Controlling OSCampus Courses with CBSubs

I am looking at ways to have CBSubs handle access to some online course powered by OSCampus ( www.joomlashack.com/joomla-extensions/oscampus/ )

OSCampus can limit access to courses and lessons by user group but that's about it. This works just fine for free courses to paid members. As long as the CBSubs puts the user in the same user group set by OSCampus, they will have access and lose access when removed from that user group

Where it gets tricky occurs when some courses require an additional cost. So I was thinking of creating another plan, with its own extra fee and using CBSubs > Plan > Content to control access by Menu link or CBSubs > Plan > Extension > URL parts.

Another idea is to create a specific user group for a specific course and then configure CBSubs to add them to that group. This could get out of control with user groups, if there's a lot of different courses (But could be a cool way to handle bundled courses).

Where it gets tricky is that the time frame of this access needs to be the same as the Main Paid Plan, so if the main plan expires, so does access to this extra plan.

I know users can actually belong to more than one plan at a time if, configured properly, but I am just not sure I've full grasped this approach.

Are there any suggestions or recommendations I should consider?

I would probably just do 2 different usergroups. 1 for the main courses and 1 for the main courses + extra courses. You'd then have 2 plans marked exclusive and they'd subscribe to whichever they needed. Another option is to group courses up so you have a minimal amount of usergroups to control their access then have a plan per usergroup all set as non-exclusive so they can be combined. It's fine to have a couple usergroups, but you do want to avoid situations where you might end up with 100 or potentially infinitely growing amount of usergroups.

I think it's possible for user to purchase two or more plans, though I'm not entirely sure how to set that up. I take it the "non-exclusive" setting is what I should be looking at? Would the "course plan" appear as an upgrade opportunity?

If I do go that route (since I am probably looking at charging extra per course, rather than bundled access), then I may need to look at the menu or url restriction option, otherwise I could end up with a bunch of user groups.

The grouping of courses by user group is also a great idea as they may also sell bundled access.

The only other consideration is that if the main plan they bought expires, they also lose access to these other plans. I'm thinking I set up the renewal dates to be the same. They are set to expire the same date every year.

I think it's possible for user to purchase two or more plans, though I'm not entirely sure how to set that up. I take it the "non-exclusive" setting is what I should be looking at?

Yes, set your plans as non-exclusive if you want to allow subscribing to both plans at the same time.

Would the "course plan" appear as an upgrade opportunity?

I've no idea what you mean by this.

If I do go that route (since I am probably looking at charging extra per course, rather than bundled access), then I may need to look at the menu or url restriction option, otherwise I could end up with a bunch of user groups.

That maybe a requirement depending on how you set things up.

The only other consideration is that if the main plan they bought expires, they also lose access to these other plans. I'm thinking I set up the renewal dates to be the same. They are set to expire the same date every year.

I guess you could make your other plans child plans of your main plan. That might cover your needs, but at this time you can't link expiration dates together unless they purchased the plans at the same time.

Would the "course plan" appear as an upgrade opportunity?

I've no idea what you mean by this.

Sorry, what I meant was that in the Membership tab of the profile, these other plans would appear as option they can select. Possibly also on the Registration page.

I guess you could make your other plans child plans of your main plan. That might cover your needs, but at this time you can't link expiration dates together unless they purchased the plans at the same time.

Oh, that's interesting. Child plans - does that means they need the parent plan to purchase child plans?

For the expiration, since I had a defined date (July 1 annually), even if they buy this other plan later within the same term, would expire at the same time. That could be all I'd need, unless they buy within one month of the renewal date "Bonus time when reactivating expired subscriptions".

Sorry, what I meant was that in the Membership tab of the profile, these other plans would appear as option they can select. Possibly also on the Registration page.

Yes.

Oh, that's interesting. Child plans - does that means they need the parent plan to purchase child plans?

Yes, parent plan must be subscribed to in order to subscribe to child plans.

For the expiration, since I had a defined date (July 1 annually), even if they buy this other plan later within the same term, would expire at the same time. That could be all I'd need, unless they buy within one month of the renewal date "Bonus time when reactivating expired subscriptions".

If you use "By calendar year" durations on all your plans and set their start day and month all to be the same they should all expire at the same time if bought within the same year.