Plesk API for Windows?

[Cradz]

I've seen horible reviews for billing/automated account creation tools for Plesk...

Is there an API for the windows version?

I'm a web programmer so I figure I'll build my own front end billing.. etc.

I just purchased a server with Plesk 6.5 Windows edition on it and now I'm kicking myself I didn't fully read up on Plesk to know it doesn't handle automated site creation etc.

 

[dwdietz]

I would love to see some automated billing / creation utility!!

Have not seen one built for windows yet.

 

[Cradz]

yea.. I'm really surprised to see nobody has built a decent one..

I run an online chat community and looking to expand the features (and revenue.. *grin*) by providing hosting to my paying members...

I thought Plesk would be the ultimate solution where I didn't have to mess much.. it has some great features but I would have expected it to have some key tools built in to automate registration and billing or at the very least provide an API so people like me can plug in our own stuff...

 

[ggggarret]

i'm totally new at this so this might be incorrect but aren't there 3rd party software companies that do this? i'm in the process of installing modernbill (modernbill.com) and i am doing so based on the idea of total automation. i hope this is correct.

 

[Cradz]

ggggarret

Yup.. there are.. but the reviews I've done after searching the net have been awful... one you pay over 400 bucks for and I've seen a LOT of people complain about the support and the company...


I looked at Modern Bill but at the current time it doesn't support Windows... if I were to go with one.. I'd probably seriously look at that.. it's cheap too... they say Windows version available soon..

 

[ggggarret]

check the site again - i believe the windows version is available. i called them up b/c the website wasn't totally clear and found that modernbill works with plesk 6.5 for windows - i just got plesk installed last night and am looking to get modernbill in today - hopefully it'll all come together nicely.

modernbill was the main reason i went with plesk b/c they didn't have a version ready for ensim. i also checked out helm but there was no modernbill for that either and it seemed a bit confusing - plus i had a tough time contacting anyone.

i'll keep ya'll posted on my progress.

 

[Cradz]

ggggarret

Thanks for the info!

Please do keep us updated on on how things go for you...

 

[Cradz]

ggggarret

Did you get everything set up ok?

I re-looked at modern bill... I don't see the windows version but I see they give you a way of using the other version on windows... seems a lot of messing around to install it... wondering if you managed to?

 

[ggggarret]

i hope to be done testing it tuesday - it looks promising.

 

[Cradz]

ggggarret

Any update?

I'm about ready to look at billing options now.... wondering how well it went for you...

 

[ggggarret]

cradz,

unfortunately we're still working to get things finalized but the end result is this...

plesk 6.5 does a strange thing with the file paths that doesn't allow you to use "include virtual" and the mapath feature had some trouble. this is a problem for us b/c all our code was written using these 2 things so changing them to "include file" and absolute file paths can't work for us - this might not be an issue for what you're doing in which case i would expect it to all work pretty smooth. our solution involves running one server with plesk and modernbill that points to another server running only IIS that houses the sites using a more normal file path structure. we're having some issue with frontpage extensions causing our automated process to be less automated but as of right now it appears we are fixing that up a bit.

depending on whether you use includes or how your file paths are setup, i'd say to search the board for more info on this to make sure it won't be a problem for you. modernbill is pretty slick and fairly easy to configure (beyond what the host configured for us). i haven't tested the actual account creation through modernbill but i'm assuming it all works.

i think most of our problems are somewhat specific to us but be aware that frontpage extensions might not work with the skeleton file as far as holding their permissions.

anywho - we are going to try and setup a few clients tonight and see how it goes.

some cool features of modernbill include the checking and registering of domains during the setup process and automatic setting of dns info - all in all it's pretty slick and worth looking at. by monday we should have a pretty solid understanding of how well this works so check back then.