Documentation--lacking and lying?

So, I just recently purchased JoomDonation. In the initial email after purchase, it says:

"Each of our extensions has been provided with documentation for the end user. Please visit our website ( joomdonation.com ) and you will be able to find the corresponding documentation for your extension."

So, I went to the site, navigated to here and clicked the "Resources" tab, where the documentation should be. Unfortunately, the FAQs link goes to a 404 error, and the "Using Joom Donation" link goes to a page that just says "Coming soon." Apparently the documenation has been coming soon since 2010??? And this is the flagship product that your entire Web site is named after? And you still put out information saying that the documentation exists?

Based on that, this is not off to a good start. I am going to try playing around with it, but it is looking less like a professional product than I had been expecting. If in fact there is a good user's manual available, please direct me to it.

Thanks!

Hi Corey

First of all, I am sorry for lack of use manual. Infact, the extension is very simple to use, please try to play with it and if you have questions, I am happy to answer. You can also talk to me via Skype, YM, MSN or Gtalk so that I can guide you directly from there. Basically, you can simply following the steps :

1. The first step would be entered the merchant account of the payment gateway which you want to receive payment. I think you will use it with Paypal, correct ? If so :

- Go to Joom Donation -> Payment Plugins, unpublish all the payment plugins which you don't want to use .

- Click on os_paypal payment plugin, enter the Paypal account you want to receive donation into the plugin parametter.

2. The second step would be give your site visitors a way to access to donation form to make donation :

- The simplest way is creating a menu item to link to donation view of Joom Donation component. When customer access to that menu item, they will see a form which allows them to enter necessary information to process donation.

- The second way is that you find and publish the JDonation module, assign it to a position on your site template. Users can then see that module. click on Donate Button to process donation.

3. The next step would be changing some necessary config options by going to Joom Donation -> Configuration :

- Enter the email which you want to receive notification into Notification emails config option (in Messages tab). That's the email which the system will send notification to you when someone makes donation to your site.

- Please review all the messages in the messages tab and change it if necessary. There are many messages (message displayed on donation form, email messages sent to donors...).

The above steps would be a good start and show you how the extension works. Please try the above steps and as I said, if you have any questions, I am happy to answer you .

I am really sorry for lack of documentation in this case. We don't lie customers (the email message which you received when you made order is sent automatically by our order system for all products but some products doesn't have fully documentation). I will spend time to work on the documentation for Joom Donation this weekend .

Tuan

Thanks for the reply. I did not mean to accuse you of lying...but it does seem odd that the email says that, yet the main product that your site is named after doesn't have documentation. I vastly prefer an accurate, well-documented description of each feature and option to just having to play around with it. I can read a manual and learn what features I care about much more quickly than I can play with it and try every single combination of options.

Anyway, I have now played with it enough to have a few questions for you. Mostly, I need a way to customize the configuration a bit more on a per-campaign basis, but fear that there is no way to do that. I see that you can customize the messages for each campaign, which is good. But I need to be able to use certain custom fields on some campaigns and not on others. And I need to be able to show only pre-defined amounts (with no custom amount entry box) for some campaigns, but I need to show only the entry box for others.

Basically, I want most of the configuration parameters to be customizable for different campaigns, rather than globally applicable. Is that possible?

In fact, is it not even possible to show or hide the start date, end date, goal, etc. for each campaign? I like the listing of campaigns you get from a Joom Donation>>Campaigns menu item, but not all campaigns have a start date, end date, and goal, and I can't find any settings to turn those off. I wish those fields could simply be left blank in the campaign configuration, and any blank fields would automatically be hidden.

Hi

But I need to be able to use certain custom fields on some campaigns and not on others

=> Go to Joom Donation -> Configuration, find the config option Custom fields based on campaign, set it to Yes. After that, when you create custom field, you can choose the campaign for the custom field and it will be used for that campaign only. That should solve your problem.

And I need to be able to show only pre-defined amounts (with no custom amount entry box) for some campaigns, but I need to show only the entry box for others

=> Unfortunately, it is not possible. If you don't enter pre-defined amount , the pre-defined amount will be used. Maybe you can try to empty the pre-defined amount in Configuration of Joom Donation, and then enter pre-defined amounts for each campaign ?

In fact, is it not even possible to show or hide the start date, end date, goal, etc. for each campaign? I like the listing of campaigns you get from a Joom Donation>>Campaigns menu item, but not all campaigns have a start date, end date, and goal, and I can't find any settings to turn those off. I wish those fields could simply be left blank in the campaign configuration, and any blank fields would automatically be hidden.

=> Unfortunately, we will need to edit code alitle in this case. You can submit a support ticket sending me administrator and FTP account of your site so that I can edit it for you

Regards.

Tuan

=> Go to Joom Donation -> Configuration, find the config option Custom fields based on campaign, set it to Yes. After that, when you create custom field, you can choose the campaign for the custom field and it will be used for that campaign only. That should solve your problem.

Thank you - I had that setting on, but somehow I must have missed the drop-down to choose the campaign for the field.

Unfortunately, it is not possible. If you don't enter pre-defined amount , the pre-defined amount will be used. Maybe you can try to empty the pre-defined amount in Configuration of Joom Donation, and then enter pre-defined amounts for each campaign ?

Yes! That seems to do it.

Unfortunately, we will need to edit code alitle in this case. You can submit a support ticket sending me administrator and FTP account of your site so that I can edit it for you

OK, I will do that once I am ready. Or, if you prefer, you can tell me what code to replace with what and I can copy it in myself.

Tuan,

I am a new customer and am trying to get the extension set up as well. I definitely look forward to thorough documentation.

In the meantime, I am reading this chain and need clarification on the most basic...

You said to complete the plug-in parameter for the payment method you want to use. I am going to use paypal. The application says to enter a Paypal email but your note I believe refers to "account." What exactly do I enter into that parameter? I have a paypal merchant number which I believe is the unique identifier for my account in paypal. Is that what I enter there?

I used the Paypal email and it seemed to work, other than some other issues I've had.

Corey Kopp wrote:

=> Go to Joom Donation -> Configuration, find the config option Custom fields based on campaign, set it to Yes. After that, when you create custom field, you can choose the campaign for the custom field and it will be used for that campaign only. That should solve your problem.

Thank you - I had that setting on, but somehow I must have missed the drop-down to choose the campaign for the field.

Actually, I am still having some issues with custom fields. I can create custom fields that are specific to a single campaign. However, when I go to Components-->Joom Donation-->Custom Fields to manage my fields, there are 2 problems:

1. I am unable to re-order the fields. All of the usual Joomla "order" controls appear to be disabled or something.
2. The drop-down box to filter the list of custom fields by campaign doesn't work. I can choose a campaign from that box, but nothing happens.

Hi Corey

1 => Please click on the header of the order column. After that, you will be able to change ordering of the custom fields .

2 => OK, will check and get back to you soon (just come back to office from home, last weekend I had to go to my home for a family work) .

Tuan