niyo

we use this fix from naja:http://www.blesta.com/forums/index.php?/topic/3093-logicboxes-module-domain-search-fails-from-mobile/#entry22291

Thanks guys Lol, the comment about confusion was in jest, it was a poke at the hosting industry in general lol. there was a section where she talked about our packages but i ripped it out cuz she nailed it in a different take and there were some errors in the take i used despite it being the best overall. I'll be incorporating it into a second video later in the week though =]

I'd been sitting on the clip of the presenter for the past three months and finally got around to editing it over the last week although it took slightly longer than i would've liked. You can check the video on my homepage here: https://selfhosted.uk Let me know what you think. And while you're there any feedback on the website is welcome although need to get round to finishing the Blesta integration but it works for the time being. Thanks

That's a different screen. What Naja is showing isn't the domain search, what he's showing is the config options for hosting package. So currently it just says domain name and has one field, but with Najas solution users will have more flexibility to order a domain with their hosting if they land on a hosting package. You can see my logic here: http://www.blesta.com/forums/index.php?/topic/5909-logical-order-forms-for-domains-and-hosting/#entry41809

I genuinely think I just fell in love with you :* The bottom option behaves how entering your domain under configurable option currently does. As for advantages/disadvantages I think Paolo pretty much covered most of them. I haven't used whmcs for a couple years so my input there is limited as I've recently noticed some nice changes in ui while researching other small hosting companies. With that said I think the key advantage of whmcs is its built in marketing tools. Whmcs is designed to help users make money. Key features include affiliate marketing, sophisticated coupon system that also ties into the affiliate system, the ability to create bundled products, as well as the option to offer free domains when you order x etc. Where blesta shines though is intuitive billing. Ie partial payments, pay invoice link etc although I would like to see partial refunds as well. Also multi company is a godsend, and very well designed. Judging by the well thought through database there is scope to have clients details shared between companies down the line ie through global client groups or something of that ilk. That way it can also be used in a multi-brand vein. Ie someone may have a company/brand exclusively for SSL that's separate from their hosting business. The way it's set up currently setup a user would have to sign up again for the second company although I haven't dug deeper since I started using blesta. The way I see it is as a marketing tool whmcs is king but as a billing tool blesta is king. Once blesta has had the time to get its marketing and domain game up then it will surely reign.

for some reason I could never get mailparse to work in 5.6 in my configuration so reverted to 5.5. did you have to do anything other than install it?

if in your resell.biz account you have the price set to zero then try the following instead of purchase-privacy=true: protect-privacy=true I haven't tested it yet but here's some privacy api docs (scroll down to api changes) http://my.resellerbiz.net/kb/answer/2084

Would also be cool if addons could be available to particular pricing too. i.e. in my case i have an addon that i want to offer for free to users who buy a package for 1+ years but paid for monthly customers.

Blesta markets itself as "The Billing Software Platform for Hosting Providers" so i don't think improving the experience for shared hosting is too much to ask. It's a super product for VPS and dedicated servers. Actually I think its the best billing system period for literally anything other than shared hosting. Anyway this should hopefully sum up the desired user flow but anyone else can chime in to improve it if I've missed anything. The next step would be to figure out how that translates to the UI. The primary problem with current UI is there is no option for admins to add context e.g. with tooltips or field descriptions. this is fine for smart users but shared hosting users aren't always technically inclined. The current problem is if a customer uses paths A or B there is no easy way to get to C if they don't already have a domain. Nor is it clear that they need to get a domain. This is the main cause of confusion that many admins have been hoping to be changed in this forum. Currently landing on a package with pricing gives the configurable options box for domain. one proposal could be to have 3 radio selects below the domain. 1 that allows the customer to use the domain they've already registered and is the equivalent to how just pressing continue currently works, another that allows the customer to transfer a domain (not as important but its a nice extra) and finally one that will search for the domain. Radio selects would allow for more elaborate language but if someone can think of concise ways of getting the point across then buttons may be better.

This is also a neat little hack if the mx records for your primary domain point elsewhere and you want to use piping rather than imap. Create an mx record for a subdomain that points to your blesta account and follow the above steps.

