Service Change Notify

Know the moment a client asks to upgrade or downgrade a service, with a staff alert email that spells out exactly what changed.

What it does

When a client requests a service upgrade or downgrade, that request lands in Blesta's service changes queue - and unless someone is watching that queue, it can sit there unnoticed. Service Change Notify closes that gap: the moment a new service change appears, it emails your nominated staff alert address with the details, so your team always knows when a client is waiting on a decision.

Key features

• Instant Upgrade and Downgrade Alerts: Every service change that lands in Blesta's service changes queue is emailed straight to the alert address you nominate, so nobody has to sit watching the queue to notice one.
• See What Changed at a Glance: The alert puts the current package, term and price next to the requested one, along with the quantity and the state of the change, so staff can judge it without opening Blesta.
• Choose Which Statuses Alert You: Pick any combination of Pending, Completed, Canceled and Error, so you are told about every step of a change or only about the ones that need a human.
• Your Own From Address and Name: Set the From email address and From name the alerts are sent with, so they arrive looking like the rest of your mail rather than something generic.
• Editable Email Templates: The emails it sends install as standard Blesta templates in every language you have enabled, so you can reword them, restyle the HTML and choose which details they carry.
• No Duplicates and No Backlog Blast: Each change is alerted once and once only, and switching the plugin on starts from today instead of emailing you about every change already on file.
• Runs Automatically: Checks for new service changes on Blesta's own cron every 5 minutes, with no manual upkeep once it's configured.
• Per-Company Configuration: Configure it independently for each brand on a multi-company install, so every company runs with its own alert address and status selection.

Installing Service Change Notify

Before you start

• If you are on the leased (subscription) licence, the Blesta Club Subscription Manager must be installed and your subscription active. The owned and owned-source licences have no such requirement.

1. Upload the files

Upload the extension folder into your Blesta installation so it lands under your Blesta directory at:

plugins/service_change_notify/

For example, on a typical install: /var/www/html/blesta/plugins/service_change_notify/

2. Install it in Blesta

1. Log in to your Blesta admin area with a staff account that has the Plugins permission (with Install Plugin and Manage Plugin checked) under the Settings group in Manage Staff Groups.
2. Go to Settings > Company > Plugins and click the Available tab.
3. Find Service Change Notify in the list and click Install.

3. Configure it

1. From the Installed tab, click Manage next to Service Change Notify.
2. Enter the email address you want alerts sent to, along with the From email address and From name the alerts should be sent with.
3. Choose which service change statuses should trigger an alert - Pending, Completed, Canceled, Error - or any combination of them. New installs default to Pending only.
4. Click Save.

Once saved, the plugin checks for new service changes automatically on Blesta's cron every 5 minutes - there is nothing else to schedule.

You're ready to go - see the usage guide for a walkthrough of day-to-day use.

Updating Service Change Notify

Upgrading works just like installing: upload the new files over the old ones, then run the upgrade from the same page you installed it on.

1. Back up your current extension files first - good practice before any upgrade.
2. Upload the new version over the existing folder, replacing the old files.
3. Log in to your Blesta admin area and go to Settings > Company > Plugins.
4. Find Service Change Notify and click Update to run the upgrade.

Version-specific notes

• v1.2.0: Notification emails gained a details section (current plan, new plan, price and quantity), and a new "Notify On Statuses" setting lets you choose which service change statuses trigger an alert. Existing installs are upgraded to alert on all four statuses, matching the previous behavior - visit Manage if you want to narrow it down. If you have already customized your email template, add the new {change_details} tag to it by hand to see the change details, since an upgrade never rewrites a template you have edited.

Using Service Change Notify

For your staff

Settings

Go to Settings > Company > Plugins, find Service Change Notify in the Installed list and click Manage. This opens the plugin's settings panel with four fields:

• Send Alerts To Email: the address that receives the alert emails.
• From Email and From Name: the sender identity the alerts go out with.
• Notify On Statuses: a multi-select of which service change statuses should trigger an alert - Pending, Completed, Canceled and Error. Select any combination; a new install defaults to Pending only.

Click Save to store your settings. From that point on, the plugin watches for new service changes and emails your alert address the moment one appears - it does not alert on anything that already existed before you saved.

The alert email

Each alert is sent as a standard Blesta email using the "Notify Service Changes" template, found alongside your other company email templates under Settings > Company > Emails. Like any Blesta email template, you can edit its subject and body, and it installs in every language you have enabled. The email tells you which client and service the change belongs to, its status, and a details section with the current package/term/price next to the requested one and the quantity, so you can judge the change without opening Blesta.

Good to know

• The plugin only ever sees a service change if Blesta actually queues one. If your company's Settings > Company > Billing > Invoices > Queue Service Changes Until Paid setting is off, or the change has no price difference, Blesta applies the client's package change immediately with no queued record for the plugin to alert on - this is standard Blesta behavior, not something the plugin controls.
• Each service change is only ever alerted once, at the point it first matches one of your selected statuses. If it later moves to a different status, you will not get a second alert for the same change.
• The check runs automatically on Blesta's cron every 5 minutes - there is nothing to trigger by hand.
• This plugin has no client-facing screens; alerts go to your staff address only.