Plans

The Plans screen is located at Directory → Directory Content → Plans from the Admin Dashboard:

 

You can have any configuration of plans you would like to have. You can have all free plans, all paid plans, or a mix of both. For example, I can offer three different “free” plans that offer different features. I could also have one free and three paid plans, or I could have 6 paid plans. It's really up to you! 

Plans

If you haven't added any plans, there will be one default plan.  All listings must have a plan associated with them. We create a free plan named “Default Plan” that gets used on installation.  That free plan cannot be deleted since you must have one! But you can disable it, rename it, or change the settings by clicking on the name of the plan.

Plans can be created and disabled by the admin. 

 When you add a new plan, it will automatically be active on your site. If you want to turn it off, choose Disable: 

Enabling Payments

If you have any plans created that are not free, you'll need to activate a payment gateway. You can use the default (Authorize.net) or you can purchase one of the others (Stripe, PayPal).

You can enable a gateway on the Directory → Settings → Payment tab. Don't worry — you don't need an account for this. You can type in random information, then save your changes and it will work for you to test things out. Just remember to add real information once you get started!

Once you've done that, you can properly assign plans to your listings and collect payment (or not — they can be $0 plans).

It's best to test with a sandbox account to ensure everything is working smoothly first.

And finally, once you are finished testing, you'll want to make sure your payment gateways are NOT in test mode. Go to the Directory → Settings → Payment tab and uncheck “Put payment gateways in test mode?” to go to production.

Plan Ordering

You can set the order of plans as well. Changing the order here will affect how they are shown on the Submit Listing form. Several options exist for ordering:

• Label:  The name of the plan, sorted alphabetically
• Amount:  The cost of the plan, sorted from lowest to highest
• Duration:  The length of the plan, sorted from lowest to highest
• Images:  The number of images allowed on the plan, sorted from lowest to highest
• Custom Order:  An order you specify by dragging and dropping the plans in your desired order

To use Custom Order, first select the option in the dropdown box. When you do that, the handles will appear and you can rearrange the order. 

Find the drag handles for the plans and arrange them in the desired order you want them to display.  The drag handles will change your mouse cursor to a cross-arrow cursor when you hover over them.  They are located at the left of the plan name when you select “Custom Order” like this:

Plan Attributes

In the far right column, you will see several attribute labels for your plans.

• Active: This plan is currently active for use by listings.
• Default: This is the default plan that is created when the plugin is installed. It cannot be deleted. 
• Disabled: This plan is not available for listings to be placed under it because you have disabled it.
• Private:  This plan is created by admins to put certain listings on and will not be a choice to the general public when adding a listing. Use this type of plan to give special treatment to certain customers or groups, or give certain listings different treatment. 
• Recurring: Listings with a plan that is recurring will automatically renew at the end of the period of the plan, if your payment settings allow for recurring payments to be taken.  All major gateways support recurring payments (Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.net)
• Sticky: Listings that are placed under this plan will show up with the “Featured Listing” image and have special CSS classes you can use to style the listing differently from others.  By default, the listing will appear in a yellowish color in the list unless you modify the CSS. 

Creating or Editing Plans

To create a new Plan, click the “Add New Plan” button at the top of Plans. This will open up the Add Plan screen:

 

Most fields are self explanatory but we'll walk through them all here:

• Plan Label:  The name of the plan
• Plan Description:  A brief description of what the plan is for.  This will be displayed along with the attributes that are set for Restrictions.  You can use this to say things like “Includes <extra options>” where <extra options> are things NOT explicitly described or supported in BD, like consulting time, publication in printed directories or lists, etc.
• How long to run:  This setting determines the period of the listing's duration.  It can be forever or limited.
• Images allowed:  How many images is this listing allowed to have for this plan.  You can create different plans for different amounts that support different image counts or different other features (such as we support with Restrictions module). If this limit is changed, you'll get the option to update the limit on all existing listings for this plan.
• Recurring?:  Should this listing auto-renew at the end of the duration of the listing?  Requires that you have your Payment settings to support Recurring Payments, as well as a gateway that supports them.
• Featured/Sticky checkbox:  Is this listing considered “featured”?  Sticky means the listing will be at the start of the search, list or category results.  The listing will sort by featured flag FIRST, and then by whatever criteria you define under Directory → Settings → Listings.
• Listing background color:  What color should be used when displaying this listing on the front end or in the list of plans?  Allows you to have special kinds of listings by color in your directory.
• Plan Category Policy:
  • Should this plan apply to listings in any category or just certain categories?  You can select that option here.  If you pick “Plan applies only to certain categories”, this option appears:
    
  • You can choose which categories to use this plan with.  When a listing is first placed under “Submit Listing”, the plans the user will see depends on the categories they select.
• Plan Pricing: You can select the way to price your listings. You have up to 3 options, depending on what you choose for Category Policy above:If you have “Plan applies to all categories” for Category Policy, 3 options appear:                                             
  • Flat Price:  Charge this price for listings, regardless of how many categories they pick.
  • Different Price for Different Categories:  Allows you to offer a pricing policy where certain categories can be charged for, and others not (or charged less).  If you select this option, you also need to indicate which categories this price applies to
  • Base price, plus extra per category: Charges the user for each category they add to a listing.

  If you have “Plan applies only to certain categories”, you will only have 2 options:

  • Flat Price:  Charge this price for listings, regardless of how many categories they pick.
  • Base price, plus extra per category: Charges the user for each category they add to a listing.

Managing Listings

Managing listings can be quite tricky at times. Some users may want to change plans for upgrade or downgrade purposes, and some may want to cancel their listing altogether.

• Changing Plans: Changing plans can only be done during the listing renewal process. On the renewal page, the user will have the option to choose a different plan or stick with the same plan.
• Cancel Listings: In order to cancel a listing, this must be done at renewal. Only then can listings be canceled by the user. The user will do this through the renewal link sent to their email. Alternatively, admins can cancel listings by logging into the payment gateway and canceling the subscription. After that is done, you can cancel within the dashboard by viewing the listing payment history. To do this, go into your dashboard and locate Directory → Payment History. Find the listing you want to cancel and click View Payment History. From here you can change the status to canceled.
  
  NOTE: Deleting or setting the status of the listing to Unpublished is NOT the same as canceling a listing. Recurring payments will still continue if this is done. You will need to follow the steps above to properly cancel a listing.

About Featured Listings

You can choose to enable Featured/Sticky listings in the plan as mentioned above in that section. Any listing that is on that plan will then be listed first in search results and will also contain a Featured Listing Badge as shown below. 

Additionally, you can change the text of the “Featured” Badge to say anything you like using a translation file. So, if your listings aren't “Featured” but are “Sponsored” you can easily change that.