Epoch
Please don't test your biller setup with Epoch's test account—it won't work correctly.
Set up on Epoch Website
Register an Epoch account. Record you company account code and password.
Setup your site on Epoch's website or send them an e-email using their support form. In either case, you must give Epoch the following information.
- Site Name: your site name
- Pricing Options: List all pricing options you want Epoch to setup. They will send you product codes for each one.
- Postback URL: http://linkdomain/signup/process_epoch.php
Replace linkdomain with your linkdomain. Record your Epoch Product Code for each site.
If you use a .htaccess password file and need Epoch to add and remove logins to it, you also need to give them the following information:
- Password File Path: The path to your password file on the server.
- Password Script URL: The URL of the epoch password script located on the same server as the site.
If you use mod_auth_mysql for access verification, you also need to give them the following information. Please use this method if possible.
- Password File Path: Tell them to set this to your site's ID number
- Password Script URL: http://linkdomain/signup/epoch_pass.php
Replace linkdomain with your linkdomain.
Set up DataPlus in NATS
Database Permissions
There are two tables in the NATS database for Epoch's DataPlus: EpochTransStats and MemberCancelStats. You need to create a user in MySQL comming from Epoch's IP range and grant that user insert and select privileges on the above two tables. Do that by logining into MySQL with root privileges and executing the following commands:
grant insert, select on <database>.EpochTransStats to <username>@'<IP Address Range>' identified by '<password>'; grant insert, select on <database>.MemberCancelStats to <username>@'<IP Address Range>' identified by '<password>'; flush privileges;
Replace <database> with the name of your NATS database. Replace <username> is the username for the Epoch user you are creating. Replace <password> with the password for the Epoch user you are creating. Ask Epoch for their IP address range and replace <IP Address Range> with that range.
Email the username and password you created along with the NATS database name and IP address to Epoch, and ask them to turn on DataPlus on both tables.
Configuration
Go to the Billers Admin and enter your company code, password, master username, and master password.
Go to the Sites Admin, edit or create a site, go to the Join Options section, and enter your Epoch Product Code. Under biller info, you may enter any of these options:
- Retry Count is the Number of times a surfer can retry the Epoch join form before denied.
- Text Color is the HTML Color for main text on Epoch join form. This should be in hex format.
- Background Color is the HTML Color for main background on Epoch join form. This should be in hex format.
- Link Color is the HTML Color for links on Epoch join form. This should be in hex format.
- EZClick Background Color is the HTML Color for main background of EZClick Table if present. This should be in hex format.
- EZClick Text Color is the HTML Color for main text of EZClick Table if present. This should be in hex format.
- EZClick Title Background Color is the HTML Color for header background of the EZClick Table (if present). This should be in hex format.
- EZClick Title Text Color is the HTML Color for header text of the EZClick Table (if present). This should be in hex format.
- Top images are used when a client would like to personalize their join forms a bit more. These cannot contain images of models or any other copyrighted material. They're usually just the site logo.
Notes
Epoch has multiple special features which we have directly integrated into NATS. The following explains how to use each one:
EZClick
Epoch's EZClick lets you add special offers to your epoch join forms which can make you extra money. NATS allows you to easily put EZClicks on your join forms and also allows you to let others use EZClicks on their join forms to cross-sell one of your products.
To add an EZClick to one of your join forms, you must click the crosssales icon in the option's code row the EZClick should appear on. There you can simply add EZClicks you have setup previously.
To setup new EZClicks, use the same icon located on the very bottom of each page (Cross Sell Admin) with all the other Admin icons. There you can add and edit Cross Sells for all supported billers.
To offer one or more of your products to others as EZClicks, contact support@epoch.com and tell them to setup a new EZClick. Give them the product code or codes (you may setup an EZClick with 2 offers) and tell them to pre-check them or not.
Now you have to setup Incoming Cross Sells via the Cross Sell Admin. This is explained on the Cross Sell Admin page directly.
UpgradePlus
Epoch UpgradePlus lets you shorten a Member's Trial by offering them incentives to upgrade in your Members Area. Most users do this by offering them 2 separate Members Areas. One for members that are only in their Trial Phase giving them only limited amount of content and a separate one which gives access to the full content for people that paid for the full month.
There are two ways to use this system:
- MySQL AUTH: If you use MySQL AUTH in your Server to authenticate members using the NATS members table you can add an additional check to see if a member is in their trial or full membership and give them the right access respectively.
- Your own System: You could also use the Site's Upgrade Post URL you can setup via the NATS Site Admin to receive upgrade notifications to your own scripts. Your scripts would then mark the member in a way you can figure out what to give them access to. We can not help you with setting up such a script though.
To use UpgradePlus on your site, you will have to follow the instructions located in the Epoch UpgradePlus documentation (link below) except for the following:
- UpgradePlus URLs: The buttons or links you use to open Epoch UpgradePlus should not use the URL mentioned (http://www.billingsupport.com/secure/memberupgrade.cgi) but instead you should use http://<linkdomain>/signup/upgradeplus.php?site=<siteid>&username=<username>
- Template returnurl: The returnurl variable you need to add to the accept offer button as mentioned in the documentation needs to be set to the following URL: http://linkdomain/signup/epoch_upgradeplus_returnurl.php
Where <linkdomain> is the linkdomain for the site, <siteid> is the siteid for the site in NATS, and <username> is the username for the user that is trying to upgrade (To get the Username via PHP you would use <?=$_SERVER['REMOTE_USER']?>)
Giving Affiliates Credit for Epoch Cross Sells
You can give your affiliates credit for cross sells purchased by members they referred. Note: this option only works for cross sells within the same NATS install. Go to Cross Sells Admin, add or edit a outgoing Epoch cross sell, and mark either or both of the Recalculate Offer Ref boxes. When either of these boxes are checked, NATS will use the join option and settings encoded in the corresponding Offer Ref code, but it credits the referring affiliate.
