Raffle:  A very basic automated raffle setup. Example: Every 50th subscription, choose a user at random and notify the administrator of the winner.

Joomla User: Actions that affect the joomla user account status of active or not active.

AEC Plan Application: Apply a payment plan to a user.  Example, you offer a subscription that you want a person to automatically get a secondary subscription with the primary one.

JUGA:  Set JUGA groups on application or expiration of a plan.

mySQL Query:  Specify a mySQL query that should be carried out with this subscription or on its expiration. Very powerful MI, which can be used to run a query on any database table in the Joomla database.

Google Analytics: With this, you can attach Google Analytics e-commerce tracking code to the DisplayPipeline. [Experimental - please give feedback to the developers!]

Gallery2: Manage Gallery2 users and their permissions. 

UddeIM: Choose the amount of PMs a user can send.

AEC Donate:  Let the user pay whatever he likes (with minimum and maximum) for a plan.

Hot Property: Create and change Agents and Companies with this MI.  That and a whole lot more of integration into HP such as: Add listings, set listings (admin or user choice), publish, unpublish, and more.

Fireboard Micro Integration:  Will automate addition of a user to a group in FB. *NOTE* FB currently has limited support for FB groups. You are advised to check the fireboard forums for limitations.  Full use will not come until FB 1.1.  In 1.0.0 to 1.0.2 this can be used with a CSS change to show group information under the user's avatar as happens on www.bestofjoomla.org with admin team members

JARC:  Create affiliates and track payments in JARC

VirtueMart: Choose the VM user group this user should be applied to and/or auto create the user account in VM if none.

Acajoom:  Puts the user in different acajoom mailing lists on plan application and/or expiration.

.htaccess: Protect a folder with a .htaccess file and only allow users of this subscription to access it with their joomla account details.

AffiliatePRO: Connect your AEC sales to AffiliatePRO

Directory: Create and CHMOD user directories

Community Builder:  Actions that affect the Community Builder user account. Approve user, reset approval, Set CB field contents on plan application and/or expiration.

MySMS Micro Integration: Will automate enable a user to send sms via MySMS, and add x credits to the account..

DocMan: Choose the amount of files a user can download and what DocMan group should be assigned to the user account.

PROMA: Manage PROMA Profile Manager access group.

RSgallery2: Create User galleries and manage gallery publication status.

Email Files: Send an Email with attached files to one or more addresses on application of the subscription. Even present the user with a Min/Max number of choices of which files they will get emailed.

SOBI: Publish or unpublish listings in Joomla's Sigsiu Online Business Index component.

MosetsTree:  Restrict the amount of listings a user can publish and/or unpublish listing on plan expiration.

iDevAffiliate: Connect your sales to the iDevAffiliate Component.

Attend Events: Dummy MicroIntegration - for now only links payments from AE to AEC

Usergroup MI (ACL) - Set the usergroup for the user account on plan application, pre-expiration, and/or expiration. Also includes: Change Session and integration with JACLplus PRO subgroups.

Coupons: Create and send out coupons on plan application.

HTTP Query: Sends out a HTTP request to an url, including GET variables

APC:  Manage Advanced Profile Control access groups.

reMOSitory: Choose the amount of files a user can download and what reMOSitory group should be assigned to the user account on plan application and/or expiration.

Eventlog: Make entries into the AEC Event log on plan application, pre-expiration, and/or expiration.

DisplayPipeline: Display Text on the AEC Module

Email:  Send an Email to one or more addresses on application (new and or recurring), pre-expiration, and/or expiration of the subscription.