Agreed +1

Hey Paul, thanks for the reply, but ordering just domains isn't the issue the OP or I have. The problem is ordering domains with hosting. Please see below: http://www.blesta.com/forums/index.php?/topic/5909-logical-order-forms-for-domains-and-hosting/?p=41736 thanks

Mate you couldn't be more wrong. nobody in here is saying we want it a particular way because of our experience with another product we're saying we want it a different way because the way it currently works is significantly deficient. If it was because of the other product we'd be using that product and not engaging in conversation to improve blesta. Naja is literally the most loyal blesta user there is and has contributed so much to the community do you really think he's making the same complaint because of his experience with whmcs? Like i said previously this domain/hosting process currently works on an assumed knowledge basis. yes it works fine for me and you because we're technically inclined we understand how hosting works and therefore can see that although this is a bit dumb we have the know how to jump the hurdles in order to complete an order. Look at it this way. Customer lands on hosts website, sees package they like and clicks it. logic says from an admin stand point link to the package, so this is what most admins will do. so now that the customer has clicked on said package they see the config options box that says domain. No context whatsoever! Most of my customers (and by the sounds of it many customers of other blesta users) assume that means they are ordering that domain name with the hosting. You and i know they're not but they genuinely know no better. As i said there is no context or hints. At this stage what should happen is the customer should be confronted with the option - like in whims vertical steps - to use their own domain if they've already got one registered, transfer the domain to us or if they don't have one then order one. This gives context unlike the way it currently is whereby that domain box could literally mean anything. So the alternative is to just link to the domain preconfig section for every package but then you're adding steps to the user experience and increasing the chance of abandonment. Always think UX and minimising steps. as well as this every step in the ordering process needs to clearly communicate what is required to the customer. For servers and other such products/services blesta works just fine as your customer base is savvy enough and there usually isn't this extra step of domains to worry about. eg... https://my.knownhost.com/order/config/index/managed-dedicated-servers/?group_id=7&pricing_id=190 customer configures the package in one step and is good to go. contrast that great experience with that of shared hosting when linking to the package https://my.selfhosted.uk/order/config/index/hosting/?group_id=7&pricing_id=11 even I'm like what the hell am i supposed to put in that box. the 2 major problems here: 1. "am i ordering a domain?" well my customers seem to believe they are. and then when they complete the order and realise they actually weren't they usually need to order a totally different domain from what they originally did. 2. "erm i don't get it." customer abandons order there and then. now contrast that to a brilliantly logical shared hosting experience https://www.bluehost.com/shared select the package and the next step is do you have a domain or do you need one. thats all we're asking for. would you therefore consider one of the biggest hosting companies in the world to only do it this way because they saw it in whmcs or is it genuinely the logical and user friendly way to do it? go to any big host and clicking on the package then gives you the option to register a new domain or input your existing domain and its crystal clear what is required of you as a customer. the hosting/domain order form needs to have a logical user flow whether linking to a package group, pricing id or registering a domain. in blesta's defence the current process of ordering a domain followed by hosting isn't too far off the mark although there could be slight refinements, however ordering a hosting package is currently a nightmare from a UX stand point.

Maybe I'm completely mistaken but the only official mention about 4.1 is domain management not the domain ordering process. I haven't come across any official line mentioning the ordering process being addressed for domains and hosting in 4.1. I've only come across a few people such as myself and naja bemoaning the current innefectual way domains are ordered but again I could be mistaken. I'd happily be corrected if I've missed an official response regarding the way domains are ordered.

Yes please! I feel like the product had a lot of traction and potential a couple years ago but it's yet to live up to its promise. So many great things were being discussed at the time and came across as imminent features but are yet to manifest. From my observations a lot of people tend to dip their toes into blesta and go running back to the market leader for hosting. Something as simple as the hosting/domain order form will go a long way to both attaining and retaining the clientele that operate in that segment of the industry. Just my 2 cents

Well i immediately just edited the client in the database to get it working, but i think NA would be a good idea. naja saves the day yet again

This has probably been mentioned a million times before but please lets work on a way to streamline the process of ordering hosting and domains for newbies. Blesta is great for people in the VPS market and up because theres a level of assumed knowledge involved but for shared hosting users who tend to be less technically inclined the process is convoluted. There are a lot of things i like about the blesta user flow and user experience but there are also a lot of areas that need desperate work. My customers tend to order hosting without realising they also need a domain name. The current problem is there's no way to add explanations for stages of the order process i.e. tooltips or field descriptions etc. My original work around was to edit a language file so the placeholder in the domain field in the cpanel module mentioned a long sentence but thats just stupid for placeholder text. The best example of a logical order form for hosting and domains is the Vertical Steps order form on WHMCS. It makes sense and anybody with half a brain can follow it regardless of whether you link directly to the package or not. I know the whole domain movement is set for 4.1 but I really hope you take into account order forms for this to be a truly viable product. So that entails logical order forms designed with ux in mind and the ability to add descriptions or tooltips to fields and or add descriptions to stages of the order process.

