Downloading a digital product without charge

[Simon Hutchinson-2]

Hi,

I am brand new to Ofbiz so please excuse my ignorance.

The product we are developing will include a combination of paid and  
free digital downloads.
I have setup the demo data which allows me to purchase a Digital Gizmo  
and then subsequently download it.

Is it possible OOB to allow a user to download digital content without  
having to purchase the product first?


Kind Regards

Simon Hutchinson

t: [phone]  m: [phone]  f: [phone]
a:   Ixxus Limited, Holywell Centre, 1 Phipp Street, London, EC2A 4PS
United Kingdom.  www.ixxus.com <http://www.ixxus.com/>

This message should be regarded as confidential. If you have received
this email in error please notify the sender and destroy it immediately.
Statements of intent shall only become binding when confirmed in hard
copy by an authorised signatory.

[Ruth Hoffman-2]

Hi Simon:
Welcome!

The way it works in the 4.x release is:

If the digital item has been defined as a product and it shows up on a
catalog product listing, then, yes, the user must "purchase" it first.
By "purchase" I mean, it must be placed in the shopping cart and the
user must go through checkout process creating an order. The order must
then be approved even if there is no price associated with the product -
"free". Only after a line item on an order is approved, is it available
for download.

Not sure if this has changed in the 9.x releases.

Do your "free" items need to be products? Or, can they be products that
are not added to the shopping cart? It seems that on the surface, there
may be some really easy workarounds for this requirement depending on
what you are trying to achieve.

Regards,
Ruth

Simon Hutchinson wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am brand new to Ofbiz so please excuse my ignorance.
>
> The product we are developing will include a combination of paid and
> free digital downloads.
> I have setup the demo data which allows me to purchase a Digital Gizmo
> and then subsequently download it.
>
> Is it possible OOB to allow a user to download digital content without
> having to purchase the product first?
>
>
> Kind Regards
>
> Simon Hutchinson
>
> t: [phone]  m: [phone]  f: [phone]
> a:   Ixxus Limited, Holywell Centre, 1 Phipp Street, London, EC2A 4PS
> United Kingdom.  www.ixxus.com <http://www.ixxus.com/>
>
> This message should be regarded as confidential. If you have received
> this email in error please notify the sender and destroy it immediately.
> Statements of intent shall only become binding when confirmed in hard
> copy by an authorised signatory.
>
>
>
>
>
>

[Simon Hutchinson-2]

Hi Ruth,

Thank you very much indeed for getting back to me.

In answer to your question, there is no reason that the "free" items  
have to be products however I would like them to appear alongside  
products i.e by category etc ....
If you could give me some pointers on the "really easy workarounds"  
i'd be much obliged -

BR

Si
On 14 Sep 2009, at 19:55, Ruth Hoffman wrote:

> Hi Simon:
> Welcome!
>
> The way it works in the 4.x release is:
>
> If the digital item has been defined as a product and it shows up on  
> a catalog product listing, then, yes, the user must "purchase" it  
> first. By "purchase" I mean, it must be placed in the shopping cart  
> and the user must go through checkout process creating an order. The  
> order must then be approved even if there is no price associated  
> with the product - "free". Only after a line item on an order is  
> approved, is it available for download.
>
> Not sure if this has changed in the 9.x releases.
>
> Do your "free" items need to be products? Or, can they be products  
> that are not added to the shopping cart? It seems that on the  
> surface, there may be some really easy workarounds for this  
> requirement depending on what you are trying to achieve.
>
> Regards,
> Ruth
>
> Simon Hutchinson wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I am brand new to Ofbiz so please excuse my ignorance.
>>
>> The product we are developing will include a combination of paid  
>> and free digital downloads.
>> I have setup the demo data which allows me to purchase a Digital  
>> Gizmo and then subsequently download it.
>>
>> Is it possible OOB to allow a user to download digital content  
>> without having to purchase the product first?
>>
>>
>> Kind Regards
>>
>> Simon Hutchinson
>>
>> t: [phone]  m: [phone]  f: [phone]
>> a:   Ixxus Limited, Holywell Centre, 1 Phipp Street, London, EC2A 4PS
>> United Kingdom.  www.ixxus.com <http://www.ixxus.com/>
>>
>> This message should be regarded as confidential. If you have received
>> this email in error please notify the sender and destroy it  
>> immediately.
>> Statements of intent shall only become binding when confirmed in hard
>> copy by an authorised signatory.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>

Kind Regards

Simon Hutchinson

t: [phone]  m: [phone]  f: [phone]
a:   Ixxus Limited, Holywell Centre, 1 Phipp Street, London, EC2A 4PS
United Kingdom.  www.ixxus.com <http://www.ixxus.com/>

This message should be regarded as confidential. If you have received
this email in error please notify the sender and destroy it immediately.
Statements of intent shall only become binding when confirmed in hard
copy by an authorised signatory.

