Allow admins to grant access to new files for old customers on a product

[JustinSainton]

Currently, if you add a new file (say, documentation, or maybe an updated version the downloadable file) to a digital product - that new file is not available to those that have purchased the product.

That is lame. Granted, this may sometimes be the intention. But it certainly shouldn't be the default. I've confirmed with @pippinsplugins that EDD works on the assumption that if you upload a file to a product, it's available to all who have purchased it - past, present, future. We should function the same way.

The problem, of course, is our legacy code. Isn't it always? Our download_status table is filled upon purchase with file IDs/purchase IDs, etc. The entire paradigm is sort of backwards, and I'm not out to switch things up too much. I want a passable, functional solution here - not out to be EDD.

So my proposal is this: when a store admin adds a new download to a product, simply grant them ability to fill out the download_status table with entries for the new file for all those who have downloaded that product in the past. 90% of the time, this will actually not be that big of a performance hit. We need to take performance into account for the other 10%.

Likewise, it would be great to add the ability in the sales log single view for admins to grant access to files represented in the cart contents of that order that have not already been granted. That should be really helpful for the one-off requests that our admins get from time to time.

Open to thoughts, suggestions and PRs from others on this, but I definitely want to see it in core soon.

[mihaijoldis]

Not much to comment. That's just about right. But wont the download tables get filled up if for each file product all past sales will get 1 more entry?

[mihaijoldis]

The only other question since you mentioned we should do it the same as EDD is that EDD allows only 1 file per "product" and in wpec you can have 15 files for the same product.

[pippinsplugins]

That's not true. We have unlimited files per product.

On Thu, Jun 4, 2015 at 3:09 PM, Joldis Mihai Alexandru <
notifications@github.com> wrote:

The only other question since you mentioned we should do it the same as
EDD is that EDD allows only 1 file per "product" and in wpec you can have
15 files for the same product.

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Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#1896 (comment)
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[JustinSainton]

👍 that's what I thought I recalled

[mihaijoldis]

yeah i must have missed it

[JustinSainton]

@misulicus regarding the point of filling the download status table - that's sort of the point 👍

That said, it may be worth exploring a just-in-time option as opposed to a scorched-earth approach. That is, the store admin could grant the privileges to the files for the product - and rather than filling the download_status table at that point, it could do it for each user, just in time, as they are accessing their account page.

Thoughts on that approach? I kind of like it better, now that I'm thinking through it, but would welcome thoughts from others @wp-e-commerce/contributor @wp-e-commerce/core-team