Ambra Subscriptions
Version
3.4.4 (last update on Sep 10, 2011)
Rating
Compatibility
Votes
Favoured
28
License
GPLv2 or later
Commercial
Type
Views
64429
Date Added
4 February 2009
Editor's Note
- This extension requires registration to download.
* Subscription / Membership / Payment Manager
* File Downloads Manager
We wrote AMBRA Subscriptions for our own use on Dioscouri.com, so if you've purchased a support subscription from us in 2009 or 2010 or downloaded any of our extensions, then you've seen AMBRA Subscriptions in action.
AMBRA Subscriptions (AS) has an integrated File Manager, so if you're selling digital downloads with your subscriptions, then you no longer need a separate download manager with a complicated integration. Some of the features of our download manager include download logging with user id and IP, assigning files to multiple categories (without having to make multiple copies of the file), and assigning content articles as the descriptions of both categories and files.
If you're like us, then you are often selling memberships and subscriptions to other businesses. In many cases, multiple employees from that business will need access to the subscription you've just sold to the business. AMBRA Subscriptions (AS) allows you to assign multiple users to each payment. AS even allows you to create separate expiration dates for each of the users in case you want to grant only limited-time access for one of the employees...
The AMBRA Subscriptions (AS) code is filled with various plugin events, which allows you to make it do nearly anything you want at any time. One simple example is the onAfterStorePayment event. With this plugin event in the AS code, you can write a plugin that will do anything you want after a payment (whether a new one or otherwise), such as assign the user to a JUGA Group, attribute the payment to a specific affiliate, email the user a special note, or make any other kind of database/URL query. The options are limitless.
As of the current version, Ambra Subscriptions supports unregistered users purchasing a subscription.
For a quick demo of how AMBRA Subscriptions works, stop by Dioscouri.com. And don't forget that for an online business, you absolutely must have a Support Center, so check out BILLETS.
Images
Just bought ambra subscriptions 343.
I have send them a pre-sales question asking about (after reading their extension user comments):
"The paypal plugin relies on Transaction ID's in order to work properly, This is a problem because transaction ID's are never consistent, if someone uses paypal from another country the transaction ID in their paypal will not match the transaction ID in your paypal account, so ambra subs will not recognize the transaction which will cause you to wast an entire day tracking down missed transactions while dealing with upset customers."
Their answer in pre-sales was immediate:
"We use Ambra Subscriptions on dioscouri.com with both PayPal and Google Checkout and after thousands of transactions I can't say that we experience any of the issues you mentioned above. Our customers are from the US and many other countries."
After buying and installing the component, I have that precise issue. After submitting 2 support tickets... NO ANSWER
I have send them a pre-sales question asking about (after reading their extension user comments):
"The paypal plugin relies on Transaction ID's in order to work properly, This is a problem because transaction ID's are never consistent, if someone uses paypal from another country the transaction ID in their paypal will not match the transaction ID in your paypal account, so ambra subs will not recognize the transaction which will cause you to wast an entire day tracking down missed transactions while dealing with upset customers."
Their answer in pre-sales was immediate:
"We use Ambra Subscriptions on dioscouri.com with both PayPal and Google Checkout and after thousands of transactions I can't say that we experience any of the issues you mentioned above. Our customers are from the US and many other countries."
After buying and installing the component, I have that precise issue. After submitting 2 support tickets... NO ANSWER
Owner's reply
UPDATE - we did respond to this user and our developers worked to help resolve the issue.
Ambra Subscription Extension is really great and helpful for me,
i can see negative comments as well, but i think they are from other sellers,
I know Ambrasub is $70 little bit expensive but its worth of money, i am using it on xxx.com and few other websites, think $70 for many websites is worth of money.
Honestly i tried many extensions and also AEC but it didn't work for me, it has lots of settings specially in subscriptions area where it is not user friendly, as compare to Ambrasub and Juga combination where you can set active or expired subscription or you can set date when it will expire, on top of that you will get another extension which will make Registered users to Authors on subscription.
right now latest version of Ambrasub is bugsfree, so i never ask any help from Ambrasub support team.