Hi, is it possible to automatically insert the country code into the state field for countries without states? I had a client sign up from Isle of Man and logic boxes requires the state field in order to create a client. If you can think of another work around that would be great but the state field shouldn't be empty. Thanks

Just a few ideas: Typo under switch "Switch instantly from our control panel to cPanel for manage your hosting account." should be "to manage" Random username I like the idea of random usernames however is it possible to change the order. Currently its random 4 characters followed by first 4 characters of domain. Is it possible to switch that around so its first 4 characters of domain followed by the random characters? Email switch I don't know if I'm mistaken but tasty used to have the ability to login to a specific email account. so in the drop down next to the email account which shows change password there was a login to webmail option. Could you implement something similar? In fact i think it would be best to move change quota to the dropdown and add Login to Webmail in its place. Also I don't think webmail in the switch section is particularly useful as it logs in to the default account which is generally going to be garble that nobody uses. I think it should be removed in favour for switching to the desired email account from the emails menu. Thanks for the great work =]

So I ended up manually adding the user and order in resell.biz and placing the order manually there and then activating the pending service without using the module and it works fine i.e. can update service from blesta, so I'm guessing the initial issue is on resell.biz end? Input: https://httpapi.com/api/customers/search.json a:5:{s:8:"username";s:21:"email@address.com";s:13:"no-of-records";i:10;s:7:"page-no";i:1;s:11:"auth-userid";s:6:"550721";s:7:"api-key";s:32:"xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx";} Output: https://httpapi.com/api/customers/search.json {"recsonpage":"0","recsindb":"0"} Input: https://httpapi.com/api/customers/signup.json a:16:{s:4:"name";s:12:"Customer Name";s:7:"company";s:10:"Company Name";s:5:"email";s:21:"email@address.com";s:14:"address-line-1";s:21:"1 Place Road";s:14:"address-line-2";N;s:4:"city";s:7:"Place";s:5:"state";s:2:"NY";s:7:"zipcode";s:7:"a11 1aa";s:7:"country";s:2:"UK";s:8:"phone-cc";s:2:"44";s:5:"phone";s:7:"1111111";s:8:"username";s:21:"email@address.com";s:6:"passwd";s:15:"password";s:9:"lang-pref";s:2:"en";s:11:"auth-userid";s:6:"550721";s:7:"api-key";s:32:"xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx";} Output: https://httpapi.com/api/customers/signup.json {"status":"ERROR","message":"{country\u003dCountry is invalid.}"} Input: https://httpapi.com/api/contacts/add.json a:15:{s:4:"name";s:12:"Customer Name";s:7:"company";s:10:"Company Name";s:5:"email";s:21:"email@address.com";s:14:"address-line-1";s:21:"1 Place Road";s:14:"address-line-2";N;s:4:"city";s:7:"Place";s:5:"state";s:2:"NY";s:7:"zipcode";s:7:"a11 1aa";s:7:"country";s:2:"UK";s:8:"phone-cc";s:2:"44";s:5:"phone";s:7:"1111111";s:4:"type";s:9:"UkContact";s:11:"customer-id";N;s:11:"auth-userid";s:6:"550721";s:7:"api-key";s:32:"xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx";} Output: https://httpapi.com/api/contacts/add.json {"status":"ERROR","message":"Required parameter missing: customer-id"} And then it continues outputting that error with each subsequent input. Ok so looking at it i guess it was unable to create the customer due to the country. i think i may have messed with country codes at some point not 100% sure though. is uk default blesta or is it gb? if its gb then could this change be what caused the error?

Hi I get the following error when attempting to order a .co.uk domain using logicboxes and resell.biz: Required parameter missing: customer-id Any help appreciated. Thanks

Logic boxes would be perfect but like evolve said there may be issues down the line. Hopeful not

thank you, you're truly amazing =]

Hi, urgent fix needed please. i was excited for the update because you got rid of the need to enter a password during the order process, however it seems you aren't generating a password behind the scenes when the password field is disabled as the following error happens: "Password must be at least 8 characters in length." thanks

Great update, just what the doctor ordered. sent you a donation. thanks again. ps on the package settings page where you can enable and disable features you've put subdomain twice but the second one corresponds to parked domains.