A few questions on functionality

As a background, I have designed many joomla sites, but with the exception of a few small scale forums, and two scrapped community projects, I have always used joomla for sites which were not at all community based - the only reason for a member to log in was that it was someone editing content from the front end.

For one of those scrapped projects a year and a half time ago, I purchased CB Subs. This was never actually installed on any live sites. In fact, though I have three times now installed CB into test sites, I have never yet gone live with a CB based site.

I am working on a new project, and the needs are quite a few. I am sure CBSubs and CB can help with most of it, but I really don't know what all else I may need.

The site is a magazine style site, with free and paid memberships.

The free members can:

• blog
• see most articles (everything not officially in the 'magazine'*)
• post images and videos to a personal gallery
• add friends
• connect through facebook, twitter, google+, linked in, etc.
• access members forums
• shop in a store for digital downloads as well as physical merchandise
• live chat with all other members

^{*Anyone trying to view a 'magazine' article should be redirected to a subscription page.}

The paid members can do everything the free members can, as well as:

• see magazine articles
• get N number of free digital downloads from the store (but not free physical merchandise) each month
• possibly access extra 'subscribers-only' areas of forums
• post items for sale in a 'classified ads' section - completely separate from the store or forums

So the aspects of the site I need are;

• member profiles with image and video galleries (allow for more image/video storage for paid subscribers) and connectivity to social media sites
• member submitted content (blogs, etc.)
• forums (possibly with restricted areas for different membership levels)
• live chat
• digital download store
• physical merchandise store (possibly same store, possibly separate)
• article categories set up as 'magazine/issues' with access restrictions - and the ability to view each 'issue' (a category of multiple articles) online as if it were an actual magazine (and download as a pdf)

I am thinking in addition to CB/CBSubs, I might need K2 for the magazine like styling - but I have even less experience with K2 than I do with CB... which means absolutely none. How well do they work together? The template I am using (rockettheme template) has style support for K2, but not CB.

I also need a forum which will work well with CB, I would like to have a live chat that plays well with everything, a storefront (or two) which can grant free downloads to certain membership levels, a classifieds section (where the site can either charge a small amount per posted ad, or a small percentage of each sale would be the preference...but even if it is just a free ad system, we need something), and all the goodness of CB as mentioned above (image and video galleries, user profiles, connectivity through social media, etc.).

How much of that can be accomplished with CB and its various extensions?

What other extensions would you recommend that play nice with CB, J! 2.5, and RocketTheme templates (Voxel is the current choice, though may move to a newer one for a responsive template)?

Is K2 something that would work well with this type of site, or can CB do what I need without K2?

Sorry for all the questions - several of which are unrelated to CB. I am fairly certain CB / CBSubs will be the core of the site, so I figure I need to make sure everything else I use plays nice with it. And what better place to find out the best extensions that play nice with CB, than here?

Thanks!

Too long a post to really go through a 1 for 1 answer.

Summary:

With Joomla 2.5/3.0, you should be able to set things up for blogging and content without the need for K2.

K2 does have integration with CB - there is no CBSubs integration to protect K2 content but you can use the url-parts protection if needed.

You should really ask rocket to provide better support for CB.

Most of the ecommerce requirements should be supported by CBSubs.

For downloads you need a downloads extension (docman or remository or something else).

Forum - Kunena is recommended as it has great CB integration.

Chat you will need to find something.

Gallery - CB gallery might be good enough.

facebook, google, etc connect you can use CB connect (part of pro membership).

Thanks for the info, I hadn't responded because I have been working on integrating everything. For now I am trying to make do without K2, as CBSubs won't readily integrate to protect that content... Not sure if I will need to do that in the near future or not.

My question for now, however; you mentioned ' Most of the ecommerce requirements should be supported by CBSubs.' - here's what I need, specifically, please let me know what you'd recommend I do to achieve this;

A) Allow only paid subscribers access to the full articles for any magazine related content (easily done with CBSubs)

Sell related but different digital downloads, charging per downloaded item in some kind of storefront. Prices should be adjustable for each item. Paid subscribers will receive N free downloads of this content each subscription period (monthly subscribers receive N/Month, yearly subscribers receive X/Year, Lifetime subscribers receive Y/Month) - if they wish additional downloads in the period they pay full price.

C) Physical merchandise (i.e. branded shirts, coffee mugs, etc., plus CDs/thumb drives of digital download content) sold in the same or a different storefront. Will require charging shipping, plus sales tax for certain locations.

TBDESP wrote: Thanks for the info, I hadn't responded because I have been working on integrating everything. For now I am trying to make do without K2, as CBSubs won't readily integrate to protect that content... Not sure if I will need to do that in the near future or not.

As I said you could use url-parts protection if needed to protect K2 content.

My question for now, however; you mentioned ' Most of the ecommerce requirements should be supported by CBSubs.' - here's what I need, specifically, please let me know what you'd recommend I do to achieve this;

A) Allow only paid subscribers access to the full articles for any magazine related content (easily done with CBSubs)

Yup

Sell related but different digital downloads, charging per downloaded item in some kind of storefront. Prices should be adjustable for each item. Paid subscribers will receive N free downloads of this content each subscription period (monthly subscribers receive N/Month, yearly subscribers receive X/Year, Lifetime subscribers receive Y/Month) - if they wish additional downloads in the period they pay full price.

I have never seen an extension that limits the number of downloads per month.
You might be able to create something similar with CBSubs promotions.

C) Physical merchandise (i.e. branded shirts, coffee mugs, etc., plus CDs/thumb drives of digital download content) sold in the same or a different storefront. Will require charging shipping, plus sales tax for certain locations.

CBSubs does not support shipping, but taxes are supported.

Sell related but different digital downloads, charging per downloaded item in some kind of storefront. Prices should be adjustable for each item. Paid subscribers will receive N free downloads of this content each subscription period (monthly subscribers receive N/Month, yearly subscribers receive X/Year, Lifetime subscribers receive Y/Month) - if they wish additional downloads in the period they pay full price.

I have never seen an extension that limits the number of downloads per month.
You might be able to create something similar with CBSubs promotions.

How would CB Subs Promotions work for this?

TBDESP wrote:

Sell related but different digital downloads, charging per downloaded item in some kind of storefront. Prices should be adjustable for each item. Paid subscribers will receive N free downloads of this content each subscription period (monthly subscribers receive N/Month, yearly subscribers receive X/Year, Lifetime subscribers receive Y/Month) - if they wish additional downloads in the period they pay full price.

I have never seen an extension that limits the number of downloads per month.
You might be able to create something similar with CBSubs promotions.

How would CB Subs Promotions work for this?

Please start new discussion on the CBSubs support thread for this.