There is no way to access the listing packages unless you fill out the entire listing form first

[stephunique]

I would like to report the following issue as a bug because it seems like it shouldn’t be this way.

I am using Woocommerce and the Paid Listings extension. I created a test package and then created a test user.

As I mentioned in a different post and in a review of this plugin on Wordpress forums, currently, the workflow for adding a listing is like this:
Registered user logs in → clicks on “add listing” or otherwise access this link somehow → fills out the form for details of the listing → clicks submit → user is told to purchase one of several listed packages.

There are two issues with this:

1. This workflow means the first time a user can access the page where the available packages are listed is when they try to submit a listing. On my website, the URL slug for seeing and buying the packages is “/submit-listing/package/”. It’s not good to surprise the customer with the prices after they try to submit. I can use CSS to add a notice telling them where to find information about the packages but it doesn’t solve the next problem.

2. Even if I take the direct URL for the packages, ie “/submit-listing/package/” and create a menu or button linking to that, the user gets redirected to the page where they are forced to fill out the “add listing” form. On my site the URL slug is “/submit-listing/details/”. So basically, if the user tries to see the packages first by going to “/submit-listing/package/”, they will be directed to “/submit-listing/details/” and forced to fill out the entire “add listing” form just to see the packages (since you cannot submit the form without filling all required fields, and you can’t see the packages without clicking on “submit”).

There is no way for users to buy a package whenever they want, without first meeting the following two criteria: having zero listings left, and filling out a listings detail form first (which they will only do when they want to make a listing), then clicking on “submit” to access the “mywebsite/packages” to buy a new package. This is not good because if users want to top up their listings credit with some listings now, to use later, or buy a different package, they cannot do it.

The ideal workflow is like this:
Already registered user who is logged in and has zero listing credits wants to post a listing clicks on a button → button takes user to page that shows the packages available , clicks an option, buys it → then gets directed to a page to fill out their listing details → click on submit to post the listing

and

Already registered user who is logged in and has some listing credits wants to post a listing clicks on a button → since they have listing credits, the button takes user to the page where they can fill out their listing details → click on submit to post the listing

and

User not registered yet and logged out wants to post a listing clicks on a button → button takes user to page that shows the packages available, clicks an option, buys it and automatically also registers them and logs them in after email verification → then gets directed to a page to fill out their listing details → click on submit to post the listing.

Would it be possible to stop the /packages page redirecting users to the add listing form and forcing them to fill it out?

[andrii]

Hi,

Please note that the Select Package page is displayed only after you have filled out the Add Listing form and clicked Submit Listing, in order to change this flow you will need advanced customizations.

[stephunique]

Thank you andrii for confirming this workflow.

I think the current method is not good at all, in fact very problematic, for reasons already mentioned, and rather than making it something that needs customisation, I hope HIvepress can recognise that this flow is problematic and fix it for the core plugin.

Thank you.

[stephunique]

Hello again Andrii,

I discovered this piece of code on the Hivepress Gist on Github: Display the package selection page first in the listing submission process (note that this breaks category-specific packages) #hivepress #paid-listings · GitHub

This code allows you to force display the packages first and make users buy a package before creating a listing. This can change the flow process of submitting a listing but as it says, it “breaks category-specific packages”.

Now I have an issue. I tested this code by pasting it into the Code Snippet plugin in my wordpress backend, activating it and signing in to post a new listing by clicking on the “add listing” button. It does indeed take me to the packages first, which is great, but after I buy a package, the “category” selection field is no longer visible, so vendors cannot select a category for their post. When the user tries to submit their listing, it says that the category is required, but the user cannot fill it out since the category option doesn’t display at all in the listing form with this code active, so they cannot submit their listing. This is a problem.

Then I went to the back end and turned off this plugin, and went backt to my test user. I discovered that the listing I started after first purchasing the package, it still does not show the category option.

So basically, with this piece of code active, if a person starts a listing, the category option will be gone, and will remain gone, as long as the listing was purchased as part of a package that was purchased before accessing the listing edit page.

Can you or someone else help?

[andrii]

Hi,

Sorry for the confusion. We have re-tested this PHP snippet, and it does not work correctly, so we recommend leaving the functionality as it is now. Yes, the user can’t see what page it is and whether there are any limits left before Select Package, but this is not very critical. If you need the Top UP feature, this is a different feature, and we have it on RoadMap.

[stephunique]

Looking forward to the new features! Can we sign up to a newsletter or something to be notified of when new features come out?

[andrii]

Hi,

For now, we publish this only on the forum in the Release Notes category. You will also see this update in the WP admin panel. But you can subscribe to the mailing list, in the near future, we will send info there as well: Extensions | HivePress