wbb Removal of the Payment Feature in WoltLab Suite Filebase 6.0

[Guest Marcel Werk]

Note: This does not affect the official Plugin-Store. It will continue to be the familiar secure and trusted sales platform for WoltLab Suite plugins.

 

 

 

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WoltLab Suite Filebase offers the ability to make files available to users in a structured and organized form. Files can not only be linked externally, but there is also the possibility to offer these files for sale.

 

[HEADING=1]The Payment Feature in WoltLab Suite Filebase 5.5[/HEADING]

 

WoltLab Suite Filebase is the technical foundation of the official Plugin-Store and was developed with the aim of providing a useful tool for customers as well as meeting our own requirements. To this end, WoltLab Suite Filebase features rudimentary sales support, which is just enough for us to build our customer area and Plugin-Store on top of it.

 

 

 

The fundamental shortcoming of the file sales feature is that it has been implemented in a very limited way. The restriction to the integration of PayPal payments (technically based on the payment system of the paid subscriptions) and the lack of invoicing limited the usefulness significantly. Legal aspects, such as the consideration of the terms and conditions or a revocation policy, were not taken into account. This has never been an issue for the Plugin-Store, because the payment processing is based on our existing customer and order system.

 

[HEADING=1]Perspectives for the Further Development[/HEADING]

 

During the development of WoltLab Suite 6.0, we put this functionality to the test and considered our available options.

 

 

 

A legally compliant implementation as well as a integration of different payment processors is associated with a very high amount of work. One problem is the varying legal requirements depending on the country, because even within the EU there are country-specific regulations that have to be taken into account.

 

 

 

This development and maintenance work is contrasted by the fact that the target group is basically very small: The restriction to purely digital products makes this functionality uninteresting in many cases, and commercial operators often use existing, dedicated solutions.

 

 

 

A comprehensive new development of the payment function of WoltLab Suite Filebase does not make sense from an economic point of view, and in view of solutions that have already been established for many years, such as the “VieCode Shop”, we do not see any realistic prospects for the commercial success of such a project. Instead, we would like to remove the existing, rudimentary functionality and focus more on our core competencies, the development of solutions for the operation of communities.

 

[HEADING=1]Behavior When Upgrading to Woltlab Suite 6.0[/HEADING]

 

An upgrade to WoltLab Suite 6.0 will be blocked if the payment function is active and thus cannot be performed. This will ensure that affected site owners have sufficient time to implement an alternative for this feature before the upgrade is performed.

 

[HEADING=1]Impact on the Plugin-Store[/HEADING]

 

The payment feature in the Plugin-Store will remain fully operational, but in the future it will be provided directly by the Plugin-Store and our existing ordering system. The previous hybrid approach has repeatedly led to problems in the past and slowed us down in the further development of the Plugin-Store.

 

 

 

We will enhance the Plugin-Store by providing - in consultation with the commercial sellers - an improved version of the paid upgrades.

 

 

 

In addition, we will be able to correctly link purchases from the Plugin-Store to the associated licenses in the future. Customers can thus better keep track of which licenses a product from the Plugin-Store was purchased for. In addition, as has been requested for far too long, the linked products will also be taken into account and transferred along with the licenses when they are transferred to another customer.

 

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