[Ruth Hoffman-2]

Hi Simon:
At first blush, here's my suggestion:
If you want the products to show up alongside your other products then
consider:

1) Creating a new ProductAssocType. Call it something like "FREE_DOWNLOAD"
2) After you create your product, add the "FREE_DOWNLOAD" association to it
3) Make sure the BeanShell/Groovy script that feeds the Freemarker
view(s) for the product detail listings pick up this new association
type and pass it to the Freemarker template.
3) Modify the Freemarker template to recognize a product type of Digital
Download and an association of FREE_DOWNLOAD to:
    a) remove the "add cart " button for this product
    b) put a link for the URL download location on the product's listing
entry
That's just at a real high level. There may be some other things you
will have to do to get this to work exactly as you'd like.

FYI, if you or your colleagues find this information useful and are
interested in supporting my efforts to help document OFBiz, please buy
my books. Visit my website at: http://www.myofbiz.com for more information.

Regards,
Ruth

Simon Hutchinson wrote:

> Hi Ruth,
>
> Thank you very much indeed for getting back to me.
>
> In answer to your question, there is no reason that the "free" items
> have to be products however I would like them to appear alongside
> products i.e by category etc ....
> If you could give me some pointers on the "really easy workarounds"
> i'd be much obliged -
>
> BR
>
> Si
> On 14 Sep 2009, at 19:55, Ruth Hoffman wrote:
>
>> Hi Simon:
>> Welcome!
>>
>> The way it works in the 4.x release is:
>>
>> If the digital item has been defined as a product and it shows up on
>> a catalog product listing, then, yes, the user must "purchase" it
>> first. By "purchase" I mean, it must be placed in the shopping cart
>> and the user must go through checkout process creating an order. The
>> order must then be approved even if there is no price associated with
>> the product - "free". Only after a line item on an order is approved,
>> is it available for download.
>>
>> Not sure if this has changed in the 9.x releases.
>>
>> Do your "free" items need to be products? Or, can they be products
>> that are not added to the shopping cart? It seems that on the
>> surface, there may be some really easy workarounds for this
>> requirement depending on what you are trying to achieve.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Ruth
>>
>> Simon Hutchinson wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I am brand new to Ofbiz so please excuse my ignorance.
>>>
>>> The product we are developing will include a combination of paid and
>>> free digital downloads.
>>> I have setup the demo data which allows me to purchase a Digital
>>> Gizmo and then subsequently download it.
>>>
>>> Is it possible OOB to allow a user to download digital content
>>> without having to purchase the product first?
>>>
>>>
>>> Kind Regards
>>>
>>> Simon Hutchinson
>>>
>>> t: [phone]  m: [phone]  f: [phone]
>>> a:   Ixxus Limited, Holywell Centre, 1 Phipp Street, London, EC2A 4PS
>>> United Kingdom.  www.ixxus.com <http://www.ixxus.com/>
>>>
>>> This message should be regarded as confidential. If you have received
>>> this email in error please notify the sender and destroy it
>>> immediately.
>>> Statements of intent shall only become binding when confirmed in hard
>>> copy by an authorised signatory.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>
> Kind Regards
>
> Simon Hutchinson
>
> t: [phone]  m: [phone]  f: [phone]
> a:   Ixxus Limited, Holywell Centre, 1 Phipp Street, London, EC2A 4PS
> United Kingdom.  www.ixxus.com <http://www.ixxus.com/>
>
> This message should be regarded as confidential. If you have received
> this email in error please notify the sender and destroy it immediately.
> Statements of intent shall only become binding when confirmed in hard
> copy by an authorised signatory.
>
>
>
>
>
>

[Simon Hutchinson-2]

Thanks Ruth,

That's very useful indeed.
I will take a look at your book and have already forwarded the URL to  
my colleagues.

