CVS edit link for Dave Kinchlea

Refer is a module that allows a traditional bricks-and-mortar business to run and track a referral system that pays some sort of dividend (e.g. $10 off the next service) to both the Referrer and the Referred customer. Refer allows for both online users to "Refer a friend" as well as appropriately permissioned users to create new referral records and modify the dates as to when either party received their benefit. This module was motivated by a real customer requirement, Columbia Auto Service http://www.columbiaautoservice.ca (also hosted by GATE Village) to allow for a referral program online but not force their customers to use the web if they don't want to.

Refer is different from uc_referral because the referral has nothing to do within online commerce.

Refer is similar to Invite (http://drupal.org/project/invite) and in fact uses that fine project as a base to work from, however the focus of refer today and going forward is as a traditional business tool geared to a mostly non-technical user, rather than a social network enabler geared to the on-line crowd. That functionality is useful and has been retained in the invite code but it is more a bonus feature than core functionality.

Refer is the smallest and most complete module I'd like to make available, but others do exist and all (to date anyway) have a distinct business focus, that is using Drupal as a business tool rather than a social/business network.

CommentFileSizeAuthor
#2 refer-6.x-1.0.tar_.gz68.95 KBDave Kinchlea
#1 refer-6.x-1.0.tar_.gz0 bytesDave Kinchlea

Comments

Dave Kinchlea’s picture

Dave Kinchlea commented
Status: Postponed (maintainer needs more info) » Needs review
StatusFileSize
new refer-6.x-1.0.tar_.gz0 bytes

I can't seem to upload the tarball, just keep getting zero bytes....I'll try a zip I guess.

Dave Kinchlea’s picture

Dave Kinchlea commented
StatusFileSize
new refer-6.x-1.0.tar_.gz68.95 KB

I had to move the file from one directory to another before I could upload it successfully ... odd, but here it is nonetheless (and of course I can't delete the previous entry, sorry).

It was app armour not letting firefox have access to the file for upload because of where I was in the file system, in case anybody cares.

avpaderno’s picture

avpaderno
he/him
Primary language Italian
Location Brescia, 🇮🇹 🇪🇺
commented
Status: Needs review » Needs work
Issue tags: +Module review

Hello, and thank you for applying for a CVS account. I am adding the review tags, and some volunteers will review the code, pointing out what it needs to be changed.

Refer is similar to Invite (http://drupal.org/project/invite) and in fact uses that fine project as a base to work from, however the focus of refer today and going forward is as a traditional business tool geared to a mostly non-technical user, rather than a social network enabler geared to the on-line crowd.

Did you open a feature request for each features that are missing from the existing project? If you didn't do it, may you explain why you didn't do that?

Dave Kinchlea’s picture

Dave Kinchlea commented

I didn't ... for two reasons: 1) I had a paying customer who wanted the module asap, negotiations with warping the invite module into the referral module would have taken too long (though I suppose we can still have that discussion); but more importantly really is 2) which is the future direction of the module ... I'll be focusing on integration with standalone financial software and/or spreadsheets etc, also more focus on rewards (probably working towards an online choice for rewards) and other incentive programs. In point of fact, the final version (2+ years from now) IS probably closer to uc_referral but invite's base code was so much more appropriate place to start as it handled a lot of the same functionality.

But as a point of business, there is a great deal of difference between a referral and an invite to a site and that alone probably justifies the new module (in my not-so-humble opinion of course:-)), whatever future is ahead for either invite or refer, it is hard to see how they won't diverge further apart.

Dave Kinchlea’s picture

Dave Kinchlea commented
Status: Needs work » Needs review

Sorry, I must be missing something, perhaps I should have changed the status? I've not seen any activity on this and we are coming up to a month ... should I take this as a rejection or user error?

avpaderno’s picture

avpaderno
he/him
Primary language Italian
Location Brescia, 🇮🇹 🇪🇺
commented

Sorry, I must be missing something, perhaps I should have changed the status?

If the status is still needs work, noboby will review the proposed module.

The reason I asked if you open a feature request for the existing project is that we prefer cooperation against duplicating the work done in an existing project.
If you would have opened a feature request for the existing project, and the current maintainer would have replied saying that he doesn't think the proposed feature suits his module, then I would understand why you proposed a module that in some way duplicates the work done in the existing module; reasons like I created the module so I can control what features I can implement in it, or I created the module because the existing module was too complicated to use are usually not seen as good reasons to duplicate the work done in existing projects.

Dave Kinchlea’s picture

Dave Kinchlea commented

I guess I can understand the thinking behind this and as an egg I will not offer an opinion as to how applicable it is. The facts are simple from my end, the decision to write my own module was completely independent of drupal.org, My reasoning was as I said earlier and I made my decision to write this code well before I thought of giving it back to drupal.org. I was simply trying to offer the code now that it exists and has shown to have value to my customers. It is, of course, up to drupal.org as to whether it has value to drupal.org. I just can't feel bad about not doing something I didn't know I was supposed to do.

Nonetheless, with a "better late than never" attitude, I have now contacted the invite maintainer about the new functionality and will update this when/if I hear back.

drupalshrek’s picture

drupalshrek commented

Hi Dave,

The first thing to say is that it of course is encouraged to do whatever you like with writing your own modules. There's nothing at all wrong with this. In that case, it's sure fine to just develop your own adapted version for urgent customer use. That of course is what open source is all about; you do what you like with it!

The only thing is that if submitting a module back to the community, there is a strong preference to get developers with overlapping module functionality to work together rather than have almost identical modules around.

Any news from the maintainer of the invite module?

drupalshrek’s picture

drupalshrek commented
Status: Needs review » Needs work
Dave Kinchlea’s picture

Dave Kinchlea commented

Hi ... I understand the motivation, no worries.

Nada ... I've not heard from the developer at all.

drupalshrek’s picture

drupalshrek commented

Have you tried opening an issue on that modules issue queue? I see there are a lot of maintainers; perhaps one of them can "get you in" on that module. At least we'd have some other experts on the nearby module to be able to view your module and give their view of the best way to proceed.

zzolo’s picture

zzolo commented
Component: Miscellaneous » miscellaneous
Status: Needs work » Closed (won't fix)

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