AppSuite:Upsell

Upsell

Introduction

The OX Upsell packages allow to show advertisements to end-users who are just using a free service (for example "Webmail"). They enable hosting companies to offer premium OX services via in-app upsell.

When free-mail users click on premium features like "OX Files", an upsell dialog can be shown where the missing feature can be advertised via text, screenshots, and/or videos. Based on your specific configuration, the end-user can request a free trial period and/or directly buy the feature within the upsell dialog. The customer never has to leave the application as it is a seamless in-app upsell.

It is also possible for hosting companies to easily integrate their own online shop into OX Upsell, since the internal mechanisms are loosely coupled via events.

TL;DR

Upsell is: End-user has a set of capabilities. UI offers more than what's just available in order to promote things. Actions, e.g. inline links, that require missing capabilities trigger the in-app upsell. This process leads to a trial period or a new subscription. Technical challenge for the UI developer is to check what the end-user has, what can be shown beyond that, and how to handle upsell.

Events

Whenever the user starts an app or clicks on an inline-action, a capability-check is performed. For example, all inline actions have native support for such checks:

 
new Action('io.ox/calendar/detail/actions/sendmail', {
    // this action requires the capability "webmail"
    capabilities: 'webmail',
    action: function (baton) {
        // send mail
    }
});

If the end-user does not have "webmail" (e.g. in a files-only setup) but calls this action, a proper event is fired:

 
// if any action misses a capability
ox.trigger('upsell:requires-upgrade');
// which provides the following data for apps:
{
  type: "app",
  id: "io.ox/mail/main",
  missing: "webmail"
}
// and for inline-actions:
{
  type: "inline-action",
  id: "io.ox/calendar/detail/actions/sendmail",
  missing: "webmail"
}

Capabilities

There are lots of different capabilities. They are defined on the server-side and basically they are just strings. Let's keep it simple and understand them as either services (e.g. mobility), specific functionalities (e.g. multiple_mail_accounts) or applications (e.g. calendar). Some examples:

• calendar
• contacts
• facebook
• infostore
• mailfilter
• multiple_mail_accounts

...

• webmail

 
// list all available capabilities
_(ox.serverConfig.capabilities).pluck('id').sort();

An example: Free-mail users might just have webmail and contacts. If infostore is enabled for upsell, end-users will see the link to store mail attachments. But since this capability is missing, the event "upsell:requires-upgrade" is triggered which starts the upsell process. Upon successful completion this process should unlock the capability infostore for the end-user.

Example dialog

Whenever the event "upsell:requires-upgrade" is triggered there should be some response for the end-user. Usually an upsell dialog should open. This can be implemented as follows:

 
function showUpgradeDialog(e, options) {
    require(['io.ox/core/tk/dialogs'], function (dialogs) {
        new dialogs.ModalDialog({ easyOut: true })
            .build(function () {
                this.getHeader().append(
                    $('<h4>').text('Upgrade required')
                );
                this.getContentNode().append(
                    $.txt('This feature is not available.'),
                    $.txt('You need to upgrade your account now.'),
                    $.txt(' '),
                    $.txt('The first 90 days are free.')
                );
                this.addPrimaryButton('upgrade', 'Get free upgrade');
                this.addButton('cancel', 'Cancel');
            })
            .setUnderlayStyle({
                opacity: 0.70,
                backgroundColor: '#08C'
            })
            .on('upgrade', function () {
                ox.trigger('upsell:upgrade', options);
            })
            .on('show', function () {
                ox.off('upsell:requires-upgrade', showUpgradeDialog);
            })
            .on('close', function () {
                ox.on('upsell:requires-upgrade', showUpgradeDialog);
            })
            .show();
    });
}

function upgrade(e, options) {
    console.debug('upgrade', options);
    alert('User decided to upgrade! (global event: upsell:upgrade)');
}

ox.on('upsell:requires-upgrade', showUpgradeDialog);

/*
 * convention: 'upsell:upgrade' is used to trigger final upsell
 * the current user and user_id can be found in global variables ox.user and ox.user_id
 */
ox.on('upsell:upgrade', upgrade);

Hint: For simple demo purposes, you can enable an internal upsell configuration by appending "&demo=upsell" to the URL. Needs to reload page, of course.

