Migration & Licensing System Questions

[jljr222]

Hello,

 

I've actually never heard of Blesta before and I've been using WHMCS for all of my billing needs since 2008.  It's getting to the point where I want to see if there is something better, but do not want to move unless the product we are moving to has a clear advantage over our current product.

 

Our Use: We use WHMCS as a billing and support system to manage our software licenses we distribute.  I have read you have a licensing module, but don't see any information, examples, demo anywhere.  Screenshots would be helpful.

 

Our Needs: In order to move we would obviously need some sort of seamless migration tool that would import the data from WHMCS into Blesta.  This would also be true for the licensing tool as well.

 

This question is general, but what's Blesta's selling point?  What makes you better than the competitors around you?

 

Appreciate the time you've taken to answer any questions I have and thank you!

[Michael]

Our Use: We use WHMCS as a billing and support system to manage our software licenses we distribute. I have read you have a licensing module, but don't see any information, examples, demo anywhere. Screenshots would be helpful.

Blesta does have one you can find information here: http://docs.blesta.com/display/user/License+Module and http://docs.blesta.com/display/user/License+Manager and there's even pictures there .

 

Our Needs: In order to move we would obviously need some sort of seamless migration tool that would import the data from WHMCS into Blesta. This would also be true for the licensing tool as well.

I'm not sure about the Importer for Blesta from WHMCS imports licenses Paul and the guys will know I will point them here for you.

 

This question is general, but what's Blesta's selling point? What makes you better than the competitors around you?

 

I don't work for Blesta, but Blesta selling point(s) for me are: Security, usability and clean code. When I used WHMCS before 2013, their consent updates and breaking stuff was too much, their security was awful which is why I moved to Blesta.

As for ClientExec, when I was helping a client move over (due to no importer) I had to keep asking her stuff because I couldn't find anything, it just was confusing and I didn't want to break anything.

Hope it helps.

[Paul]

The license manager is made up of 2 parts:

 

License Manager (plugin): http://docs.blesta.com/display/user/License+Manager 

License Module: http://docs.blesta.com/display/user/License+Module

 

The license plugin serves as the license server. The module creates licenses.

 

Blesta includes an Import Manager plugin, that allows migrating from WHMCS. See http://docs.blesta.com/display/user/Migrating+to+Blesta

 

The importer should import license services from WHMCS, however they will be imported using the Universal Module. Their method of licensing is not compatible with ours, which is not possible to circumvent without decoding and nulling. It's much better designed overall. You may find this an interesting read - http://www.blesta.com/2012/03/30/blesta-3-0-software-licensing/

[jljr222]

The license manager is made up of 2 parts:

 

License Manager (plugin): http://docs.blesta.com/display/user/License+Manager 

License Module: http://docs.blesta.com/display/user/License+Module

 

The license plugin serves as the license server. The module creates licenses.

 

Blesta includes an Import Manager plugin, that allows migrating from WHMCS. See http://docs.blesta.com/display/user/Migrating+to+Blesta

 

The importer should import license services from WHMCS, however they will be imported using the Universal Module. Their method of licensing is not compatible with ours, which is not possible to circumvent without decoding and nulling. It's much better designed overall. You may find this an interesting read - http://www.blesta.com/2012/03/30/blesta-3-0-software-licensing/

 

The importer currently says 5.2, what about WHMCS 5.3?  We use the latest release so that would be key for us.

 

So when we import our clients products, the module for our products will default to universal?  How will change them to be your licensing addon?  Is there any easy way to accomplish this?  Apologies if I'm not making sense

[Paul]

The importer currently says 5.2, what about WHMCS 5.3?  We use the latest release so that would be key for us.

 

So when we import our clients products, the module for our products will default to universal?  How will change them to be your licensing addon?  Is there any easy way to accomplish this?  Apologies if I'm not making sense

 

It works with 5.3, they haven't changed the database schema.

 

Modules for which there is a mapping file will be imported using the module in Blesta, however WHMCS's licensing system works so very differently than ours, it's not advised to map them across. You will need to update your code in your software products to work with our licensing. This makes migrating licensing more difficult because you need to:

 

1. Update your code, so that it works with our licensing system.

2. Issue new license keys in Blesta that can be used for your software products going forward.

 

We have considered offering a new licensing type when adding license module products called "whmcs legacy" or similar, and emulating their licensing system. It hasn't been a high priority, and their licensing system is so bad we wouldn't want people to use it unless they have to.

 

Feel free to give me a call if you want to discuss tomorrow. 714-398-8132 x100. I'm here M-F 8am-4:30pm pacific time. I'm curious what types of products you're licensing. I'm sure your situation is unique, and I may be able to suggest a particular approach.

[jljr222]

It works with 5.3, they haven't changed the database schema.

