WHM/Billing Options

[alex042]

I'm looking for some billing options that integrate into WHM for account creation automation. Here's what I'm looking for:

-shopping cart type of system w/ ability to select qty
-supports recurring payments for paypal and 2checkout
-supports single payments for paypal and 2checkout
-whm integration for account creation

I've been looking at several options including WHMAutoPilot, ClientExec, and ModernBill. From what I can see WHMAutoPilot might fullfill many of these requirements, however it doesn't support phpsuexec. Does anyone know what part of WHMAutoPilot doesn't work with phpsuexec? Also, ClientExec doesn't have WHM integration and I'm not sure if ModernBill has this or not. I've also been looking at some shopping carts like oscommerce, but these don't have WHM integration, a field for comments/domain name, and payment modules have to be customized to support recurring payments.

It doesn't look like any of the ones I looked at support recurring payments for 2checkout. How do y'all handle recurring payments for 2checkout? Do you provide custom links to the 2checkout recurring products or do you re-invoice customers every month?

[Robert]

Modernbill is more advanced than ClientExec and WHMAutoPilot.

Modernbill can setup accounts in WHM as well as reseller accounts.

[alex042]

Do you happen to know what the requirements are for modernbill? I haven't been able to find that on their site yet.

[Robert]

Originally posted by alex042:

Do you happen to know what the requirements are for modernbill? I haven't been able to find that on their site yet.

You need to have either Zend Optimizer installed or Ioncube.

[alex042]

That's it? What about curl? And does it run with phpsuexec?

[Robert]

Yes it needs curl to use SSL and I'm not sure if it runs with phpsuexec, I know people who have phpsuexec installed and it works.

[alex042]

Thanks, I may have to look into Modernbill as an option then.

I've also been testing Nixt as an option too since I can customize it to do what I want. With a little rewriting, I've been able to get the Auto account creation working and have added payment modules for recurring billing for paypal AND 2checkout so I have the option of invoicing or autopayments. I'm now looking into adding quantity as an option.

[bluescreentech]

alex042, Do you have a copy of the fix that I could get my hands on? I'm not seeing the error in the code.

[Greg]

Originally posted by bluescreentech:

alex042, Do you have a copy of the fix that I could get my hands on? I'm not seeing the error in the code.

ye i also need the fix please :D

[alex042]

I'm not seeing the error in the code.
The issue I was getting was that the autoaccount creation was failing and I was getting blank emails. The problem is in the decrypt function in the functions.php file. You can bypass this by hardcoding a WHM username and password into the script in the 2 places with the decrypt code.
$decrypt="insertWHMusernamehere:insertWHMpasswordhere";
//$decrypt = chop(decodestring($noenc_pass, $whm_string));

It's not the best way to do this, but hopefully the authors will provide a more permanent fix for this. I would NOT recommend using a root WHM account for this script with this bypass enabled. If you plan on using this, create a limited WHM account for this.

[bluescreentech]

Thank you very much friend.

[XYPHEN]

I suggest go with WHMAP, it is very realiable and user friendly, easy to setup and you can be on the go!

[alex042]

I suggest go with WHMAP, it is very realiable and user friendly, easy to setup and you can be on the go!
Nixt does some of the base functions of WHMAP. I'd basically consider Nixt the poor man's version of WHMAP.

[Greg]

Originally posted by alex042:

Nixt does some of the base functions of WHMAP. I'd basically consider Nixt the poor man's version of WHMAP.

lol, i tried to install NiXT, lots of errors but i bought phpmanager for the moment, then hopefully i will move on up to modernbill.

[alex042]

lol, i tried to install NiXT, lots of errors but i bought phpmanager for the moment, then hopefully i will move on up to modernbill.
From what I gather, some of phpmanagers code was 'borrowed' from Nixt so it looks like Nixt is kind of like a foundation for a couple of other popular scripts like phpmanager and WHMAP. Fortunately, being a developer myself, I was able to tweak some code to get it to work and do some of the things I want that others are just now starting to implement.

[fusionrays]

Originally posted by alex042:

Nixt does some of the base functions of WHMAP. I'd basically consider Nixt the poor man's version of WHMAP.

If Nixt is the poor man's WHMAP then that man is really really poor.

[Greg]

Justr as a mat6ter of interest- can WHMAP set up reseller accounts ?

[fusionrays]

Originally posted by Gregontheweb:

Justr as a mat6ter of interest- can WHMAP set up reseller accounts ?

Yes it can.

[alex042]

Originally posted by Gregontheweb:

Justr as a mat6ter of interest- can WHMAP set up reseller accounts ?



