webjive

@ninja, i created a WHMCS hook for it using the PHP cPanel API but, thats not the best way to handle that. The cPanel JSON is the better way but, not that good of a coder, more of a good sales guy @modulesbakery, hopefully I explained it. I can name a lot of hosting companies that do this. They seem to have coded something up internally and don't share. Here is how other hosting companies handle it. http://my.aspirationhosting.com/knowledgebase/1429/Do-you-provide-a-Temporary-URL-.html Others just use the cPanel temp URL which has a lot of security implications because those bypass bandwidth accounting and you can hide phishing links when accounting is bypassed making them hard to spot. Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions

@Licensecart the question becomes, how do you automate this subdomain creation on new account setup. We have been down this road a couple hundred times and the answers vary.

Clients want to see progress on a site build and they can't remember IP's, but they an remember URL's

@Alpha.. sure.. When you setup a new cPanel account (hosting) (with Apache - standard config), sometimes the client purchases and domain from us so they can see their website shortly after the account setup in cPanel. When someone purchases a domain from Godaddy and wants to keep an old site live until the new one is ready to show, they will purchase hosting from us and start development. When this new account gets setup on our server with the old site and domain running on say godaddy, there is no way to FTP or view the development site from our server unless you use an IP address or enable the Apache mod_userdir. So, what we do is create a development domain for them. We have several domains on our server that belong to us. So, we will use their cpanel account name prefixed to one of our development URL's so they have a URL that works instead of an IP (a temporary development URL). So, if Joe's Hardware purchased an account, the cpanel account would be something like joeshard . What we do is create a parked domain via WHM on top of their account and it looks like this - joeshard.webjiveclient.com Then the client can use joeshard.webjiveclient.com/index.php, etc. to see their WP or Joomla website. What's needed (and we have talked to modules garden about this, and they are going to build one for WHMCS) is a module that creates these types of parked domains when an account is created. There needs to be a setting in the products setup (checkbox) so that it can be enabled per product because some services might not require a temporary domain. Does this make sense? Avoiding Apache mod_userdir also keeps users from getting around bandwidth tracking which is why we don't use it. Or am I over-complicatign this and there is an easier way to give someone a temporary domain without having to create parked domains?

@Alpha, he has domain parking but, not automatic parking for new account domains on top of an existing system domain

PERFECT! Another feature request I would have is to have the ability to create parked domains for new accounts (BIG feature request for a long time with WHMCS and cPanel). When a user gets a new cPanel account without a domain (they may have purchased that via godaddy or other), they only way to access it is vial IP or heaven forbid, Apache mod_userdir. What we do by hand now is, use one of our existing domains (1lpw.net) and then login to WHM and park a new domain using the clients account name.ilpw.net so they can get to their new hosting account vial something like myaccount.1lpw.net Thoughts? We have been purchasing from Modulesgarden for a while but, we're growing weary of WHMCS and their single company/brand approach. We're wanting to have all sorts of offerings and brands and Blesta seems to be the only logical answer. Bad news is, MG was contracted to build WHMCS only products. Good news, it leaves the door open for other entrepreneurs to come in and blow it out with Blesta

Quick question. Why choose Softaculous over Installatron? We chose Installatron because their support is way faster and the API seems more robust. Thanks!

@ninja7host No worries about paid.. Like most in here, I don't mind paying for great products and support. We also paid modules garden to create a custom cPanel restore feature for cPanelExtended. We're timing a move to blesta to get away from the WHMCS monolithic system! We are cPanel/WHM only and the DNS module would help us make that move P.S. WHMCS support is getting worse by the month. When you ask them a simple dev API question, they give sparse answers with a canned use one of the WHMCS developers in the forums and never really answer questions.

Agree! Need to be able to sell domins like Godaddy and have it so that people can manage their DNS but, not have a hosting account. Managing the cPanel DNS is easy from their PHP API. A full module for this would be great so that we can use our eNom reseller account to sell only domains+dns and have it all managed via Blesta.

This would be great for clients that want to purchase domain names and manage their DNS from our company vs having to have a fully cPanel account in order to manage their DNS. A module would fit that bill perfectly since cPanel DNS can be fully managed via their API.

+1 for Installatron. We have had WAY better luck with their support and stability of the product.

Agree totally, WHMCS is a single company billing product and we are shoe-horning that functionality onto it. The big challenge we face right now with the switch is all the WHMCS add ons we run. One biggie is cPanel extended, which we just paid for more customization for Modules Garden to add the ability for clients to restore previous days (restore points) form the WHMCS client area instead of logging their cPanel to do it. The reason for all these customizations is that our support calls are way higher when we have clients trying to deal with cPanel vs WHMCS's client area screens that we can tweak, unlike cPanel screens. I feel that by the time BLESTA hits 3.4 or better, it will be closer to feature parity with WHMCS and we can start looking into a move, if it makes business sense. But, with companies like Modules Garden turning out high quality add ons for WHMCS, it's hard to break the "lets fix it" with another add-on mentality. I wish there were another development company with the pockets that Modules Garden has that would dedicate time to Blesta to create more of these powerhouse add ons. Also there doesn't seem to be a Blesta page where developers can list their addons so that we have companies to reach out to.

