custom integration with ccbill

[mike503]

apparently nobody technical reads the main forum. so i'll ask it here.

has anyone reading this done this?

is datalink the only option?

right now i have datalink setup and from best i can tell it's pulling the data down and processing it properly. the problem is on rebills and such they change the subscription ID to the new one, and it's getting hard to track to the old one (i'm starting to get errors in my batch "cannot find username" "cannot find subscription ID" ...)

i'm wondering if there is an easier way that anyone else has figured out. i have my own local user database, and i just need to know when to flip the user's "entitled" switch on or off, depending on their account payment status.

the hidden post url looks like it only informs of signups. but what about rebills, chargebacks, refunds, and cancellations...

any help is appreciated

[lb_vee]

are there any unique identifiers that are coming back to you during rebills, something you can key off of?

Here's one way you can do unique keys for your database :

take the users email + firstname + lastname and make an md5_hex key out of it and store that somewhere.

[mike503]

are there any unique identifiers that are coming back to you during rebills, something you can key off of?

Here's one way you can do unique keys for your database :

take the users email + firstname + lastname and make an md5_hex key out of it and store that somewhere.

afaik, there's no custom fields we can send to ccbill.

otherwise i'd be doing something like this, so i can do a digest type validation of the information.

i'm wondering if datalink is too overbearing for our needs; verotel has a simple system where they issue a POST/GET (depending on the version) to a URL you supply, which tells you when to add, modify or delete a user in your .htpasswd file. it's simple enough to write a custom script for it (which i'm doing, we're using verotel for visa since my client is in canada and can't get ccbill to let him process visa for some reason, i forget) -

does ccbill do the same? or do they only do the POST from their signup form back to a url you specify - (and posting the data in the user's browser (eww!), not something behind the scenes and more secure)

i thought i'd ask here and chase it with a question directly to ccbill's support, but i thought maybe i'd stumble upon someone who's already done something like this, or has a completely custom way they do integration with ccbill and i could poke their brain for a few minutes...

thanks for any help in advance.

[SeniorX]

i'd be interested in how this works with ccbill too. bump.

[lb_vee]

afaik, there's no custom fields we can send to ccbill.

otherwise i'd be doing something like this, so i can do a digest type validation of the information.

i'm wondering if datalink is too overbearing for our needs; verotel has a simple system where they issue a POST/GET (depending on the version) to a URL you supply, which tells you when to add, modify or delete a user in your .htpasswd file. it's simple enough to write a custom script for it (which i'm doing, we're using verotel for visa since my client is in canada and can't get ccbill to let him process visa for some reason, i forget) -

does ccbill do the same? or do they only do the POST from their signup form back to a url you specify - (and posting the data in the user's browser (eww!), not something behind the scenes and more secure)

i thought i'd ask here and chase it with a question directly to ccbill's support, but i thought maybe i'd stumble upon someone who's already done something like this, or has a completely custom way they do integration with ccbill and i could poke their brain for a few minutes...

thanks for any help in advance.

if you can point me in the direction of some documentation about the CCBill gateway, them Im sure I can come up with a solution.

[mike503]

it doesn't appear that they have any other methods except a POST when someone signs up, and datalink.

so i'm having to try submitting a feature request

[mike503]

well, i can tell my efforts here were worthwhile. message is totally ignored.



~~~

Dear CCBill Client:

We have recieved the bug you reported on 03/16/2005. Bug Id: 8861.

Bug description:

Is there any way that a simple HTTP POST request can be sent to a URL on our server (much like the approval
background post URL) anytime we need to modify a user's status? A very simple reactive script on our end would be all
that is needed.

i.e. add user, delete user - and ccbill handles all the logic for rebills and such. the datalink system is
leaving us with missing account information and keeps expiring people early, even though i have coded for rebills and
everything. having a simple "enable this user" or "disable this user" message sent would be very easy - it's how
verotel does it, and will be much cleaner to implement, since we don't have to actually figure out based on the
datalink information when to expire a user by calculating out the number of days in the rebill or new signup, etc,
etc. all we have to do is enable or disable a user's account (or "paid" status) when we get the message to from
ccbill, and you guys already track the activity of accounts properly. i feel like we're reinventing the wheel on our
end of things and shouldn't have to.

thanks. i was told by [email protected] to submit this as a feature request.



We have reviewed your reported Bug, and have resolved this issue.

Resolution:

Thank you for taking the time to submit a feature request.



Thank you for taking the time to report this bug to us. We hope the resolution of this issue meets your CCBill
account needs.

CCBill.com Development Department

[SeniorX]

well, i can tell my efforts here were worthwhile. message is totally ignored.



~~~

Dear CCBill Client:

We have recieved the bug you reported on 03/16/2005. Bug Id: 8861.

Bug description:

Is there any way that a simple HTTP POST request can be sent to a URL on our server (much like the approval
background post URL) anytime we need to modify a user's status? A very simple reactive script on our end would be all
that is needed.

i.e. add user, delete user - and ccbill handles all the logic for rebills and such. the datalink system is
leaving us with missing account information and keeps expiring people early, even though i have coded for rebills and
everything. having a simple "enable this user" or "disable this user" message sent would be very easy - it's how
verotel does it, and will be much cleaner to implement, since we don't have to actually figure out based on the
datalink information when to expire a user by calculating out the number of days in the rebill or new signup, etc,
etc. all we have to do is enable or disable a user's account (or "paid" status) when we get the message to from
ccbill, and you guys already track the activity of accounts properly. i feel like we're reinventing the wheel on our
end of things and shouldn't have to.

thanks. i was told by [email protected] to submit this as a feature request.



We have reviewed your reported Bug, and have resolved this issue.

Resolution:

Thank you for taking the time to submit a feature request.



Thank you for taking the time to report this bug to us. We hope the resolution of this issue meets your CCBill
account needs.

CCBill.com Development Department

ya can't deny it - they work hard for da money

[Gungadin]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I'm looking for this same functionality with CCbill... let me use my own user database, and just tell me when to turn people on or off. Was there ever a resolution here?