The second event "upsell:upgrade" can be understood as the final imperative to request the upsell server-side.

Example portal widget

Besides waiting for the user to click on such links, it's always a good idea to offer explicit controls to trigger an upsell. One option is creating a portal widget that advertises a premium subscription:

 
/**
 * This work is provided under the terms of the CREATIVE COMMONS PUBLIC
 * LICENSE. This work is protected by copyright and/or other applicable
 * law. Any use of the work other than as authorized under this license
 * or copyright law is prohibited.
 *
 * http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
 * © 2013 Open-Xchange Inc., Tarrytown, NY, USA. info@open-xchange.com
 *
 * @author Matthias Biggeleben <matthias.biggeleben@open-xchange.com>
 */

define('plugins/portal/upsell/register',
    ['io.ox/core/extensions',
     'io.ox/files/api',
     'gettext!plugins/portal'], function (ext, api, gt) {

    'use strict';

    var title = gt('Upgrade to premium');

    ext.point('io.ox/portal/widget/upsell').extend({

        title: title,

        preview: function (baton) {

            this.addClass('hide-title').append(
                $('<div class="content centered" style="cursor: pointer; padding-top: 3em;">').append(
                    $('<h2>').append(
                        $.txt(title + ' '),
                        $('<i class="icon-star">')
                    ),
                    $('<div>').text(gt('Click here for free trial.'))
                )
                .on('click', function () {
                    ox.trigger('upsell:upgrade', {
                        type: 'widget',
                        id: 'io.ox/portal/widget/upsell',
                        missing: ''
                    });
                })
            );
        }
    });
});

Accessing upsell settings

The upsell configuration is located in the namespace "io.ox/core", the path is "upsell/enabled". Example:

 
// get all capabilities that can trigger upsell
require('settings!io.ox/core').get('upsell/enabled');

// contains data like this
{
  infostore: true,
  portal: true,
  tasks: true
}

If upsell is not enabled and the end-user lacks specific capabilities, the app or the inline-action is not shown. If upsell is enabled by the upper configuration, inline-actions are shown and trigger the upsell event "upsell:requires-upgrade" if clicked (but do not execute the action itself).

 
/* 
 * if you want to create your own controls, you can use the following helpers 
 */
var upsell = require('io.ox/core/upsell');

// check capabilities (space-separated) 
upsell.has('portal webmail');

// get missing capabilities (would return "calendar" in demo mode) 
upsell.missing(['portal webmail', 'contacts', 'calendar']);

/* checks if upsell is enabled for a set of capabilities 
 * true if at least one set matches 
 */
upsell.enabled(['portal webmail', 'webmail calendar']);

/* convenience function: "visible" 
 * checks if something should be visible depending on required capabilities 
 * true if any item matches requires capabilities 
 * true if any item does not match its requirements but is enabled for upsell 
 * this function is used for any inline link, for example, to decide whether or not showing it 
 */
upsell.visible(['portal webmail', 'contacts', 'calendar']);

// likewise if neither capability set nor enabled for upsell, we get a false 
upsell.visible(['foo']);

// in case something weird happens (usually bad configuration) debug() helps
upsell.debug();

// and this one
_(ox.serverConfig.capabilities).pluck('id').sort();

Server settings

In order to configure this server-side, just create a new file upsell.properties or append to existing appsuite.properties (mind the double-slash; this in not a typo!):

 
io.ox/core//upsell/enabled/infostore=true
io.ox/core//upsell/enabled/portal=true
io.ox/core//upsell/enabled/tasks=true

Upsell in OX6

Please also consider this article as it also covers backend aspects.