New plugin: WP Chargify
Posted on February 2, 2011
Early last year we were contacted by Jason Glaspey who was looking for a custom WordPress plugin. He wanted a plugin that would let a site admin hide content from the general public but make it available to paid members. While there are several plugins like that already available, this one would be different in that it would use Chargify as the payment processor. We agreed to the project and he hired us to build WP Chargify.
Shortly after delivering the finished product, circumstances beyond Jason’s control forced him to shelf the project. Even though we had been paid for the project, we were still bummed since we like to see the plugins we write get used. After a few months went by, we didn’t really expect anything to happen with the plugin. We had basically written it off. Until last month…
Last month we were contacted by two people who both had copies of the plugin. Jason had sent them our way saying that if they needed help, we were the guys to contact. After we helped them both out, Jason and I talked about the project and what the next step might be for the plugin. After a short discussion, we both agreed that making the plugin available to the WordPress community was the best thing to do!
Here are some questions you may be wondering:
What does that mean?
Jason, the original owner of the code, is making the plugin a free, open source plugin. So that means, the WP Chargify plugin is available for you to download, use, modify or whatever else you want to do with it.
Will more features be added?
We (9seeds) will manage the plugin project, but it is being released as-is and at this time we have no plans to continue development on it. However, if you make any enhancements to the plugin that you think others could use as well, you can submit the patch to us and we will be happy to merge it in and release it at our discretion.
What if I find a bug?
You are welcome to submit a bug ticket and hopefully somebody in the community will be able to assist. We will be monitoring the forum as well. If you need help in a more urgent fashion, you can contact us and we’ll be happy to provide an estimate.
Why would you release it if you don’t plan to support it?
This plugin isn’t going to be for everybody. Hopefully another developer will find it, be able to make use of it and eventually take over continuing development on the project. If we can give that developer a head start with the code we’ve already written than it’s totally worth it.
If you are a developer and interested in being part of the development team for WP Chargify, be sure to let us know!
This seems like a great plugin. I have a question though. I tried downloading it, and I can't figure out how the plugin is suppose to recognize a paying customer from a normal visitor, since no username and password are generated or requested. How will the the recognition of paying customers take place?
A username is generated by using the email address and then a password is generated randomly by WordPress. The registration info is then emailed to the user. They will have to log in to be recognized at that point
Will this work only when using a live Chargify account, because I've tried signing up through my test chargify account, and it doesn't seem to auto generate a user for me.
It should create users in test mode as well. The flow is 1) Go to chargify page on your blog, fill out first, last and email and click one of the chargify subscription levels 2) Redirected to chargify where mayment info is typed in 3) Redirected back to the chargify page on your blog where your "thank you" message is displayed. Doublecheck the setup in the instructions located at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/chargify/inst... and make sure all the steps were followed. Especially step #6.
I uploaded your plugin and everything works good, only problem is that when I set the Signup Type to API Style the form populates but there is no submit button. But if I change it to default the submit button is there. Any clue? Thank you, Omar
How about making a plugin this plugin work with Recurly? Is that possible?
We've had requests for getting this plugin working with other processors, but we aren't working on the plugin. Anybody who'd like to is welcome to use what we've built as a base and run with it.
I would be interested to see this integrated in with Wishlist Member membership plugin. http://www.wishlistmember.com Now that would be a POWERFUL combination. Any developers up to the task? What would it take to do this?