@servzoo, I think what we're seeing is that we both have different needs for our respective businesses. Right now our model is multi-brand with shared staff, under one company. After being in IT and management for a few decades, I can see where some things would fall through the cracks if we don't have visibility into all tickets, etc. from a central spot in the system in a shared staffing model. This is why we invested in having InTouch built for WHMCS, to have a single backend with multiple customer portals. GoHigherIS, the developers, have taken it way beyond what we had originally scoped out with them based on customer feedback and it's in the sweet spot right now. But, where WHMCS falls short is actually being able to handle true multi-brands on the frontend via multiple URL's. Even that scenario has its challenges when it comes to SSL certs since all the code lives in a single cPanel account. That presents another set of challenges. What I would be discouraged to see is that Blesta sticks with a single model, which would make some companies forgo switching to another system because there's no latitude to consider other business models.

Somewhat agree.. Just as much effort goes in on the support side of the system and when mistakes happen, or things get missed, customers get angry. Having the Blesta admin be more multi-company cohesive would cut down on this. The more manual steps you have, the easier it is to overlook small things or make mistakes. We've made our share! I agree that Blesta has a true multi-xxx offering but, having to switch between them on the backend isn't optimal in a support/customer support role. The support staff's experience is almost as important as the customers... This is a good discussion and I hope the take-away opens up the door for a better admin solution. I just don't think widgets are the full answer for the support experience. It needs to be more seamless with visual queues as to what client/company your working with either via template overrides or content highlighting or other visual queues.

I had some time to think about this over the weekend... For us, having multi-brand is important which is why we're using WHMCS and Intouch from GoHigherIS.com. Now, this solution isn't optimal but, what it has taught us is the importance of having a backend that makes it easy for support and management to keep up with activities. Here's what I mean by that.. Right now Blesta has you switch between brands/companies via a dropdown whereas WHMCS/InTouch differentiates clients via Client Groups. IMHO, this is method is better than a widget showing numbers then having to again manually switch to the company you want to manage on the backend. Dropping the company selector on the backend and using coloring to differentiate clients would be way easier on support and billing staff IMHO, OR having the admin seamlessly switch when clicking links to handle tickets, then have a HOME link somewhere to take you back to a master admin screen for all company views. Another way to handle this make company switching seamless depending on the task (support, invoices, emails, etc). and use template overrides to color the headers differently so that you know which company your operating in. The whole single admin, client group approach has grown on us with WHMCS, even if it isn't true multi-brand. Trust me, we're all looking for that unicorn to help us break the WHMCS monopoly... Thoughts?

Yes, something like a dashboard so you can see outstanding tickets, invoices, and other relevant info so that operators aren't having to be proactively switching around to find open items.

Agreed, they present their challenges. A dashboard widget would probably solve the issue or, maybe a bar across the top of the page (see attached image) since you have a lot of unused real-estate. The you could have a birds-eye view of all open tickets. That's where we spend a majority of our time, tickets. When its out of sight, it's out of mind for staff.

Thanks. Not quite what I was hoping for. The multi-brand we are looking for (I could be way off base on expectations) is a multi-brand frontend with an admin login where you don't have to switch between companies. For instance, when you go to look at invoices, your seeing all invoices for all brands and they are highlighted depending on which brand or client group they belong too. The most important is when a communication goes out, that it's completely branded as well. This way operators don't have to switch between backend brands and can see everything from outstanding ticket, invoices, etc. I'm not sure but, with your approach, you would have to switch in the backend to see any new tickets, correct?

Its great to see that Blesta can be multi-company/multi-brand. What we're looking for is multiple brands with URL's but, just one backend URL to manage support and billing from. Can Blesta do this? The reason I ask is, switching between backends for support people adds to the headaches. Thanks

Just spotted this on the Joomla extensions directory. J!Blesta. Integrates Blesta with Joomla. Now you can have access to 10,000's of Joomla designs with blesta http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/miscellaneous/misc-bridges/26237 We use this for WHMCS integration and have been waiting for Blesta integration for our new web property to get away from WHMCS.

We would love to see a quote system as well. We're looking to defect from WHMCS and the quote system is a big part of our web design business. We started using the WHMCS quote system a little over a year ago and we're now up to 1300 quotes. One of the big downsides to the WHMCS quote system is, it does't let you assign prospects to a group (WHMCS doesn't support multi-company) so, you have to turn to a third-part module for that. For us to move all of our web companies over, we would need a quoting tool that sends a prospect a link to view and accept the quote and once that quote hits the system, the ability for us to convert it to an invoice with the option to split it if needed. As you can see, a quote system should not be tied to a PM system since it needs more features that it seems. Thoughts?