UPDATE: If you've come here looking for information about integrating PayPal into Community Server or about paid subscriptions for Community Server, I and several other Community Server technical evangelists have put together a product named Four Roads Commerce. You can find information about it at the Four Roads website.
Following are some basic requirements for a subscriber add-on to Community Server, as introduced here. Note that this release is purposefully limited in scope. The goal is to get it done and then expand it later.
- A person will be able to view specific types of content on your website on a trial basis.
- You will be able to set the duration of the trial membership as a specific number of days.
- A person will be able to purchase access to specific types of content on your website.
- You will be able to set the price and duration, in days, of a subscription.
- You will be able to collect payment for the subscription via PayPal.
- You will be able to invite people into a trial or subscription membership via a canned, customizable module.
- You will be able to tell people their subscription status via a canned, customizable module.
- You will be able to modify the trial and subscription information through the Community Server Control Panel.
That's it, short and simple. But the devil is in the details. We'll get into that in tomorrow's post.