Author Topic: Can the pending status rule be considered current / in good standing (Read 1618 times)

rjb · January 28, 2011, 01:50:31 am

Hello,

I'm trying to configure a scenario where all members have to pay by check / bank transfer - but we want them to have a 30 day initial grace period during which they can send in their payments. This initial grace period should come as soon as they join (rather than at the end of a membership, as is the default).

I've tried to create a new rule with weight 1 which would override the pending rule, but it doesn't seem to work - as long as the payment is pending, the membership is also pending.

Therefore, I need to edit the pending status rule to make it 'current' but expiring after 30 days - is there any way to do this with a reserved membership status rule?

Thanks,

R

rjb · February 02, 2011, 01:14:22 am

Sorry to bump this :-(

I have a feeling this is probably quite easily done, but I'm still scratching my head over it! Any help anyone could give me would be massively appreciated.

Huge thanks,

R

Michael McAndrew · February 03, 2011, 07:44:32 am

you could certainly go into the database and in the civicrm_membership_status table set the is_reserved digit to 0 for Pending which would then allow you to set pending to be considered a current membership status.

or indeed you could just directly edit the is_current_member column for Pending.

I imagine this would solve your problem but it *might* have some unintended consequences.

rjb · February 03, 2011, 07:53:58 am

Hi, Michael - that's some great advice and certainly a good place to start. I'll poke around and post my findings here...

Thanks again,

RJB

lcdweb · February 03, 2011, 08:22:45 am

Michael's suggestion is probably your best bet. the problem you're going to run into is having it roll over to a non-current status after 30 days if payment is not received. the pending status operates outside the normal status rule update process. the updatemembershiprecord cronjob ignores that status. if you needed it to roll over automatically after 30 days, you'd need to do some customization to that script.

rjb · February 03, 2011, 08:39:21 am

Hi, lcdweb

Yep, that was my fear - that following the 30 days, it would remain in a pending (and now active!) state regardless of the cron. Which would mean that the accounts team would have to keep an eye on reports and manually status override unpaid payments / memberships which have gone on longer than 30 days. That's obviously not ideal.

I don't suppose it would be remotely conceivable to strip out the pending rule altogether? Or would that break everything?

I think we'll obviously have to do some custom work on this (and, of course, contribute what we come up with back to the community) - I've seen a few people posting about free trial periods, etc so I think it may come in handy for other people. Do you have any pointers where to start (NB: I'll be handing this over to other people for the actual dev work).

Many thanks for all your help,

R

lcdweb · February 03, 2011, 08:49:37 am

the pending rule is special and important. i wouldn't recommend removing it.
its used for pay later processing so you can distinguish between actual payments received vs. those promised.

i think you would just need to modify /bin/UpdateMembershipRecord.php to add some special handling for that status. if that status and start date > now + 30 days, set status = expired or whatever you choose.

rjb · February 04, 2011, 01:40:20 am

So update pending to an active in the database, then update the php to move on from pending after 30 days? It's a plan...

Bit of a shame though, in some ways. Ideally, I'd like to slot a new 30 day trial status BEFORE pending, then revert to the normal pending state after those 30 days. I like the pending status and how it operates - I just want to postpone it's kicking in for 30 days and have a new rule become the default status during those 30 days.

Hrmmm...

(Huge thanks for your help, by the way - it's very much appreciated)

CiviTeacher.com · February 09, 2011, 02:35:20 pm

What website features does a new "trial period" person get? What is their user experience, as opposed to a person that is completely a non-member?

It occurred to me that what you are trying to do may not be necessary if you can create a user experience using Drupal Views and Roles and the CiviCRM Membership => Drupal Role Sync module that will be the same for "Pending" members as it is for "Current" members?

Using this approach, the fact that their membership is Pending as opposed to Current is irrelevant to the public and relevant only to CiviCRM and your admin staff for bookkeeping purposes.

rjb · February 10, 2011, 06:00:55 am

Hi, Stoob and thanks for your question / advice!

It would be access to restricted content, among other things. You're absolutely right that a huge amount of this can be done using member / role sync - however, we only want the pending period to last for 30 days. After that time, if payment hasn't been received (by check or bank transfer) and the statuses manually set to 'new' (member status) / 'paid (payment status) then we want the membership to be no longer current.

The problem is that I can't see any way to stop the 'pending' member status being indefinite - unlike other status rules which can be set to exist for specific windows of time. If a payment is pending, then the membership is de facto pending (unless, of course, you use a manual status override). We need to downgrade memberships automatically after 30 days, so that someone doesn't have to keep monitoring them. Should payment then arrive *after* 30 days, we can always (happily!) active the expired membership.

Did that clear things up?

Huge thanks,

RJB

CiviTeacher.com · March 10, 2011, 01:46:41 pm

Hmm. Well I am inherently lazy so usually look for the easiest way. Rather than change the way Civi does it (expensive) I just adapt. Here is how. Give Pendings full access via Role Sync. Setup a report in CiviReport to search for Pending memberships > 30 days. Run often and manually cancel these memberships. This investment of time is negligible by comparison to custom programming.

rjb · March 11, 2011, 01:00:34 am

We're kindred spirits :-)

It's definitely something I'm considering. If the powers that be go for it, then that's definitely what we'll do, but they may prefer an automated solution if they think the numbers / workload will be too high.

Thanks, mate.

RJB

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Author Topic: Can the pending status rule be considered current / in good standing (Read 1618 times)

rjb

Can the pending status rule be considered current / in good standing

rjb

Re: Can the pending status rule be considered current / in good standing

Michael McAndrew

Re: Can the pending status rule be considered current / in good standing

rjb

Re: Can the pending status rule be considered current / in good standing

lcdweb

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rjb

Re: Can the pending status rule be considered current / in good standing

lcdweb

Re: Can the pending status rule be considered current / in good standing

rjb

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CiviTeacher.com

Re: Can the pending status rule be considered current / in good standing

rjb

Re: Can the pending status rule be considered current / in good standing

CiviTeacher.com

Re: Can the pending status rule be considered current / in good standing

rjb

Re: Can the pending status rule be considered current / in good standing