Has anyone created a site in BC where you can download coupons?

[Elle Zirwanda]

Hi everyone

As part of a site we are creating, our client wants to have a directory of offers, you can search by postcode to find offers near you, then print out coupons with unique ID numbers . Like Shopadocket. http://www.shopadocket.com.au/

Anyone done something like this or have any tips?

[kenneth_rapp]

I'd be interested to know if there's a workflow in bc for this as well.

[Mihai_Tica]

I have not understood the unique code requirements, here is one way to do this:

-first of all create a page where users can register and log in

-set up the "offers" as webapp items - you can then search them by ZIP code

-once an user finds a webapp he likes he opens it up and goes to the "detail" view of the webapp

-on the detail webapp view have a hidden form and a javascript snippet that generates a random 20 characters number (the unique code) 187230912187230912 for example. You can have the first 11 characters converted from the UNIX date (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/221294/how-do-you-get-a-timestamp-in-javascript) to make sure they are as unique as possible.

So, after the user goes to the detail view of the webapp item the code is generated and it is copied into a field of the hidden form. The next task is to submit the form so the code and customer details are captured when the site visitor "buys" the coupon. That can also be done with javascript.

How will this setup work for you?

[Elle Zirwanda]

Thanks for the tip, I will look into this.

I just need a unique ID to track who has downloaded what coupons - a case ID number would do the trick, but the bnly way to generate a case for each download would be to add a hidden form to every coupon, right?

I'm trying to make it as easy as poss for the client to manage moving forward, so coding in hidden forms will be a last resort.

I had the idea last night of using the "Quote" feature. Does that still exist in BC?

Basically send the clients to a store without them having to go through the checkout process, as the coupons are free.

So I would put all the coupons into a category in the store, then get customers to get a "Quote" rather than "Add to Cart". Then BC hopefully would send an email to the person with the details of the coupon and a "Quote Number" which I could rename as Unique ID number - and the transaction would all be tracked in the CRM. Hopefully. I have not looked into this yet though.

[kenneth_rapp]

How difficult would it be to spoof this for the end user, if the number is generated by javascript? I have a client who might want to add coupons to a site as well but validation has to be an issue. There has to be a difference between coupons generated by the site and coupons generated by the user, otherwise what's the point in even having them?

The method I was going to use (elsewhere) involved populating a database with pregenerated codes which could then be checked against the coupon after its printed out. This has the advantage of not requiring encryption that can be broken since the difference between a valid and invalid number (and coupon) is just whether it already exists in the system, but I haven't tried this using BC yet, and I don't know how feasible or unweildy it would be. You would obviously have to manually build coupons in a webapp and possibly remove them afterwards though.

[Elle Zirwanda]

What I have decided to do is build a web app directory of all the coupons.
The key is to create a case for each coupon claim, and use the case number as the unique coupon ID.
The coupons web app will be in a secure zone in this site, so customers will need to be registered and logged in to view the coupon directory.
In the Web App Item Detail View template I will insert a web form.
In the web form I will pre-populate fields (they are already logged in so I can pull in their name and email address) including the Deal URL and hopefully the Deal Description (I watched a Kiyuko tutorial on how to use module tags to pre-populate form fields). Then I will change the SUBMIT button to “Get this Deal”.
That will trigger an auto-responder email to the customer which will act as the coupon. The auto-responder will include all the form fields and the Case Number. It will tell the person that the Case Number is their unique coupon ID which they need to claim the deal. Because a case is created, I can track it in the CRM and create reports that will tell me who has claimed what deals, and what the relevant Case Numbers are for each merchant.
In the secure zone I will have a “My Case History” page where customers can view their own case history and look at what coupons they have claimed, and get their case numbers again if they need to.
I have built a very rough prototype and I think this will work.

[kenneth_rapp]

That seems better than what I was going to do, which was just enter codes manually into a webapp without any tracking or anything. I also considered doing it through ecommerce, treating them as downloadable content but I don't know how that would work out.

[Elle Zirwanda]

Yes I looked at e-commerce too, but the e-product system just emails you a

link to download the file, so I thought if the end result is customer

receiving an email, it¹s better they get one without having to go through

the checkout process and ³buy² a free item, that¹s really clunky.

Also e-commerce only offers you one ³large product layout², which doesn¹t

suit me because I will also be selling physical products in the future and I

want more flexibility in the layout.

The web app system allows you a different layout for each web app, much

better.

The only downside of not using the e-commerce system is not having inventory

control, (eg: merchant wants to offer 100 deals only) but I figure I can

somewhat overcome that with a disclaimer like ³offer limited to the first

100 bookings² or some such, and expiring the web app item after an agreed

number of days.

[Greg.Tomkins]

Hi Elle

I am looking at offering this very same thing in 2 website projects at present and was wondering how you went with your own project for offering coupons.

If it is in place I would also be intersted to see the final solution in place... either post here or PM me...

Thanks...

[Elle Zirwanda]

HI Greg

Sorry the coupon part of our site is still in development so I can't show you a working version.

But the prototype worked well.

I created a web app directory of all the coupons, cross referenced with the web app of businesses using Data Source.

Then in the detail page for the coupons web app item I have a pre-populating web form called "Claim Coupon". For our site the form fields are hidden, only the submit button is visible, and is called "Claim Coupon".

When the person presses "Claim Coupon" (submit) it creates a case and sends them an autoresponder email. The case number detailed in the email is the unique ID that they need to quote when redeeming the coupon. We will be styling this into a nice html email but the basic unstyled one is below.

There is also a member area where the person can log in to see their case history:

And then they can click through to each case for the full details of their web form submission.

The site is www.dailyorganic.com.au.

The coupons should be up and running in the next couple of months.

cheers

[M_R_K_Development_Pty_Ltd]

Here is probably the best tip you will get on this one - dont use BC.

Creating a docket system that is truely robust with what you are describing would not take that much development effort for a PHP developer using a opensource platform like Drupal or Joomla.

In the case you have described BC is not the correct solution for your customer so dont use it.

Its better for you and the BC community as well - why? Simple. If your customers site goes big they will basically start asking for more and more tracking features which BC cant provide. At least if you create an app on your own you can grow it and do whatever the customer wants.

I would also say to the BC crew - if we had a web apps API this probably would not be the case but we dont, and looking at the speed of development we wont be getting it any time in the next year.

My advice, It would be best to avoid BC for this project.

[kenneth_rapp]

although... if you have the ability to build it in php elsewhere you can set it up to be embedded in bc although that would probably be a serious pain. I'm considering doing this if it turns out it can't be done sufficiently using webapps. 

[Elle Zirwanda]

Hi all

Just thought I would let you all know that our coupons are now live at Daily Organic: http://www.dailyorganic.com.au/coupons

You have to join the community and be logged in to claim coupons.

Feel free to test it out and see how awesome I am to have put this together.

cheers.