Thank You dioscouri team for such a nice extension.
Regards
Sunny
i can see negative comments as well, but i think they are from other sellers,
I know Ambrasub is $70 little bit expensive but its worth of money, i am using it on xxx.com and few other websites, think $70 for many websites is worth of money.
Honestly i tried many extensions and also AEC but it didn't work for me, it has lots of settings specially in subscriptions area where it is not user friendly, as compare to Ambrasub and Juga combination where you can set active or expired subscription or you can set date when it will expire, on top of that you will get another extension which will make Registered users to Authors on subscription.
right now latest version of Ambrasub is bugsfree, so i never ask any help from Ambrasub support team.
Thank You dioscouri team for such a nice extension.
Regards
Sunny
Save your money!! Dioscouri has one of the worst business models I've ever seen.
Ambra Subs is missing a lot of important features so right off the bat it's NOT worth $70 maybe $35 now and $70 down the road once it's completed. but not $70 right now that's just too much for what you get.
Ambrasubs costs $70 for 1 month of software and support, which would be ok if it worked right and you only needed help setting it up.
It would also be ok if they offered bug fixes and security updates since their software is priced high.
However if you find a bug and it's been 31 days, your out of luck THEY WILL NOT HELP YOU unless you repurchase another $70 support plan.
Here are a few of the problems we had.
The paypal plugin relies on Transaction ID's in order to work properly, This is a problem because transaction ID's are never consistent, if someone uses paypal from another country the transaction ID in their paypal will not match the transaction ID in your paypal account, so ambra subs will not recognize the transaction which will cause you to wast an entire day tracking down missed transactions while dealing with upset customers.
Google Checkout only works under very specific circumstances, which are not very well documented.
We wasted a 2 weeks trying to get Google checkout to work right with ambra. We submitted a support ticket but this problem was not resolved by ambra within the month that our "support" subscription was active, we had to pay a 3rd party to fix the problem.
There are other issues but I think you understand my opinion.
My recomendation is to use AEC not only does it have more features than you'll ever need, it's very afforable at $17 and they will fix the bugs if you find them. They have a similar subscription based model but at $17 and far less problems with the software it's a much better deal.
Ambra Subs is missing a lot of important features so right off the bat it's NOT worth $70 maybe $35 now and $70 down the road once it's completed. but not $70 right now that's just too much for what you get.
Ambrasubs costs $70 for 1 month of software and support, which would be ok if it worked right and you only needed help setting it up.
It would also be ok if they offered bug fixes and security updates since their software is priced high.
However if you find a bug and it's been 31 days, your out of luck THEY WILL NOT HELP YOU unless you repurchase another $70 support plan.
Here are a few of the problems we had.
The paypal plugin relies on Transaction ID's in order to work properly, This is a problem because transaction ID's are never consistent, if someone uses paypal from another country the transaction ID in their paypal will not match the transaction ID in your paypal account, so ambra subs will not recognize the transaction which will cause you to wast an entire day tracking down missed transactions while dealing with upset customers.
Google Checkout only works under very specific circumstances, which are not very well documented.
We wasted a 2 weeks trying to get Google checkout to work right with ambra. We submitted a support ticket but this problem was not resolved by ambra within the month that our "support" subscription was active, we had to pay a 3rd party to fix the problem.
There are other issues but I think you understand my opinion.
My recomendation is to use AEC not only does it have more features than you'll ever need, it's very afforable at $17 and they will fix the bugs if you find them. They have a similar subscription based model but at $17 and far less problems with the software it's a much better deal.
Owner's reply
Just to clarify a few points raised here ...
First, you are paying for Support Services and you get unlimited support during your subscription.
Also, if you report an issue we don't stop helping you on that issue after your support subscription expires. We'll keep helping until we can find a solution (IF that is with our ability - note: we can't add software features as a part of your support subscriptions).
As for the other issues, payment with Google works and the transaction ID issue works for others also (including our own site which has many transactions a day from all over the world).
