Mar, 2015
When is an EOT Time set for each user?
Table of Contents
EOT Time is Not Always Present in WordPress
The EOT field is not always present, because sometimes this is controlled by the underlying Subscription Profile; i.e., on the payment gateway side. The EOT field is only filled if s2Member needs to control this without the use of a Subscription Profile, or when an EOT has actually occurred against a Subscription Profile on the payment gateway side.
What is a Subscription Profile?
It's sometimes referred to as a Recurring Profile, Billing Profile, Automatic Recurring Billing Profile (ARB), or just as a "Subscription". The name varies from one payment gateway to another. The important thing to note, is that a "Subscription Profile" is used any time a charge needs to occur on a specific date. Either in regular intervals, or after an initial/trial period has ended. s2Member does not deal with payment scheduling on its own, it depends upon functionality provided by your payment gateway; i.e., on a Subscription Profile.
For this reason, anytime there is a "Subscription Profile" used, s2Member leaves the EOT field empty. In such a scenario, the EOT is triggered by events that occur against the Subscription Profile (i.e., via events that s2Member recieves from the payment gateway via IPN messaging).
Cases where s2Member Sets the EOT on Checkout, Immediately
The subscription is on a fixed term and there is no trial period; i.e. there is no Subscription Profile needed. s2Member has exclusive control over the EOT, because the Button/Form that you generated does not require a Subscription Profile to be used on the payment gateway side.
In this scenario, s2Member sets an EOT so that access can be removed at a specific time in the future. With fixed-term access, this is always known right from the beginning; e.g., 1 Year Membership, 2 Year Membership, etc. — both non-recurring, and the charge is taken immediately upon completing checkout.
For example, when you generate a Button/Form with s2Member, if the option that you choose is not labeled, "Subscription" then a Subscription Profile is not necessary; i.e., it will be a "Buy Now" Button or Pro Form. The charge takes place immediately; just one time. In other words, if the purchase provides fixed-term access and the transaction is "Buy Now"; an EOT is set immediately, because there is just one immediate payment (no Subscription Profile), and the end date is known right from the beginning.
NOTE: If a purchase provides lifetime access; there is no EOT Time whatsoever.
Cases where s2Member Sets the EOT Later, as Necessary
- Any time there is a Subscription Profile used, including when a trial period is being used with a fixed-term subscription; if there is a trial associated with the subscription, even if the subscription itself is on a fixed term, a Subscription Profile is still used. This allows s2Member to set a future start date for billing. Billing may, at times, occur only once, but the EOT is not set until billing is actually supposed to stop. In the case of a recurring subscription, this may not occur until payments start to fail, the user cancels, or until the
rrtRegular Recurring Times has been reached and the subscription should end naturally.- You might ask, "Why not determine the EOT ahead of time when a trial period is being used with a fixed-term?". The reason is because during the trial period a user can cancel, in which case the Subscription is terminated before the first charge occurs. So technically, the EOT is not known ahead of time, because all of the permissions granted hinge on them making it through the initial/trial period and for the one-time payment to be made successfully. Setting a hard-coded EOT time in advance has unforeseen consequences in this case, because in s2Member a hard-coded EOT Time trumps everything else; i.e., if it were cancelled on the third day, the existing EOT would need to be overridden, which is something s2Member will not do, because a hard-coded EOT could have been set by a site owner wanting to override s2Member.
- A refund occurs and your configuration states that this should trigger an EOT.
- A chargeback occurs and your configuration states that this should trigger an EOT.
- You enter an EOT manually by editing the user's account in WordPress.
What happens if an EOT was already set and the user "renews"?
There are three possible scenarios here:
If your EOT Behavior option is set to 'Auto-Extend' and the new purchase is for fixed-term access, the existing EOT Time (if it is a future date) will be automatically extended with the amount of time that you are now paying for.
Or, if your Automatic EOT Behavior options have Auto-Extend off, the old time is erased and replaced by the new time associated with a new fixed-term purchase.
The new purchase is a "Subscription" (i.e., not fixed-term). In this case, s2Member will simply erase the old EOT Time and wait for a new one to occur, no matter what Auto-Extend is set to.