Yes it can.
What kind of options does it give to setup? Does it setup the actual reseller account as a 0 mb account or assign space to it on top of the reseller allotment? Does it give a choice on how to set the accounts up?

[fusionrays]

Originally posted by alex042:

What kind of options does it give to setup? Does it setup the actual reseller account as a 0 mb account or assign space to it on top of the reseller allotment?

WHMAP will basically create the user account with the features you assign to it, so you can use a package you've created or assign what you please to it.

Then it gives that account reseller privileges. There is a place in WHMAP where you can store the "ACL List" for resellers.

You can always change ownership of the account to the reseller yourself. I'm not sure if they have any improvement planned for version 3.0, due out sometime in March I think. I usually just create reseller accounts myself.


Does it give a choice on how to set the accounts up?

Not sure what you mean here.

You should really give it a try, I believe there's a 7 day demo available on the website.


:chicken: - trying out smiley.

[fastactionhosti]

I use WHM AutoPilot and absolutely love it.
Not only does is setup accounts and run your billing for you, but it also has eNom integration and a built in helpdesk too. The tech support from Brandee (owner/developer) and team is top-notch.
I can't imagine running a hosting business w/o Auto Pilot.

Yes, big improvements coming with version 3.0 in March-May timeframe.

You can download a fully functional demo for free from www.whmautopilot.com and see for yourself how great this script is.

What do you even need PHPsuexec for anyway?

[alex042]

What do you even need PHPsuexec for anyway?
This is something we had tried for a while but ran into issues with when installing our demo site with over 50 scripts so we've since disabled it.

[bob]

whoiscart.net

[Greg]

Originally posted by fastactionhosti:

I use WHM AutoPilot and absolutely love it.
Not only does is setup accounts and run your billing for you, but it also has eNom integration and a built in helpdesk too.

WHMAUTOPILOT isn't that good, there are lots of scripts out there with built in helpdesk and auto account creation, e.g modernbill, that had all of them features before WHM autopilot - i think. In the next version of Phpmanager(Neomanager) they are also planning Enom intergration along with a few more.

[razzweb]

http://www.whoiscart.net/

This is only $35 and if you look at their comparison, they can meet or beat a lot of the competition. I don't run it (yet) so I don't have any experience with it, but it looks like something worthwhile to check out.

[Greg]

I think neomanager may be promising, its nearly out of BETA testing now and there are big hopes for it, and its only $40 with really good support and a few mods an hacks.

[alex042]

Well, I just went out and bought whoiscart and althought it's pretty, I realized that it's missing a lot of stuff. I had already spent a bunch of time adding some of those missing features to Nixt and thought they'd be in a paid system but guess not so now I'm testing out WHMAP since the <$200 price tag is a lot more affordable to me than ModernBills $500 price tag.

During my testing phase of WHMAP however, I ran across an issue that maybe someone here can answer. I was having problems adding shared packages when it would log me off before the packages were generated. Funny thing was is that this was occurring behind a corporate firewall during the day, but it worked fine when I got home behind my personal firewall. To test the corporate firewall again, I did the same test early in the morning behind the corporate firewall before everyone started showing up for work and it seemed to work fine this time. I was told that somehow the sessions were being closed so I'm wondering why this would be happening. Could someone have been sniffing out my sessions and logging in remotely from somewhere else at the same time? Perhaps monitering my activity or something else?

[bob]

Well, I just went out and bought whoiscart and althought it's pretty, I realized that it's missing a lot of stuff.

whats it missing?

[alex042]

whats it missing?
Ok, maybe not a 'lot' of things, but there were a few things that appeared to be missing. One of the first things I noticed was that it was missing some recurring payment methods. This is something I want because monthly invoicing just seems like it will be a real headache. I actually want the ability to do both since some services are one-time fees. I also haven't found any addon options and have yet to find a way to customize the welcome email, turn off the register domain option, or create accounts without going through the order process. I haven't verified that this even works with WHM yet since the test runs haven't created any accounts. Maybe this requires root WHM but I'd prefer to keep all accounts under reseller accounts with the only accounts owned by root being the reseller accounts themselves.

I haven't had a chance to address any issues yet because for some reason my email isn't being validated so I can't even post to the board there yet. Once I get that, I'll go through the cart more in detail to see if anything else is missing or if I missed something that may be there.

[Saeven]

Hello Alex042,

Sorry to bud in of course, one of our members had sent me the link believing a post might help - such I do.

