Update paid subscriptions question

[bobbyb888]

In the "Paid Subscriptions" section we want to accept PayPal payments for advertising on our forum site. Can anyone tell me what the following means?

"For subscriptions to be automatically updated for your users, you will need to setup a return URL for each of your payment methods. For all payment types, this return URL should be set as:   •  http://www.urlhere.com/subscriptions.php [nofollow]"

Is this required to accept PayPal payments or can I just put my PayPal email address in the form field?

[Arantor]

In theory you're supposed to put that URL into the settings on PayPal's site but it can have unintended side effects.

According to the actual code it shouldn't be necessary to do that and it should be that just using the email address will be enough.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Paid subs posts a notify_url to PayPal with the payment info, which overrides IPN settings, so forum will receive a notification for paid subs payment regardless of account settings.  If you enable IPN in your PP account, SMF will receive a notification any time a payment is made to the account for any reason, which will result in paid subs errors and admin notifications.

[Arantor]

Thanks for providing extra detail.

[bobbyb888]

I must be a complete idiot but after entering the PayPal info in the SMF admin how and where does a forum member go to make a payment? Am I supposed to program in a button or something?

[Arantor]

They go to the Paid Subscriptions area of their profile once you've set up what the subscription packages are (as in, pay $x for y months to be in z group)

[bobbyb888]

Sorry, but in what section do I set up a paid subscription for a member? Can't seem to be able to find this anywhere. Thanks.

[Arantor]

You set it up in the admin section next to where you put in the email address.

[bobbyb888]

The admin section is a big complicated section. Can you be a little more specific as far as what section in the admin you put what email information?

/admin/features and options/ then where?

[Arantor]

Admin > Members > Paid Subscriptions > View Subscriptions

[bobbyb888]

OK. Got it. Thanks a million for walking me through this.

[bobbyb888]

Just want to continue this thread with one more question.

I want to sell banner ads on my forum. I set up the Ad Management Mod and can create and add banner ads to the site. Then in order for a member to pay for the banner ad I activated Paid Subscriptions on the forum. Then I created a subscription so that the member who ordered the banner ad can pay using PayPal for it. That all works fine.

Here's the problem... every member on the forum can view and pay for the subscription I want to set it up for just the one member to be able to view and pay for the banner ad. Is there any way to just show that subscription to the one specific member who purchased the banner ad so only they can make a payment?

Or am I not going about this correctly?

Thanks.

[Kindred]

that's not how the subscription system works...

the nly thing that SMF does with subscriptions is allow payment (by ANY member) and allow that subscription to assign access to a membergroup.

You may want to consider the ad manager pro mod...  check with vbgamer (the smf hacks author) but I THINK that allows for something similar to what you are asking for.

[bobbyb888]

OK. I'll check on the Pro version. Thanks.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Why don't you just set up a separate page for selling adverts, with a button or link on your main index?  Ypu could include a sales pitch, pricing, terms, etc., and a PayPal button for payment.