Testing Family Plan Accepting Email Invitation

I had something interesting happen with a shared subscription test.

I was going through the process of accepting an email invitation to a family plan. I completed the sign up form that the link directs to and proceeded to created a user using the same name, username, and password of an existing user but different email address. (Just to see what would happen)

The site accepted and let shared membership be connected to the existing user even though they already had a single paid plan.

1) What did the Family Plan plugin look at to make the link to the existing user? (I actually did not want that to happen). It also seemed to have ignored the different email.

My guess is that it looked at the name and password - Since they were the same made the connection that it was meant for that account.

2) Are usernames exclusive - two users cannot use the same username?

3) Can users have the same first/last name (hopefully yes)

4) To prevent users from having two plans, I had set the "exclusive plan setting to: "Exclusive, other plans of the same parent cannot be subscribed same time, but one subscription is mandatory", so I am not sure what happened there.

I was going through the process of accepting an email invitation to a family plan. I completed the sign up form that the link directs to and proceeded to created a user using the same name, username, and password of an existing user but different email address. (Just to see what would happen)

Yup, that's working as expected. The token is cached to their session upon clicking the link. This allows them to register with whatever details they need. They may not want to register with the email address it was sent to. This also allows them to accept it with an existing account.

1) What did the Family Plan plugin look at to make the link to the existing user? (I actually did not want that to happen). It also seemed to have ignored the different email.

Its token stored in their session.

2) Are usernames exclusive - two users cannot use the same username?

Yes, usernames and email addresses must be unique and is enforced by Joomla as well as CB.

3) Can users have the same first/last name (hopefully yes)

Yes, name is not unique.

4) To prevent users from having two plans, I had set the "exclusive plan setting to: "Exclusive, other plans of the same parent cannot be subscribed same time, but one subscription is mandatory", so I am not sure what happened there.

Not sure I understand. They have 2 subscriptions to the same plan? So they bought a plan during registration AND accepted a shared one? It shouldn't accept a shared subscription for the same plan if that same plan is already active. If it's not active it will accept the shared subscription.

Yup, that's working as expected. The token is cached to their session upon clicking the link. This allows them to register with whatever details they need. They may not want to register with the email address it was sent to. This also allows them to accept it with an existing account.

Oh, so even though I was logged out but still in the same browser session the Family Plan Plug made the connection to the existing user?
I think my mistake may have been to use the same username and password when the intention was to create a new user that had the same name.
Would this be the problem I ran into and avoid with further testing?

4) To prevent users from having two plans, I had set the "exclusive plan setting to: "Exclusive, other plans of the same parent cannot be subscribed same time, but one subscription is mandatory", so I am not sure what happened there.

Not sure I understand. They have 2 subscriptions to the same plan? So they bought a plan during registration AND accepted a shared one? It shouldn't accept a shared subscription for the same plan if that same plan is already active. If it's not active it will accept the shared subscription.

I actually had two paid plans. The user already had one (not a family plan, but individual). What ended up happening was that user ended up with both the individual plan + a recipient of the shared plan. Both were set to exclusive so I was surprised to see that happen.

I would have thought they would be some kind of message that sated they already are a member of a plan.

Oh, so even though I was logged out but still in the same browser session the Family Plan Plug made the connection to the existing user?

Yes.

I think my mistake may have been to use the same username and password when the intention was to create a new user that had the same name.
Would this be the problem I ran into and avoid with further testing?

Use incognito browser window when performing session related tests so the cookie is discarded on browser close. Your alternative is empty _sessions table or clear your cookies. The session is just doing as is intended.

I actually had two paid plans. The user already had one (not a family plan, but individual). What ended up happening was that user ended up with both the individual plan + a recipient of the shared plan. Both were set to exclusive so I was surprised to see that happen.

Shared plans ignore plan exclusivity. If it respected all those checks it would be very difficult for plans to be shared.

Thanks for clarifying!

Shared plans ignore plan exclusivity. If it respected all those checks it would be very difficult for plans to be shared.

Ok. I'll be mindful of this. In my current use, case it's not a big deal if something like what happened in this test occurs. Access to both plans give the same privileges anyways. From what I've learned here the chances are remote that a person who already has a plan is also given a shared plan invite. If it does happen, they can just cancel it themselves.

Thanks, again!