Nothing we advertise is absent. If you check the comparison and features pages, what you see is what you get. All of the portals we've implemented recur in some fashion or other. If they are real merchants, the recurrences are silent and automatically billed every cycle duration. If they are a third party merchant, then the client must log in and run the payment every cycle duration. This is a limitation of third party merchants with Paypal as the exception which can build a recurrence at subscription time.

The welcome email is 100% customizable as well, kindly look into the /templates folder. The one we've done is generic of course, because we cannot possibly please everyone with all details. IT will however print WHM login details for example as the accounts are processed.

Turning off the domain registration function is simple. Associate no RAPI modules, and just remove the links to index.php and transfer.php from your site. You can start people at quick.php or hosting.php for example.

Next, root WHM is not required - just an access hash. The mistake most people make is that they don't observe requirements and don't have cURL installed into PHP - or - if they do, they select ssl connection when their server refuses it.

In short though, these are things we could have answered had you taken the time to write us. We go out of our way to help people always - please write in our boards or to support@saeven.net before posting these things elsewhere. We work very hard to stifle false rumors before they begin.

On standby.
Cheers.
Alex

[alex042]

Hey that was quick.

Now I know why I didn't find these items. I was looking for them in the menu when I actually needed to do some manual coding in the files. I thought the entire program was database driven, but looks like I missed the manual part. It's still a good deal for the price and I'm still working through the details of setting it up the way I want so some of these issues may work themselves out if I find it does everything I want it to.

Btw, I still haven't received any validation email yet so can't post to those forums. Maybe something to do with an aol addy? If thats the case, that could be why none of my aol email is being answered to the whoiscart addy. I'll resend with another domain to this other address which may have better luck getting through.

Update: my other email addy went through so looks like I can start posting. woohoo

[Saeven]

Hi,

We considered menuing them, but to keep this fast (which is very important to us) some decisions were made at this level to keep them as simple parseouts. It actually reduces asymptotic complexity by one degree (very good) to keep things in a file.

AOL does have a spam catcher that nails everything that basically isn't generated by a known email client... Glad it went through ok.

These forums are sexy btw. Vbulletin - something to consider.

Cheers.
Alex

[fastactionhosti]

Originally posted by Greg:

WHMAUTOPILOT isn't that good, there are lots of scripts out there with built in helpdesk and auto account creation, e.g modernbill, that had all of them features before WHM autopilot - i think. In the next version of Phpmanager(Neomanager) they are also planning Enom intergration along with a few more.

Amazing opinion. Have you used WHM AutoPilot?? Somehow, I doubt it!

AutoPilot currently contains Enom integration and also has a dedicated server function that allows you to offer this to your prospects as well. Great documentation and fantastic support make AutoPilot a rock-solid package that will free you, the webhost, from having to set up account and bill your clients every month. It is easy to set up and easy to use.

Version 3 will bring even MORE functionality and advanced abilities than the current version, according to their forums.

If you are in interested in shaky "beta" software packages to trust your business to (so you save a few dollars)...then by all means, DON'T use AutoPilot! It is tried and tested. It is not the cheapest package out there, nor is it the most expensive. For us, the most important thing about AutoPilot is... IT WORKS!

Before we bash a product in the forums, I strongly suggest that we all do a bit of homework first. We certainly did.

[alex042]

AOL does have a spam catcher that nails everything that basically isn't generated by a known email client... Glad it went through ok.
Interesting, After looking through my AOL mail again, I found the verification email in my AOL junk mail folder.
AutoPilot currently contains Enom integration
I take it most people that use WHMAP use enom then? I'm considering moving from Wild West Domains to another program, and Enom was one of the choices along with directi and opensrs, but it's entry fee is a little heftier than some like that with directi requiring at least 2X the initial investment. I was hoping there might be more options in WHMAP but I guess that's not scheduled until later. I'm discussing some other concerns with WHMAP over there on their forums also, but overall, it looks like a pretty good product.

[fastactionhosti]

AutoPilot does indeed have eNom integration. However, we do not use it for the same reasons that you specified, Alex

We will continue to use WW as well, since their prices are much more reasonable and easy to use.

I believe that AutoPilot has intentions to include several other domain registrars for their upcoming new release.

Version 3 is also going to have module plugins for the top 3 support programs out there as well (eSupport, EdgePanel, and Cerberus).

[shost]

Hi,
Have you looked at webhostingbilling.com ?

They have a billing system that we have used for years, and it is able to do most if not all of what your looking for. Very automated with cpanel/WHM .

If your a host looking for a billing solution you can grow with, this is defanately worth a look.

Tim L