With tens of thousands of registered users and even more websites that have AEC deployed, the circuitously named Account Expiration Control Component has been source of surprise and frustration. Ranging from: This functionality? As Free Software? (And, more recently: At this price?) to the realization that a lot of functionality comes with quite a burden to configure it, we have done our best to keep up with our own userbase.
However, around 2009, it became apparent that a rewrite was inevitable - breaking up the software and offering more managable and flexible pieces from the big, monolithic component that AEC has grown to be.
The first part of the talk will be devoted to giving you an idea of the component, what it can do and where its limitations are. Not to dwell on the past for too long, but until the rewritten version is done, we are confident that a lot of users will still be interested in what AEC actually is.
The second part will deal with the future of Valanx - our plans of restructuring AEC and, fingers crossed, beta versions of work in progress that we will have totally done by May 31st. No really!
If you don't know yet:
The Free Software (commercial GPL) AEC component allows you to offer paid memberships on your website. It integrates with major components (it ships with more than 50 plugins) and supports more than 40 payment processors. Especially the flexibility of conducting other components has proven to be invaluable for AEC users.
Apart from that, it offers a wide range of standard e-commerce features - Integration with your registration process, Shopping Cart functionality, Discount Coupons and Im- and Export helpers.
If you are curious, you can already learn a bit about AEC in our Online Tour.
