I do have a few questions regarding the user-payment system in Links-SQL:

1)
Actually a user who submits a link to my directory is able to have his link displayed in more than ONE category by simply click on CTRL and select several categories.
If I understand correctly, the payment is made for a link no matter in how many categories it appears.


2)
But if a user submits for example three DIFFERENT links to the system, I could give him a discount:

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>> Discounts can also be created, giving users reduced costs on listings after they have listed a set number of links ("buy two, get the third 50% off") <<

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In which given timeframe needs the user to submit these three links ? Does he need to submit three links within one payment-process ? What if he submits three links within one day or within one week ? Will he also get the discount if submitted within one week ?


3)
How to understand this:

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>> Additionally, you have the option to customize payment options right down to the per-category level, or simply choose to use the same payment options for all categories. <<

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Where can I set this up ?
Is it possible to set different costs for different categories ? So "category1" costs USD 1.0 per month and "category2" costs USD 5.0 per month ?



4)
- if I setup my Links SQL installation to always require payments for links, how will links be sorted ? by alphabet or date of link submitted or rating ?
- how will paid links be sorted if "optionally accept payments (paid links show up above free links)" ?
is there a possibility to manually sort them ? what is the best sort-method to use ?



Please explain. Thanks in advance

Erich

By default, users can't add one link to multiple categories simultaneously; the CTRL click option is only available to admins from the admin side. User templates can be modified to allow for multiple category link submissions, but this isn't recommended for payment-enabled sites for the reasons you described.


There is no time limit on discounts. If a user adds one link today, and two more a month from now, they will receive a discount on the third link (and subsequent links) if you've configured a discount to appear when a user pays for three links.


In the "Database" menu (this can't be done in the "Build" menu to prevent editors from modifying payment methods), while editing categories you can specify whether payments are required, optional, or not permitted. By default all categories will use the global site-wide payment setup you've configured in your Payments menu, and therefore can't have cat-specific methods configured. Once you've modified the category to have payments be "Optional" or "Required", you'll see a link reading "Add/Update payment terms for this category". Click it and you'll be able to create category-specific payment terms, as well as import the default global terms, if you wish.


If payments are required for all links, then the regular build_sort_order options for the various pages (in the Setup -> Build menu) will be used. If payments are optional, paid links will appear above free links, and both groups will be sorted accordingly. So, using the default sort options, a payments optional category would be sorted like:

{PAID LINKS
isNew DESC,
isPopular DESC,
Title}

{FREE LINKS
isNew DESC,
isPopular DESC,
Title}

You can use any link property as a sort criteria to be entered into the various sort options: Rating, Title, Add_Date, etc.

If you still wanted to manually customize your sort order further, you could create a column called Sort, enter values in the column for individual links (the higher the value the higher the link appears), then enter "Sort DESC" in the build_sort_order options.
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bruce@gossamer-threads.com

many thanks for this feedback and the detailed explanations !

Great ! Thanks !

Erich