WP e-Customer (beta) is an all-in-one solution for running an online business using Wordpress. The goal of WP e-Customer is to
avoid having to install more than 10 separate customer service and business management plugins. The reason for an all-in-one approach is to maximize integration across all services and deliver
something not yet found in a Wordpress plugin. Sure there are great plugins that offer add-ons and their integration is good. They cost a fortune and could
still be better especially on the integration. They lack the ultimate integration and most developers get very carried away with the whole add-on approach
to a point where the core plugin you paid a lot for does not change much. Why would it if they can push more cash out of your with another add-on, right?
What It Does Right Now
Not a lot as it has been one week of development but it does already have functionality. New subscribers must activate their
WP e-Customers access as this plugin leaves Wordpress "subscribers" as it is, we don't mess around with that. On activation a visitor will find they have
access to a Downloads page. Webmasters can create and manage downloads using a custom post type. All in the very early stages. One of the downloads screens
is intended for premium products. We will be integrating that with our cart plugin until we have our own cart in WP e-Customers. So the intention is to
offer and control the download of digital goods. Lastly we can currently ban domains from being used in registration. They attempt can be made but WP e-Customers
will reject the submission and no new user is created in the database.
In Development (alpha/beta)
The release here on
Wordpress.org is technically a beta. It is an early glimpse (less than 1%) of the plugin we have planned. Development is ongoing and we created this
plugin for our own use. Meaning development and testing will be constant. We'll be using our own software every single day to run our business.
That is good news for anyone interested in the coming premium edition.
Initial upload and activation as guided by
Wordpress.org standard plugin installation.
- Upload the
wp-e-customers folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
- Activate the WP e-Customers plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress
- Configure the plugin by going to the Settings screen
- Login to your blog as a subscriber and examine the screens offered to the lowest level of users
- Create digital dowloads in the Downloads post type (the file paths must be directory i.e. they should not have http:// in them at this time)