 

Modules for which there is a mapping file will be imported using the module in Blesta, however WHMCS's licensing system works so very differently than ours, it's not advised to map them across. You will need to update your code in your software products to work with our licensing. This makes migrating licensing more difficult because you need to:

 

1. Update your code, so that it works with our licensing system.

2. Issue new license keys in Blesta that can be used for your software products going forward.

 

We have considered offering a new licensing type when adding license module products called "whmcs legacy" or similar, and emulating their licensing system. It hasn't been a high priority, and their licensing system is so bad we wouldn't want people to use it unless they have to.

 

Feel free to give me a call if you want to discuss tomorrow. 714-398-8132 x100. I'm here M-F 8am-4:30pm pacific time. I'm curious what types of products you're licensing. I'm sure your situation is unique, and I may be able to suggest a particular approach.

Thanks, I'll see if I can give you a ring.  I want to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding, but I assumed we would have to change the way our products makes licensing checks.  The problem, as you mentioned, is that we have so many clients who do not update the software and it would simply stop working once we switch to Blesta.  I don't want to piss off hundreds of people because of a billing system change we've made.

 

We actually create addons for a forum software company and we are using the licensing module for WHMCS to handle the different license types we offer (single-use) and (unlimited).  That's essentially it.  We also want to do things like free trails and limited trails, etc.

 

My question originally was more along the lines of how the data is imported into Blesta from WHMCS.  So if we have a user with 1 of our products (single-use).  When it's imported is the module for that product automatically set to the Blesta license module or is it set to Universal Module?  If it's Universal, then how could we mass change those modules to the Licensing Module for Blesta?

[Blesta Addons]

What i suggest youbto do now before importing , is test blesta and licence module .

Then try to code a passerel from the old url of cheking licence to the blesta one via api , then you have saved all your old licence for check . In new release or update add the blesta licence url and check .

[jljr222]

I definitely plan to do testing.

 

How long does the free trail last?  What we may have to do is develop our own licensing module for blesta that follows the WHMCS model for our older clients.

 

Just want to know if we have enough time to make sure Blesta does what we need.

 

It's funny that I'm moving to Blesta since I'm the one who designed WHMCS' current web site (many years ago).

[Michael]

I definitely plan to do testing.

 

How long does the free trail last?  What we may have to do is develop our own licensing module for blesta that follows the WHMCS model for our older clients.

 

Just want to know if we have enough time to make sure Blesta does what we need.

 

It's funny that I'm moving to Blesta since I'm the one who designed WHMCS' current web site (many years ago).

 

30 days. Nice I used to bow to WHMCS back in the day but they became a joke.

[Paul]

I definitely plan to do testing.

 

How long does the free trail last?  What we may have to do is develop our own licensing module for blesta that follows the WHMCS model for our older clients.

 

Just want to know if we have enough time to make sure Blesta does what we need.

 

It's funny that I'm moving to Blesta since I'm the one who designed WHMCS' current web site (many years ago).

 

I can extend or issue you a new trial, just email me at sales, PM me, or open a ticket. No kidding, you did their current site? I guess I always assumed they did it in house. I do all the design for Blesta, the current website and the admin and client UI.

[jljr222]

I can extend or issue you a new trial, just email me at sales, PM me, or open a ticket. No kidding, you did their current site? I guess I always assumed they did it in house. I do all the design for Blesta, the current website and the admin and client UI.

Thank you!  Yup, it looked MUCH better back then, but its their design now.  I've offered to redesign the site for them numerous times, but it seems they've moved on.

 

I see you're using Bootstrap, looks like I'm going to have to make your themes compatible with Foundation .

 

Oh and any plans to make the admin cp responsive?  I just made a theme for WHMCS that makes their admin cp look better and responsive.

[Paul]

Thank you!  Yup, it looked MUCH better back then, but its their design now.  I've offered to redesign the site for them numerous times, but it seems they've moved on.

 

I see you're using Bootstrap, looks like I'm going to have to make your themes compatible with Foundation .

 

Oh and any plans to make the admin cp responsive?  I just made a theme for WHMCS that makes their admin cp look better and responsive.

 

Awesome! We tentatively have plans to make the admin responsive, but it will not be for a while. The admin area is rather complex as it contains many more views than the client area. It will take a lot of work and we haven't had a lot of requests for it so it's not really high on the priority list at the moment.

[Blesta Addons]

Awesome! We tentatively have plans to make the admin responsive, but it will not be for a while. The admin area is rather complex as it contains many more views than the client area. It will take a lot of work and we haven't had a lot of requests for it so it's not really high on the priority list at the moment.

@Paul , can you ate least make the admin template selectable like the client one, and let the rest for us (the developpers) .