This is the only time I've publicly given negative feedback to any Joomla component on any site/forum/review and have thought long and hard before doing so.
This component is not a site "Membership" component at all, so if you are seeking this then look elsewhere.
The wording on their site is most ambiguous so please read and reread everything on their site carefully and ask lots of questions on their forum if you are unsure as to what is on offer.
We purchased 2 components + support and our support 'subscription' expired before our issue was resolved (it took 3 weeks for an understandable response was received) and we then had to pay again to find out with one response that this component requires JUGA (more $$) to function as a site membership component.
The component may work as a subscription for files or specific content but IS NOT a membership solution.
Yes my review is contrarian but the time and money wasted serves as an alert to others ... buyer beware
This component is not a site "Membership" component at all, so if you are seeking this then look elsewhere.
The wording on their site is most ambiguous so please read and reread everything on their site carefully and ask lots of questions on their forum if you are unsure as to what is on offer.
We purchased 2 components + support and our support 'subscription' expired before our issue was resolved (it took 3 weeks for an understandable response was received) and we then had to pay again to find out with one response that this component requires JUGA (more $$) to function as a site membership component.
The component may work as a subscription for files or specific content but IS NOT a membership solution.
Yes my review is contrarian but the time and money wasted serves as an alert to others ... buyer beware
Owner's reply
This fork is NOT a spoon.
If you are looking for a spoon, then do NOT try this fork.
Yes, this fork may work for stabbing broccoli or chicken breast, but it will NOT work with soup. I want to use this fork for soup and I am furious that the soup escapes through the prongs.
Buyer beware... this fork does not work with soup.
I have been using this program for about 3 months and continually run into problems. Don't get me the wrong the program and the idea of it is awesome however the customer support is a joke and hardly helps clear up my questions. I seem to always get the run around and then after they have sent me in circles, tutorial after tutorial then to some more tutorials. I am at the end of my subscription and have to pay again for them to run me into some more circles. I have spent more time trying to fix the bugs in this program and talking to customer support, making this one of the most ineffective programs I have worked with yet.
Owner's reply
Hmm ... we don't see any bug reports from you (only some pre-sale questions) so we can't be sure about what your issues were; however, we have spent a lot of time on our support documents and the best way to learn how to do something is to go through it step-by-step.
A subscriptions system like AS can be a bit complicated to learn if you're new to it. We always encourage users to completely review each part of the docs first and then we'll assist if you get stuck.
I've tried a lot of subscription components and this has to be the best. It is very flexible and customizable and of course is a perfect fit with the Joomla admin interface. The guys at Dioscouri responded very quickly when I needed help configuring the component to my needs. I also like the way that AMBRA Subscriptions integrates perfectly with both the new Tienda shopping cart and the Amigos affiliate program! Way to go guys!
I've been using Joomla about 4-5 and made about 20 websites. I have learned that non-commercial components are sometimes very useful but lack support and updates needed for newer versions of Joomla. I used AEC couple years with Joomla 1.0.12 and I was happy because it was non commercial and suited to my needs (AEC is now commercial).
Now I updated 1.0 site to 1.5 site and I was looking for a component which does everything I want to achieve. I found Ambra and asked several questions from the Dioscouri team before the purschase and they answered every day to my questions and made things clear to me. After couple weeks of questions I was sure that I can make my project work even better than AEC with Juga and Ambra Subscriptions combined.
I can honestly say that this component works very well and with excellent support you can make your site work in few days.
Now I updated 1.0 site to 1.5 site and I was looking for a component which does everything I want to achieve. I found Ambra and asked several questions from the Dioscouri team before the purschase and they answered every day to my questions and made things clear to me. After couple weeks of questions I was sure that I can make my project work even better than AEC with Juga and Ambra Subscriptions combined.
I can honestly say that this component works very well and with excellent support you can make your site work in few days.
I stretched the team at Dioscouri somewhat to create an expanded custom job for Ambra Subs and they came to the party.
