eStore – how to sell digital albums and APR pages

[patbloomfield]

I’m not sure how to best deliver collections of mp3 audio files.

I found a forum post yesterday that suggesting using Authenticated Page Redirect for selling multiple mp3 files is a collection

http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/ecommerce/using-wordpress-permalinks-as-digital-products-apr-1217

This seems to be a better alternative than zip files that mobile phone users may not be able to uncompress. The only WordPress plug-in I found zipped the files together, which may be fine when connected to a computer but probably not using a mobile device.

Assuming I can use a APR page, how do I add the links to the individual mp3s without giving away their permanent location?

Thanks in advance.

[admin]

When you are embedding a media file (in this case the mp3 file) on a page, the security of that media file will be handled via the plugin that you you will be using to embed the media file. So what plugin are you thinking of using to embed the file on the page?

[patbloomfield]

I assumed when my product was digital media, eStore handled the delivery with an encoded link that had limited download times and time-to-live.

My initial thought was to simply put the collection of products on the APR but then realised they’d be prompted to purchase each item individually.

If eStore doesn’t have this functionality for multiple items (assume it does for single) – what would you recommend as a solution?

Is there a way just to present the product links with a “download” button opposed to “add to cart”?

TIA

[wzp]

Let’s suppose you have an album with 10 songs…

You first create an APR protected page for the album. You sell access to that “album page.”

On the page, within the APR shortcodes, you place 10 free “Download Now” buttons.

The APR protection ensures that people pay for accessing the album page. Once they have access to the page, the Download Now buttons ensure they can’t directly access the files, without first going through the album page. Link access expiration is handled by the APR protected page; download obfuscation is handled by the Download Now buttons.

[patbloomfield]

Thanks wzp,

I can see that will work assuming the “Download Now” button overrides the individual track price set in the product database.

I’ll try that out

[wzp]

Yes it will.

[patbloomfield]

Sorry not to get back sooner.

Anyway, I’ve just tried it and the download works a treat

However, for some reason it displays my “Add to Cart” button. I have changed the default button in the product settings, which I’d only expected to change the “Add to Cart” Type button since it’s an image.

You can see my website at: http://www.scrambledegos.com/

I’ve used [wp_eStore_fancy_display id=8 type=4 style=2] on my APR page and expected the “Download Now” button. Clicking the button has the expected download action.

I’ve also tried [wp_eStore_download_now_button id=8], which worked but gave the same incorrect button.

Presenting the wrong button will confuse the viewer and possibly cause dis-trust.

Am I doing something wrong?

TIA

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I’ve used [wp_eStore_fancy_display id=8 type=4 style=2] on my APR page and expected the “Download Now” button. Clicking the button has the expected download action.

I’ve also tried [wp_eStore_download_now_button id=8], which worked but gave the same incorrect button.

Presenting the wrong button will confuse the viewer and possibly cause dis-trust.

Am I doing something wrong?

TIA

[patbloomfield]

I’ve just tested the full process for purchasing. Everything has gone great returning to the Thank you page.

I’m just wondering, is there anyway the APR page link can be included in the thank you message so users can access straight away?

Also on following the encrypted link from the purchase email, I notice the ‘real’ url is displayed in the browser. How can I fix this?

[wzp]

It’s okay that the “real link” is displayed. The reason is because, when you first follow the encrypted link, a secure “encrypted APR cookie” is sent to the browser; before being redirected to the APR protected page. When the browser arrives at the APR protected page, the APR shortcodes check for the presence of the encrypted cookie. No cookie, no content!

So, if a person tries to go straight away to the APR protected page, without first going through an encrypted link, they won’t see any of the content enclosed by the APR shortcodes.

[patbloomfield]

Ah, excellent thank you for confirming that. I’m testing my purchases and find that I’m able to download the first track on both my mobile phone and iMac browser. However, when I download the second or any subsequent track I’m get the following error message:

The secure download manager ran into a problem that it couldn’t handle, and is unable to process your download request. Please contact your site administrator.

Please tell the site administrator the problem was due to the following reason:

The file (on the server) containing your download couldn’t be opened.

BTW I did ammend the download link correctly to: aprtp://www.scrambledegos.com/apr/clive-richardson-escape-velocity-download/

[patbloomfield]

My APR contents looks like:

[wp_eStore_fancy_display id=26 type=4 style=2]

[wp_eStore_fancy_display id=27 type=4 style=2]

[wp_eStore_fancy_display id=28 type=4 style=2]

So I’d expect it to download the track associated with the id. The music is currently loaded on the same site running WordPress although the plan is to move to Amazon S3 once we get up and running.

[wzp]

Because the tracks have already been “paid for,” your APR content should instead be using the wp_eStore_download_now_button_fancy shortcodes.

[patbloomfield]

I now have:

[wp_eStore_download_now_button_fancy_no_price id=26]

[wp_eStore_download_now_button_fancy_no_price id=27]

I’m still seeing same problem after creating a fresh order. When I go back to APR page it re-downloads the first listed audio file again.

The page displays fine except for using “Add to Cart” button instead of “Download Now”, which we’ll need to fix too.

Sorry I’m keeping you busy this afternoon

[wzp]

Products 26, 27 and 28 (the tracks) should have product URI pointing to the actual music files.

Your album should have a product URI pointing to the APR protected page.

Your sales page should sell access to the album and/or the individual tracks.

The APR protected (album) page should contain…

[wp_eStore_APR expiry=0 status=unexpired]

[wp_eStore_download_now_button_fancy id=26]

[wp_eStore_download_now_button_fancy id=27]

[wp_eStore_download_now_button_fancy id=28]

[wp_eStore_APR]

[patbloomfield]

Excellent.

The provider of the audio files had used inconsistent file naming in use of cases and underscores causing copy and paste errors.

Correcting that and adding the opening and closing statements have resolved this issue

I’m still seeing the Add to Cart buttons in the wp_eStore_download_now_button_fancy objects – is there a fix for this or is this just the way it works?

I won’t be able to follow up any response until next week but thank you for your continued support.

[Author]

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