[how to] Upgrade Package Configuration
Common practice in the software industry is to offer a perpetual product with an included upgrade period. This period is usually 6 months to 1 year. After the initial period expires customers have the option to (but are not required to) renew their upgrade package. Without the renewal the customer can no longer download the latest release. In this post I’ll show you how to configure PHPAudit to enforce upgrade periods.
This post assumes you have a working PHPAudit installation, order system and at least one product configured.
1. Start by logging into the PHPAudit admin area, follow this path:
- Click “Upgrade Packages” in the left menu
- Click “Add a new upgrade package”
2. Next, we need to create a package for the initial upgrade period:
- “Order System Availability:” Choose “Do not show in any order system”
- “Default Checkbox Status:” Choose “Checked, not allowed to uncheck”
- “Upgrade Package Term:” Enter 1 and choose “Year”
- “Upgrade Package Cost:” Leave blank or enter 0
3. Now we need to create the renewal package:
- “Order System Availability:” Choose “Browse Extras Only”
- “Default Checkbox Status:” Choose “Unchecked”
- “Upgrade Package Term:” Enter 1 and choose “Year”
- “Upgrade Package Cost:” Enter the cost of the upgrade package
4. Finally, add the upgrade packages from step #2 and #3 to the product:
- Find your product and click “Manage”
- Expand the “Upgrade Packages” group and check the boxes to add the package to the product.
- Save the form and the configuration is complete.
4a. As an alternative to step #4 above, you can also add the upgrade packages at the pricing level. This powerful feature allows you to assign custom upgrade packages within different pricing tiers for a single product. Here’s how:
- Find your product and click “Manage”
- Expand the “Product Pricing” group and click “Edit” or “Click to add new pricing”.
- In the resulting pop-up window at the bottom of the form, choose the package for the pricing tier.
- Save the form and the configuration is complete.
Customers will now have the initial upgrade term included automatically with each new order! When it comes time for renewal, the customer will need to complete the following steps:
- Find the original order and click “View”
- Look for “Order Product Extras:” and click “Buy new addons, support and upgrade packages”
This “how to” article covers a question we are often asked. If you have a suggestion for a new article let us know. Enjoy the article and feel free to add comments 
Tags: configuration, PHPAudit, upgrade packages
September 11th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
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