The component itself is an excellent add-on that works for most appliciations as is, and with the extensions we created does an even more brilliant job for our site.
Very happy, thanks again guys for your persistance in seeing this slightly complicated outside the square solution through to the finish.
Keep up the good work and bringing these reasonably priced goodies :-)
The component itself is an excellent add-on that works for most appliciations as is, and with the extensions we created does an even more brilliant job for our site.
Very happy, thanks again guys for your persistance in seeing this slightly complicated outside the square solution through to the finish.
Keep up the good work and bringing these reasonably priced goodies :-)
I have been contacting them for some questions paypal and as the last review had mention... even though I did receive daily message from them when I asked a question, but mostly they just refer me to the document, which many times are not something related to what I asked on specific setting. Until back and forth for many times, we are going nowhere, ... I am not very satisfied and outragous many times to see their answer because I know they did not check what I attach screen shot for the question. They could not really help me find any solution, nor go on to my back end to find out what the problem is. They will give me a warming not suppose to give the user id or password, and if you do, they will not tell you what they did on the back end. I had no choice but ask them to check for me.. that is how desperate I was... If you don't mind to figure out what's happening yourself, it is best not to expect too much on the support. The product itself is all right, but again, if you are very new like me on setting subscription, it will take TIME and many tries hoping a solution will come along. My problem mostly is on paypal setting. I hope they will have more documentation and with details what outcomes could be with log in or non- log paypal users.
The backend features of this component are better than the frontend features. If a users subscription expires they are merely sent an email. Its easy for an administrator to extend their subscription but there is no facility for a user to extend their subscrition automatically. There is also no facility for adding users to a payment in the front-end, again it is easily implemented in the back end by an administrator. I modified the paypal plugin so that different curriencies could be used. The documentation for using paypal plugin with paypal sandbox ommitted a change that needed to be made in order for this to work properly - I sent numerous messages to support with all responses refering me to documentaion - which was frustrating since I had completed everything according to documentation. However I did a receive a daily response to each of my messages.
I spent a bit of time checking out subscription products and eventually settled on Ambra. The product is stylish, looks good and works exactly as described. You can see it in action on Dioscouri page. So, no surprises.
The thing that really sets all of Dioscouri's products apart is the service. If you have a question - pre sales or post sales - you get an near instant email response. You do pay for that post sales with a six month or annual service subscription, but it was worth the price to me be sure the product would do what I needed. Especially when I want to be certain that my subscriptions are being managed properly. Once you take your site to a commercial level and are earning an income you need the support and assistance you get from these guys.
The thing that really sets all of Dioscouri's products apart is the service. If you have a question - pre sales or post sales - you get an near instant email response. You do pay for that post sales with a six month or annual service subscription, but it was worth the price to me be sure the product would do what I needed. Especially when I want to be certain that my subscriptions are being managed properly. Once you take your site to a commercial level and are earning an income you need the support and assistance you get from these guys.
Ambra is an excellent software. While not perfect, it's code is more on the clean side for the most part than not. At least for what code I've changed and altered. Like most of this companies product, it's more a full fledged program bundled for Joomla and not that of a hack or set of hacks to do the job.
Anyone that care to take a look at the code, or the structure, will find a fairly large underlying work and programming effort.
A big thanks for this program as it was much needed addition.
5 stars for the code, 10 stars for the professional manner in which this company operates. Dioscouri sets the bar for professionalism in both programming effort as well as their business model and support practices.
Anyone that care to take a look at the code, or the structure, will find a fairly large underlying work and programming effort.
A big thanks for this program as it was much needed addition.
5 stars for the code, 10 stars for the professional manner in which this company operates. Dioscouri sets the bar for professionalism in both programming effort as well as their business model and support practices.
Ambra Subscriptions is a great package, robust and very well supported. I build websites for clients and have tried all sorts of subscription packages, but this is the one I will use going forward.
It is not simple to set up, but the documentation is clear and if you follow it, you will have no problems.
