sub_startdate

itisnot_me

so i tried to do a little digging before asking this but i didnt come up with anything.

so i was wondering how to set start date for a few days from now.

also if they cancel there subscription before the start date takes place they dont get charged right. But even if they are 2 seconds late from canceling they get charged.

i probably already know the answer to that but i just need to confirm

fc_adam

@itisnot_me,

To set a start day a few days from now, you'd need to have some logic in your add to cart pages that sets the sub_startdate to be the desired time period from the current day. You could do that two ways, either by setting the whole date string, or just the day string. So today is the 15th of July, 2010 and the subscription needs to start 5 days after starting - the sub_startdate can either be "20" or "20100720".

If a customer cancels their subscription after the subscription start date, their card would be charged.

itisnot_me

cool but how do i put the start date thought to the checkout. cause i know i dont want to have them add it to the cart and let say the few days later they do want it and they just checkout then they dont get there trial as stated

luke

Do you mean you want to bypass the cart? if so, just use cart=checkout (or a hidden input named "cart" with the value "checkout"). If you want to clear the cart before they enter a new item in the cart, you can do so with empty=true. Does that help? More info can be found here: http://wiki.foxycart.com/getting_started/adding_links_and_forms

itisnot_me

so i have tested it out with the hidden input below and it seems to work but there is a issue that i pesronally see with people that are just dumb. It says Next Date and then the date. Shouldnt it be start date instead of next date. i could just see alots of emails coming to me asking if next date ment start date.

<input type="hidden" name="sub_startdate" value="20100720" />

and no i dont want to bypass the cart . just want to make sure that they get there trial even if the add it to the cart days before. is there a way that we can empty a cart a set number of hours after they have added it? and emptying the cart wouldnt work cause if they add some other things it would take those away

luke

This is one of the major fixes in the next release. Start Date and Next Date are currently the same thing, only the display changes (yes, it's a hack). In the next release they will be listed separately. We've also had requests to have a dynamic start date so you could say something like set the start date to today + 2 days or something like that. Problem there is, once it gets added to the cart, it's in the cart you'd still have the same problem a day or two later.

How many people are abandoning their carts and coming back to them days later? I'm not sure our sessions last that long, actually. Anyway, your best bet may be to check the cart contents JSON in the cart template with some JavaScript and then create a link to remove the subscription and add a new one (along with a warning message or something). So it could be like, "It looks like your cart has become stale... click here to get an updated trial."

Hope that helps. Keep a look out for the next version. We're hoping to make it available for beta testing soon.

itisnot_me

well i have not made the cart live i am just thinking ahead of time. i will just put in our terms and on the site as well that if they put the item in the cart then come back then they have to put it back in again.

on another note is i possible to make the quantity on some items non changeable. for example i dont want the client to be charged for the same package more than once if they accidentally change the quantity.

fc_adam

You can set a quantity_max and quantity_min for your products to ensure they're a certain quantity.