Features/Downloadable products

= Screencast =

= Feature Description =

Downloadable products are product items with files assigned. For example it can be photos, software, document templates etc.



Enable the feature
To enable this feature in store front, mark the option Enable downloadable products in admin: Core settings-&gt;Settings-&gt;Shop Frontend; In the store front, this will enable links to file downloads pages in Users Account -&gt; My Downloads. The links can be found in footer section My Downloads and in the header service drop-down My Downloads.

Additionally, this feature has to be enabled for each product item seperately via -&gt; Extended tab -&gt; option Enable download of files for this product.

Downloadable products and variants
The option "Enable download of files for this product" (in Extended tab) is inherited from Parent product, as well as few other options (free shipping, Intangible products). Thus, it cannot be set differently from Parent product. But if you enable that on parent product then variants also may have separate files to download. If a variant has no files attached then it inherits the files from parent products. If the variant has files attached then no files from the parent product will be inherited.

Examples:


 * 1) You want to sell a CD as a) a physical product and b) as a downloadable product:
 * 2) *set up a parent product without downloadable files but and check the option "Enable download of files for this product".
 * 3) *the first variant will become a buyable CD, do not add a file here.
 * 4) *the second variant will get several MP3 files, add your files
 * 5) You want to make MP3 files available for a client who bought a physical CD:
 * 6) *set up a parent product, mark it as a downloadable product and attach the MP3 files to it.
 * 7) *set up the first variant as a regular product, don't attach MP3 files.
 * 8) *the second variant will automatically become a downloadable product when you attach files to it.

Managing Downloadable products
To create downloadable product go to Products Administer-&gt;Products. Mark an existing or create a new product. Switch to the files tab and upload your files. Product files can be marked as Purchased only to allow downloads only if the payment process has been finished.



To set up a folder where files shall be saved, edit the Path to files for downloadable products option in admin: Core settings-&gt;Settings-&gt;Other Settings. Default value is "out/downloads". If you change the directory, do not forget add an .htaccess file.

After the setup, make sure the download file directory is really protected from the access over web.

Uploading Files
Files can either be uploaded via the admin interface or via FTP.

Uploading Files via Admin Panel
Files uploaded via the admin interface will be renamed to a hash and stored in separate folders under /out/downloads/.

Uploading Files via FTP
"Manually" uploaded files shall be stored to /out/downloads/uploads/. They will not be renamed by the application. In the admin panel, you just enter the name of the file without the name of the folder.

Please make sure that this directory is always protected from a direct access over the network.

Credit Card Payment
How do you set up that the download links are sent automatically whent he customers pays by direct debit, credit card, etc? The principle is that on payment by direct debit or credit card the order is already paid (and marked as such in eShop) at the same moment when payment transaction is processed. So you can attach the files to product and mark the option "Download is available only after purchase" for these files. In this case when order is instantly paid during order process, the automatic emails to customers (which are sent after order is submited) already includes active links to files of purchased products.