Used alone, Ambra Subscriptions requires you to tag all the pages you want to restrict. In combination with their sister product, Juga, you can restrict access to any Joomla entity using the menu system without special tags.
Support is excellent, but the clear documentation makes it unnecessary except for true technical problems.
It is not simple to set up, but the documentation is clear and if you follow it, you will have no problems.
Used alone, Ambra Subscriptions requires you to tag all the pages you want to restrict. In combination with their sister product, Juga, you can restrict access to any Joomla entity using the menu system without special tags.
Support is excellent, but the clear documentation makes it unnecessary except for true technical problems.
I first started to use another extension for paid access because it had one particular feature no one else offers but after awhile I realized that it was not the right choice for me. I found out recently this new version of Ambra added the ability to pay first then you get registered dynamically on your site which is one BIG important feature to have.
The whole component here is well thought out and very easy to work with once you spend some time going through the setup instructions and not all cluttered. The file management system is by far much better than the one I was using (which was buggy) and offers a nice clean front-end.
Overall, I recommend you try Ambra Subscriptions because in addition to this one, their other extensions will greatly add to your site's enhancements (depending on your needs). This one was perfect for my new site and definitely a keeper. Good job!
The whole component here is well thought out and very easy to work with once you spend some time going through the setup instructions and not all cluttered. The file management system is by far much better than the one I was using (which was buggy) and offers a nice clean front-end.
Overall, I recommend you try Ambra Subscriptions because in addition to this one, their other extensions will greatly add to your site's enhancements (depending on your needs). This one was perfect for my new site and definitely a keeper. Good job!
I bought this extension with the other excellent Dioscouri extension: JUGA. I had to adapt AMBRA Subscriptions for it to fit the specific needs of my website. Despite the numerous amount of ticket that I filled, they were alway quick to respond, and most of all patient. They even correct some small mistakes in a plugin that I wrote to modify the behavior of AMBRA for Free! What a team!
Their extensions are well documented, although I would have appreciated some kind of API, to know for example all the events that are fired, by the extensions.
Thank you again for the great Job
Their extensions are well documented, although I would have appreciated some kind of API, to know for example all the events that are fired, by the extensions.
Thank you again for the great Job
Being new to site design and Joomla, I've made a lot of mistakes and goofs in the past week or so while building a website with various extensions I've tested out.
I misread a few things, missed a LOT of things, and after paying for a subscription, suddenly was not sure AMBRA was what I needed-
The team at Discouri were super-fast answering all my questions, friendly, and patient as well.
Between them and the excellent documentation on the site, not only did I find out that yes, it would do, with a little help, the specific things I needed it to, but they gave me all the instructions and plugins I'd need to boost the core extension a little to optimize it for my site needs.
Between the customer service and the extension itself, I found AMBRA to be not just worth every penny, but a bargain.
I misread a few things, missed a LOT of things, and after paying for a subscription, suddenly was not sure AMBRA was what I needed-
The team at Discouri were super-fast answering all my questions, friendly, and patient as well.
Between them and the excellent documentation on the site, not only did I find out that yes, it would do, with a little help, the specific things I needed it to, but they gave me all the instructions and plugins I'd need to boost the core extension a little to optimize it for my site needs.
Between the customer service and the extension itself, I found AMBRA to be not just worth every penny, but a bargain.
Excellent support!
I have to admit that alot of the difficulties that i've had were caused by my unfamiliarity with the joomla CMS and all of this component, but the Ambra's support center, does a great job and this in itself makes discouri a great company to purchase from.
Thanks Guys!!!!!
I have to admit that alot of the difficulties that i've had were caused by my unfamiliarity with the joomla CMS and all of this component, but the Ambra's support center, does a great job and this in itself makes discouri a great company to purchase from.
Thanks Guys!!!!!
We are a web development company and use the product for our site and we really enjoyed building the website with this software. We modified the base-install template for Ambra and we added several new fields and some tool-tip features. The code was well written which made the development of our customers website easy and fun. We also modded the Ambra to use VirtureMart for checkout because we needed to use PaypalPRO. Good work Dioscouri!
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