Developing subscription based payment

[Presta_Kev]

Hi everyone,

 

I am looking to create subscription based payment for my web shop. I just created this thread for a few answers and a little feedback.

 

I want to use Paypal as the payment gateway, to which Paypal handily offer a subscription base / recurring payment option.

 

Firstly, I am planning on creating a new piece of PHP that basically acts as a subscription flag. I would then use this to check each page that is loaded; if the user is a subscriber, it will load the page as normal, if not, they will be redirected to an upgrade page.

 

Using groups, I managed to restrict certain products from a user that does not fit into a certain group.

 

I was thinking about adding the Paypal subscription button in the 'My Account' page or 'Upgrade Now' page. This would require some form of submission to Paypal and retrieval of a token to confirm Payment and unblock any pages which the user is unable to view.

 

To achieve this, I need to:

- Create the piece of PHP that restricts non-subscribed users OR create PHP that restricts certain user groups (more likely).

- Edit the back office slightly to add a simple radio button to my products that determines if the user needs a subscription to view the product or not.

- Create a subscription page with a Paypal subscription button.

- General tidying and optimisation.

 

In all of your expert opinion, is there anything I have missed in these steps? Am I looking at this idea with rose tinted glasses and is it actually much harder than I predict?

 

What are your thoughts and advice for this?

 

It should also be noted that my budget for this project is as little as possible so I would prefer not to buy any modules.

 

Edit: Clarification.

 

Edit 2: I have made some progress. I have set up some user groups that only allow specific users to view a product (which in this case is a members only product) but am having trouble showing it on the products list.

 

My intention is to have all products clickable by everyone and if they are a member, view the product, if not, redirect to a subscription page. 

Edited June 6, 2014 by Presta_Kev (see edit history)