Market Connect - WHMCS utterly confusing and no documentation

[slim]

Hi

 

I'm trying to roll out Weebly via market connect however before I unleash it I need to understand how it works.

 

I'm stuck understanding the difference between a customer purchasing it as an ADD ON to an existing or new cPanel hosting account and simply just purchasing it.

 

In the client area, the customer seems to be able to purchase any of the three Weebly plans - However, I cannot see this working as I have not configured nor am able to configure those products to create a specific plan on a specific hosting server. So from what I can see, it would create a Weebly product that has nowhere to go?

 

There is ZERO documentation on this.

 

It also seems to be purchasable as an 'add on' product, however, I can't see this working for me as I would want a dedicated plan on my cPanel servers for this rather than customers being able to add on Weebly to existing sites.

 

Can someone explain how the hell this works?!

[slim]

OK, I tried ordering this from my test client area - Not as an add-on to an existing hosting, but simply following the links setup automatically by WHMCS when enabling the system.

 

So from the client area, I did this:

 

Go to Website & Security -> Website Builder

Clicked 'Sign Up' on the Pro plan.

Chose an existing domain I had registered and completed the checkout

 

After activating the product in the admin area I can see it provisioned Weebly - HOWEVER, I cannot publish the site as there is no cPanel account. I cannot see how I can even make this work. If I go to the admin area -> Setup -> Products/Services -> Products/Services -> and then edit any of the Three Weebly plans, I cannot specify a cpanel plan or anything?

 

I would love to know how they expect people to use this thing. Perhaps it's ONLY supposed to be purchased as an add-on? If so, why do the signup links let someone purchase it without a hosting plan?

 

Please, someone, fill me in asap - I have clients waiting.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

P.S I'm willing to pay for someone's time if they can help me over the phone with this setup.

[WHMCS Andrew]

There is some documentation for Weebly with Market Connect at https://docs.whmcs.com/Weebly_via_WHMCS_MarketConnect

 

When purchasing Weebly as an Addon to a hosting account (with cPanel, but also with Plesk and DirectAdmin from WHMCS 7.3) WHMCS will automatically connect to the product server to create an FTP account for Weebly and provision the Weebly account using those FTP details. Once this is setup, the client would use the Login Link from the client area to be directed to Weebly to create the site and eventually publish it.

 

 

When purchasing as a standalone product, the FTP account details would need to be provided manually on the product to then be configured. Once configured, the same link to login to the Weebly site will appear in the Client Area for the client to create their site and publish it.

 

An admin user can also login to the Weebly account for the client from the Admin area.

 

All site creation and publishing is done at Weebly.

 

 

Again, just to clarify, the only thing WHMCS does is creates and configures the Weebly account. Everything else is done inside the client Weebly account.

[slim]

Hi

 

Thanks for the reply, but its of no real help.

 

I think what your telling me is that if a customer falls for the marketing material on the purpose built landing pages and clicks the sign up button, they end up buying a product thats actually non functional - Of no use to them unless we configure it somehow to link to an existing FTP/Hosting account.

 

Can I ask, what good is this?

 

I'll answer that for you - Its USELESS.

 

For a start, weebly's advertised plans include hosting (at weebly). Why would a customer expect the prices advertised not to inlcude hosting? WTF. Unless im missing somthing, this is just another half baked integration without any real thought gone into real life usage.

 

I was hoping for somthing better.

 

Why the heck do you allow customers to buy it as a standalone product if its not functional? Crazy.

[slim]

I really need some help with this.

 

Is there someone I can call and speak to? I cannot make heads nor tails of how this is supposed to work.

 

Is there anyone else actually selling this product and if so, can you tell me how it works when someone 'buys' it from the client area? It would appear the client doesnt get a website - they just get weebly. (not much good to them).

[brian!]

I really need some help with this.

Is there someone I can call and speak to? I cannot make heads nor tails of how this is supposed to work.

https://forum.whmcs.com/showthread.php?129310-Market-Connect-Prices&p=517022#post517022

 

if you go to Weebly direct, they host the site; if you order it through MarketConnect, then it's hosted on your servers.

The weebly services we offer don't have weebly host their sites, as part of our auto provisioning we make a ftp account that weebly uses to publish their site to your server where it remains hosted. DNS points to your server and if the customer chooses to publish a different website or install a CMS, it can overwrite what weebly wrote.

 

Is there anyone else actually selling this product and if so, can you tell me how it works when someone 'buys' it from the client area? It would appear the client doesn't get a website - they just get weebly. (not much good to them).

that's right - you're doing the hosting.

 

https://docs.whmcs.com/Weebly_via_WHMCS_MarketConnect

https://marketplace.whmcs.com/connect/faq

 

How do customers manage their websites?

Upon purchase, a Weebly Site Builder account will be created for your customers automatically. They will then have the option to login and build their site from your WHMCS client area - both via the homepage and the product details view for an individual hosting account. Login is taken care of via SSO so theres no separate login details to remember.

Who hosts the website created in the Weebly Site Builder?

You do. Whenever the customer completes the creation of their website and hits the publish button, Weebly will connect to your web server and publish the site via FTP.

also, it's worth remembering that Weebly do have their own WHMCS module available if you want to resell Weebly-hosted accounts - Weebly Website Builder - I suspect that it's still working with v7.2, but you may want to confirm that with Weebly.

[slim]

Hi Brian

 

Thanks for this - I kind of worked out that using Market Connect, we do the hosting - Im fine with this - as long as the automation flow works this way, but it doesnt.

 

A client can buy the 'weebly' service - not attached to a hosting account. So therefore it doesnot work. The order comes through for the weebly product - But what good is it to them?

 

There is also the issue of pricing - I cant see how its even close to competitive. As it stands its not usable. Im happy for someone who thinks it is to educate me thou.

[brian!]

Hi slim,

 

Thanks for this - I kind of worked out that using Market Connect, we do the hosting - Im fine with this - as long as the automation flow works this way, but it doesnt.

A client can buy the 'weebly' service - not attached to a hosting account. So therefore it does not work. The order comes through for the weebly product - But what good is it to them?

you always have the option of removing the weebly products and just selling them as product addons, and defining which products they can be an addons to.

 

There is also the issue of pricing - I cant see how its even close to competitive.

it isn't.

 

As it stands its not usable. I'm happy for someone who thinks it is to educate me thou.

i'm not the man for that job - I haven't liked MC from the very first moment I heard about it, then when I saw the horrendous implementation (seemingly launched before the coding was ready - no change there!), the products, the pricing... the whole concept... not for me.

[bear]

the horrendous implementation (seemingly launched before the coding was ready - no change there!), the products, the pricing... the whole concept... not for me.

 

^^ This. :agree: