Miva Digital Downloads

[KayfabeRockStar]

With eMedia sales SoftGoods, you were able to send any download to anyone without them having placed an order for it. For example, if you wanted to send the DL to a customer as a "comp", you could just go to the item, enter their email and send it. It was also a quicker way to resend a DL link without looking up the order.

It seems with Miva's Downloads, you can only resend the link to the customer from the order. Can you send a download link for a product another way?

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Pretty easy (i think) with a little bit of prep.

Create a product that offers that download
Set # of downloads to 0 (unlimited)
Order that Product using generic name and probably your address info

Now, when you want to send that download, open that order, click Order Emails, select the Digital Download template and change the "Override To" address.

[KayfabeRockStar]

You still have to place an order and if you send out various comps, you'd have to create various orders. It would be great to be able to just go to the product and in the download settings have a place to enter an email to send the link to someone like eMedia Sales has.

[dcarver]

You can edit a product, go to the Digital Download tab and generate a URL to the product. You could then email the URL to whomever you like. There isn't currently a way to email that link directly from Miva Merchant though (outside of doing it via an order email).

[ILoveHostasaurus]

You could place a copy of the download in question in the site's normal documents directory, and send a link to it. Or, if the files are particularly large and you don't want to duplicate, a simple php script could read and output it from the same directory Merchant looks at for its source files. If you're sending a download link with no expiry and no limit on usage, and the download content is for something with just about any tangible value, a portion of recipients will end up sharing it, or getting a virus which shares it, and then who knows who is downloading. We used to see that frequently with the eMedia module when a direct link was sent out in that manner.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

. If you're sending a download link with no expiry and no limit on usage, and the download content is for something with just about any tangible value, a portion of recipients will end up sharing it, or getting a virus which shares it, and then who knows who is downloading. We used to see that frequently with the eMedia module when a direct link was sent out in that manner.

Here's another thought. What about using a hidden/restricted FREE version of the product? (Either just not linking to the product (and removing it from search results) or using an availability group.

[KayfabeRockStar]

You can edit a product, go to the Digital Download tab and generate a URL to the product. You could then email the URL to whomever you like. There isn't currently a way to email that link directly from Miva Merchant though (outside of doing it via an order email).

I think this might be the quickest option and something the client would be the most useful. I appreciate all the feedback and hope it will help others.

An additional question ... is it possible to generate a download history for the customer (when logged in to an account, of course)? eMedia's module has that option where you can product a list of everything the customer has ever downloaded - so they can both see what they've ordered and download something again. With Miva's solution, it seems you can only go the order history and download an item again unless I missed something.

[oliverands]

Hey KayfabeRockStar , since it looks like you've upgraded from SoftGoods to Miva, I've got an unrelated question for you.

Do you have customers contacting you because they are trying to download a digital product using an old link from the SoftGoods module that they have stored in an old sales receipt email? If so, how are you handling this?

I'm getting several of these requests per day now that I have migrated, and I have to handle each manually by adding the products all over again to the order to generate the new Miva download links and then deleting the old products from the order to remove the SoftGoods links. I then resend the sales receipt email so they have functional links again. I've been wondering how others are dealing with this and if there is a way to update all past orders to include the new Miva-generated links.

[KayfabeRockStar]

I have not found an easy way to do this yet ... we are handling it on a case-by-case basis and the client just had a call from someone who had ordered 170 downloads in the past and was pretty upset that his download history was gone. What I suggested was to find out the DLs he had ordered, do one giant new order (not to charge him of course) and he would have the links in one order in his order history -- of course, as he orders more, they will be on each individual order and the links will work - will be in the new system.

On the post above, I'm hoping there is a way to create a DL history list like eMedia Sales did rather than having to go to each order. Of course, this will only generate a list of DL from the MIVA system and not the old, non-working links from eMedia ... a way to convert them or redirect the old links would be a good solution.

Glad to know others are trying to work through this as well.

[InvincibleRecordings]

I am in the same boat but behind you in the distance. My programer should have all our music products updated to covert from emediasales to the miva system in a couple of days. I should hope that Miva creates a more elegant way to send a link to a customer that have not ordered which also times out over a couple of days and is protected. On another note I noticed that emediasales and the companies they purchased like viking coders are not listed on the apps listing by developers in the miva store. Why is that i wonder?

[oliverands]

I've been using the front end with a special "comp" account to create links for free downloads. I have a price group set up at 100% discount on all products that this account belongs to. Saving this customer in the admin without email address allows you to log in to check out and paste in the email address of the person who should receive the download link. When the order is complete, they get a standard sales receipt email with the download link. The downside is it takes a little more time, and a couple more screens, to generate a comp link. The positive is that it creates an order record for the link which allows tracking which the old eMediaSales method didn't.

[InvincibleRecordings]

I was wondering if MIVA is considering upgrading your Digital Download module to be able to send downloads to a customer via Admin? Many times customer need them sent again because of spam filters and the such. Thx

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

You should be able to do this. Open that Order, choose Order Emails, then check Digital Downloads Created email and click Send.

[InvincibleRecordings]

Bruce thanks so much for this tip! it works great making this software usable for us.

The only thing is a cannot figure out how to have the Amazon CDN Settings work for the file path when accessing folders. As long as the Amazon File Path is at the root level all is good but as soon as I create Folders in the Amazon Cloud then the downloads do not work. One of the folder paths looks like this: s3://invinciblemusic-dd/Music Downloads/A Voice for the Voiceless 73jzx/A Voice for the Voiceless - Indigenous Soul Movement.zip

So within Miva Admin I am putting this in the File Path Field: Music Downloads/A Voice for the Voiceless 73jzx/A Voice for the Voiceless - Indigenous Soul Movement.zip