VPS/Dedicated Server + More

[Adam]

Hey,

I noticed a few things in WHMCS that I think would be helpful so I posting them below :)

1. VPS and Dedicated Orders
When some one signs up for one of these, it's nice to keep their IP's on our system (the IP's that I give them to use for the server) and as well as how much each dedicated server or VPS server cost.
Keeping their IP's in the system will make sending out welcome emails for dedicated servers and VPS much easier. So far, I have been sending out tickets for each VPS or dedicated server I have been getting, which includes their IP's (around 5 or more)
As for keeping track on how much each server cost would be nice too. I mean when I get paid for a vps or dedicated server I don't get 100% of that money I have to pay for the space, power, internet, control panel software and what not. So I think we should have an option of how much each VPS or dedicated server cost. Maybe per plan or per client?

2. Client Area - Big News!
I think it would be cool if in the client area we could maybe have a new section where we can post information to people about their website. We all ready have the news, how ever what if we have news for only people on server A or people on server A with shared hosting or just all shared hosting clients and what not? Maybe have different news per client?

3. Client Area - Calendar!
Since news and getting information is a big deal, what if we have a calendar support that tells the clients, we are going to be doing server upgrades from this time to this time, or your payment is to due in X days (would go awsome with the new pro-rated billing). Somthing easy to look at and tell when the payment is due and on what day.

4. Client Area - If this then show that!
I'm not sure if WHMCS current supports this as I have not been in the client area that much! But if a person has an unpaid invoice could we get a big red table to apper on the top of the page or some bigger text telling the client, when he or she is on everypage when he logs into the system that he or she has an unpaid invoice? I have seen many of my clients miss this! I'm not sure if the template has that option and I just need to take it out and put it in it's own table or what. Or is this going to be apart of the new template system in v2.5?

Think thats all for now! Sorry if the post is long!

From,
Adam

[xxkylexx]

Some great suggestions, Adam!

[WickedShark]

yes all great suggestions.

[Harrison]

1. Cannot you use a custom product field that is admin only and you add the IP and then send the welcome email? As for the price you'd have to edit the transaction.

2. AKA Email? lol, only joking with you mate. Sounds like a new idea! I believe RSS feeds are coming in with 2.5 so you could always do something with that.

3. Yeah, I can see where the caldenar would work. Nice idea.

4. Good suggestion.

[DataHosts]

I use a custom field in the Admin Area to keep track of all IP's, and other information on my dedicated server clients. I thought the same thing, but Matt informed me that when you create a custom field you can set it so only the Admin sees it, or all clients see it.

Works great....will solve this request.

[Adam]

Hey,

*Bump*

From,
Adam

[Adam]

Hey,

Any word from Matt about this?

From,
Adam

[Matt]

Hi,

Please stop bumping old topics. If enough people like the features they'll respond to your post and it will be implemented.

I would say while these features might be nice to have, most people would not have a use for them and it would bloat the system.

Matt

[adakist]

Not to bump this thread, but rather to answer the initial poster's concerns:

1. As mentioned by datahosts, custom fields work great for this purpose, and you can even include them in the welcome email!

4. On the main client area, it will show invoices pending payment when they go to the "main client area," but I imagine you can play with the template files to have it "stand out" more or appear on other pages -- the problem with this is that the template variables may not be available on every page (not sure about this), so you may have to get "tricky" with this.

[wise]

Hi,

Please stop bumping old topics. If enough people like the features they'll respond to your post and it will be implemented.

I would say while these features might be nice to have, most people would not have a use for them and it would bloat the system.

Matt
actually - I just responded to an old post about this - the email templates suggest this is already implimented but it isnt, took me a while to find this out and was very misleading. I would much prefer a supported way of tracking ip addresses for dedicated server customers rather than custom fields ... stands to reason really. Any dedicated server client would want this - cant see how it would bloat the system any more than custom fields except implimenting a proper way of tracking.

as it stands you also cant edit the welcome email for dedicated clients before sending to add the ips in - making the welcome emails useless.

[Matt]

As it stands you also cant edit the welcome email for dedicated clients before sending to add the ips in - making the welcome emails useless.

Yes, the IPs request is quite reasonable. However, I don't think the welcome emails are useless as it currently stands. With the custom field, all you need to do is enter the IPs in it, possibly have it as a text field and enter them as a range (22.22.22.11-22.22.22.16) and then this would be merged into the email template where you have that custom field set to be inserted.

Matt

[adakist]

I can confirm that this method works very well -- what I have done is created a custom field for (1) the main IP and (2) the end of the IP range, then in the email template I have it insert the main IP, then a dash, then the ending IP of the range, and it works very well!

[wise]

guys I realise this would work but as whmcs evolves this is not soemthing we want to do. What happens when you start to impliment APC remote reboot functionality, or modify the dedicated server side of whmcs? We want to do this correctly fromt he start - if it isnt going to be implimented in the future (which imho would be a huge market gap) then i only see whmcs being a reseller / share hosting app and not something we can grow with.

[adakist]

I do understand your reasoning, but you are able to heavily customize the script and even retrieve the custom variables in your template files (although this is more advanced), so you can integrate them into APC reboot and other features to make WHMCS a full portal -- that's the nice thing about WHMCS, it's so flexible.

I can see why this feature may be valuable, and we may even see it in a future release (but as you can see, with the current version there are still work-arounds that work pretty well -- so it may not be a feature that is needed in the immediate future), but if it does get implemented, you would have to make sure that people who are currently using custom fields will not be affected by the change (for example, if the client area relies on the IP variable, etc..).

[Matt]

For recording the IPs on servers, what would actually be needed? A text box where you can enter them or a textarea where you can enter one or more per line? Does there need to be a field for the main IP so that it is on its own and can be used in external scripts for monitoring a server?

[adakist]

For my uses, two fields would be needed, one for the main IP and one for the last IP in the range, but I can see other applications where a textbox where all IPs should be entered (per line). Because of this, it would be hard to create one sure-fire way that would work for everyone.

Right now, with the custom fields, it offers this kind of flexibility. I could be wrong though, and everyone may want a similar way to record the IPs.

[wise]

For recording the IPs on servers, what would actually be needed? A text box where you can enter them or a textarea where you can enter one or more per line? Does there need to be a field for the main IP so that it is on its own and can be used in external scripts for monitoring a server?
It would be nice to have a text box for main IP and then a text area to enter addition ips per line. If you wanted to throw in a remote reboot port text box that would be nice too :-)