Custom Server/Provisioning Modules

[hireahit]

I've got a home-grown server management system that is capable of provisioning services on my servers, I'm working on integrating WHMCS into my existing infrastructure for billing, as well as processing of new orders.

 

My current backend is a "domains and services" database that just contains domains, fields to indicate the type of service the user purchased, a few other on/off toggles and a password field. My current work-flow is that I add/update/remove domains from this database as needed based on a manual billing process.

 

What would be the best way to integrate WHMCS?

 

The options that come to mind would be:

 

1) To develop (or pay to have developed) a pseudo-provisioning module similar to autorelease that also modifies a MySQL table to provision services. I can either have my scripts use an API call to notify WHMCS that provisioning is complete, or WHMCS can simply assume that the account creation was successful.

 

2) Rewrite my code to query WHMCS' database directly, and rely entirely on autorelease.

 

#2 looks fairly possible, but I'm not sure if this is a good idea or likely to get me into trouble in the future? The only other issue I stumbled across when I started looking at options here some months ago was the inability to change the password associated with a hosting package on the autorelease module, and the inability to customize addons/configuration options/whatever after the initial purchase.

 

Any thoughts as to the best direction?

[Kabaka]

What would be the best way to integrate WHMCS?

 

The options that come to mind would be:

 

1) To develop (or pay to have developed) a pseudo-provisioning module similar to autorelease that also modifies a MySQL table to provision services. I can either have my scripts use an API call to notify WHMCS that provisioning is complete, or WHMCS can simply assume that the account creation was successful.

 

I suggest starting here: http://wiki.whmcs.com/Creating_Modules (and then hit the "Server/Provisioning Module Development Kit" link).

 

Unless your provision process is humorously time-consuming, everything you need to do should fit in one nice package. ;-)