FREE HOSTING ACCOUNT ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM

Liway Hosting is a hosting company that I've had the pleasure of dealing with for many years.

When I joined the team, Liway Hosting offered free hosting accounts, with the latest versions of PHP, MySQL and cPanel. These free hosting accounts were 'paid' for by users posting on a forum. These types of hosts are called 'Post4Hosting'.

Once a user had reached the amount of points, they would pay those points, and in return get a hosting account created for them.

The need for the system

Because the administrator was required to create hosting accounts, and remove the points from the user, there were significant delays for the user to get their hosting account. Many people sign up for a service, and expect to be able to start using that service instantly.

In addition, every action had to be done manually. The administrator had to login to WHM, create the hosting account. Then login to the phpBB administration panel, deduct the points from the user, and then send their account details to them via a forum Private Message.

Simplifying the system

I created a PHP system, that integrated into phpBB and used the WHM API to automatically do these tasks.

Once logged into the phpBB administration panel, the admin would select from the menu to create a new hosting account. The admin then chose the user that had requested the hosting account (only users who had requested hosting would be shown), and then fill out their account details. The system would then create the hosting account using WHM, and then deduct the points from the users account, before sending them a Private Message.

This saved a lot of time, allowing admins to concentrate on other things, and meant the administrators password didn't have to be given out to every single staff member.

Going further with the system

The basic need of the system was simple, but taking it one step further also saved admins more time.

Not only did the system create hosting accounts, it could also delete them, and suspend them.

Liway Hosting had a monthly forum point price for their hosting packages. The system was able to automatically deduct these points from the users account every month, and if they didn't have enough points suspend their hosting account.

Features

System automatically creates a users hosting account onto the system, using the WHM API
Points are automatically deducted from a users forum account, and a forum Private Message is sent to them, with their new hosting account details.
Using cron jobs, user accounts are deducted a monthly hosting price from their forum account.
- If a user doesn't have enough points, and this is the first occasion, a warning is sent via PM to remind them to earn more points.
- If a user does not have enough points, and they have been given a warning within the last three months, their hosting account is suspended, and en email and private message is sent to them.
- If a user still doesn't have enough points, and they've been suspended, they are given a week before their hosting account is terminated by an admin.
Administrators can suspend and terminate hosting accounts without having to login into WHM.
More active users are given discounts, while less active users may pay more.