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Web Hosting and Cloud Computing Control Panels
i recently got whmcs at whmcs.com
it is a very affordable 1 time fee and the virtualmin module works great with it. you have to ask for the module as it is not officially released yet
whmcs is cheaper than developing a component for virtualmin + it is way way more than just a billing app. -> crm, ticket support, domain registration and has some nifty deals too.
Thanks You.
I will email them and get what I need.
And thank for the heads up.
It is to bad the billing solution Virtualmin was working with in 2005 fell through.
Hopefully Joe is reading and remembering how important this is to the Virtualmin community.
freebrew Out
I touched base with more than a few Open Source billing app developers back then, but nothing ever came of any of them (despite our willingness to be pretty active in the process, and even an occasional offer to pay for time spent on the work for the more promising options). We work with what we're given, and both WHMCS and AWBS are quality software from seemingly good companies. WHMCS, in particular, seems to have a lot of fans.
If you have other preferred billing solutions, ask the developers to get in touch with us. We can only do so much. We can't <i>make</i> people work with us. (Though the userbase of Virtualmin is dramatically larger than it was back in 2005, so it's a much more profitable target for developers now than it was back then, so maybe they'd be more willing to work with us today.)
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Hi Joe, thanks for your reply.
I was-a-thinking about what you use for your site.
You obviously use Joomla..maybe 1.1.X, but preferably 1.5.x
If you know of anyone that could code for Joomla 1.5.x, and Community Builder 1.2 for 1.5.x and AEC tho still only in legacy mode compatibly with Joomla 1.5.x on developer branch.
We could do this, and raise some money in the forum and get this done.
I know your time must be sooo stretched.
If your running some hosting too, and advertise this on a Joomla 1.5.x website then the next logical step would be to build the billing for it, and nobody knows the hooks into Virtualmin like you do.
AEC has a plugin system...it is practically just waiting there for you, I'm could try it, but I'm too dumb to begin. It would track the subscription...disable/enable accounts..etc.
The CB part would be great for user to track there account history and a lot of other things.
I know this is asking a lot, even after you have endorsed WHMSC and AWBS, but still not designed by you and Jamie.
CB
http://www.joomlapolis.com/index.php
AEC
http://valanx.org/
Joomla..
http://www.joomla.org
What da-yah-think??
freebrew Out
<div class='quote'>You obviously use Joomla..maybe 1.1.X, but preferably 1.5.x</div>
Virtualmin.com will not be running Joomla in another week or two. We're moving to a Drupal 6.x based site.
But Joomla is very popular...a hosting billing solution built for it would probably be a pretty profitable niche. We're not going to build it, though. As you've noted, we are extremely busy without taking on another product. If we were to build a billing system, it would certainly be in Perl and using WebminCore as its basic framework...how that would integrate with other folks websites is somewhat questionable, but it'd be relatively trivial to make Webmin authenticate to a database like MySQL or PostgreSQL (Webmin already supports a ton of authentication backend options, including everything PAM supports, which already includes MySQL). We'll probably experiment with this more when we get migrated over to Drupal; since we have built a reseller system for internal use for hosts who are selling Virtualmin.
I'd certainly encourage folks to dive in and build new billing options...but, our plates are full. Unless/until we're making enough money to hire additional developers and support folks, we simply don't have the resources to build and support another product (note that VM2 is launching at the same time as the new Drupal-based site, so we're already doubling our product count within a week).
I'm not going to rule out building a billing system in the future, but right now, it makes far more sense to let people who are billing experts address those problems. It's a big set of problems, and everybody needs something different. And, of course, we'd rather there be an ecosystem full of possible choices than just one "official" way to do things.
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if you appreciate my thoughts on this...using joomla for this purpose is a big no-no especially using AEC and CB. It is not secure enough and not stable enough. AEC is or was buggy when I used it last year...
40% of websites I host are Joomla sites, so Im not unfamiliar with it. There are other non-free components for joomla specialising in web hosting that I have tried, but none can provision the server as well and just have not enough features.
I want 1 working and well supported thorough application to do my business with. Not a joomla site with all kinds of 3rd party components including the risks it brings.
In my experience whmcs is the best one which is working out of the box and does more than any joomla site could do. Plus, I dont have to visit 3 or more communities to get it debugged and more or less working.
price.
how many hours of developing would it take to get a joomla+aec+cb site to properly working as a billing and provisioning application. 50? 100? 200?
how many minutes would it take to set up whmcs? 10. (I have no experience with awbs though)
I love joomla but not for this purpose.
you can integrate/bridge whmcs in joomla though. :)
o and Joe is switching to Drupal btw.
Thank You both Joe and Ronald for your super and timely advice.
I will probably be considering the whmcs, I mean, after reading both your advice, I would be fool, to consider pursuing something new...but if it was safe, It could be profitable for sure.
Can't wait to see the new site and new VM2 features.
freebrew Out