Kind regards

Simon

On 15 Sep 2009, at 16:04, Ruth Hoffman wrote:

> Hi Simon:
> At first blush, here's my suggestion:
> If you want the products to show up alongside your other products then
> consider:
>
> 1) Creating a new ProductAssocType. Call it something like  
> "FREE_DOWNLOAD"
> 2) After you create your product, add the "FREE_DOWNLOAD"  
> association to it
> 3) Make sure the BeanShell/Groovy script that feeds the Freemarker
> view(s) for the product detail listings pick up this new association
> type and pass it to the Freemarker template.
> 3) Modify the Freemarker template to recognize a product type of  
> Digital
> Download and an association of FREE_DOWNLOAD to:
>   a) remove the "add cart " button for this product
>   b) put a link for the URL download location on the product's listing
> entry
> That's just at a real high level. There may be some other things you
> will have to do to get this to work exactly as you'd like.
>
> FYI, if you or your colleagues find this information useful and are
> interested in supporting my efforts to help document OFBiz, please buy
> my books. Visit my website at: http://www.myofbiz.com for more  
> information.
>
> Regards,
> Ruth
>
> Simon Hutchinson wrote:
>> Hi Ruth,
>>
>> Thank you very much indeed for getting back to me.
>>
>> In answer to your question, there is no reason that the "free"  
>> items have to be products however I would like them to appear  
>> alongside products i.e by category etc ....
>> If you could give me some pointers on the "really easy workarounds"  
>> i'd be much obliged -
>>
>> BR
>>
>> Si
>> On 14 Sep 2009, at 19:55, Ruth Hoffman wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Simon:
>>> Welcome!
>>>
>>> The way it works in the 4.x release is:
>>>
>>> If the digital item has been defined as a product and it shows up  
>>> on a catalog product listing, then, yes, the user must "purchase"  
>>> it first. By "purchase" I mean, it must be placed in the shopping  
>>> cart and the user must go through checkout process creating an  
>>> order. The order must then be approved even if there is no price  
>>> associated with the product - "free". Only after a line item on an  
>>> order is approved, is it available for download.
>>>
>>> Not sure if this has changed in the 9.x releases.
>>>
>>> Do your "free" items need to be products? Or, can they be products  
>>> that are not added to the shopping cart? It seems that on the  
>>> surface, there may be some really easy workarounds for this  
>>> requirement depending on what you are trying to achieve.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Ruth
>>>
>>> Simon Hutchinson wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> I am brand new to Ofbiz so please excuse my ignorance.
>>>>
>>>> The product we are developing will include a combination of paid  
>>>> and free digital downloads.
>>>> I have setup the demo data which allows me to purchase a Digital  
>>>> Gizmo and then subsequently download it.
>>>>
>>>> Is it possible OOB to allow a user to download digital content  
>>>> without having to purchase the product first?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Kind Regards
>>>>
>>>> Simon Hutchinson
>>>>
>>>> t: [phone]  m: [phone]  f: [phone]  
>>>> 2330
>>>> a:   Ixxus Limited, Holywell Centre, 1 Phipp Street, London, EC2A  
>>>> 4PS
>>>> United Kingdom.  www.ixxus.com <http://www.ixxus.com/>
>>>>
>>>> This message should be regarded as confidential. If you have  
>>>> received
>>>> this email in error please notify the sender and destroy it  
>>>> immediately.
>>>> Statements of intent shall only become binding when confirmed in  
>>>> hard
>>>> copy by an authorised signatory.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>
>> Kind Regards
>>
>> Simon Hutchinson
>>
>> t: [phone]  m: [phone]  f: [phone]
>> a:   Ixxus Limited, Holywell Centre, 1 Phipp Street, London, EC2A 4PS
>> United Kingdom.  www.ixxus.com <http://www.ixxus.com/>
>>
>> This message should be regarded as confidential. If you have received
>> this email in error please notify the sender and destroy it  
>> immediately.
>> Statements of intent shall only become binding when confirmed in hard
>> copy by an authorised signatory.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>

Kind Regards

Simon Hutchinson

t: [phone]  m: [phone]  f: [phone]
a:   Ixxus Limited, Holywell Centre, 1 Phipp Street, London, EC2A 4PS
United Kingdom.  www.ixxus.com <http://www.ixxus.com/>

This message should be regarded as confidential. If you have received
this email in error please notify the sender and destroy it immediately.
Statements of intent shall only become binding when confirmed in hard
copy by an authorised signatory.