Introduction
In the past there have been attempts at creating free billing software for Virtualmin. There have been integrations with commercial applications. There have probably been others. But until now nothing has really integrated only with Virtualmin or integrated extremely well with Virtualmin. The time has come to change that. The time has come for Frontmin.
The Goal
Frontmin will be a complete solution for billing, support, and customer management. It will aim to have a complete integration with the entire Virtualmin API. It will be built upon a modular structure to allow additional plugins for various payment gateways, domain registrars, and more.
Another feature of Frontmin is that it will also have it’s own command line API so that Virtualmin can talk back to it. This will allow for complete integration of Virtualmin. By processing incoming commands from Virtualmin, Frontmin can integrate both ways, thus allowing the management and creation of new clients, invoices, hosting plans, etc. from within either Frontmin, Virtualmin, or even from the command line.
An Example
Imagine you are logged into Virtualmin and you have your new Server templates and Plans created just the way you like. But now you want to create a new test client to be billed on one of your plans.
Currently there is no way to do that unless you are using some 3rd party billing software. So lets log into your 3rd party billing software and create a test client, and see if it works. But before you can test if it works you also have to create a test order. But before you can create a test order you have to setup your orders and hook them up to your new plans you created in Virtualmin. It isn’t such a terribly bad process but it takes time and is not necessary.
With Frontmin when you create a plan in Virtualmin, it will automatically appear in Frontmin. When you have created a new server in Virtualmin it will also appear in Frontmin allowing you to optionally hook it up to a billing plan. It will automatically detect as many of the settings as Virtualmin allows for and take them into account and provide possibilities.
Plans For The Future
Code
The first plan is to code Frontmin. To do this I’ve decided to use WordPress as a framework. This will enable me to create a custom command line API for Virtualmin to talk to Frontmin and allow closer integration of the two.
Release
It may take a few months (or years) before the first release is ready. It may take longer. But once it’s ready I will release Frontmin here for download. Before that time I will release preview versions for anyone wanting to see what its like. These versions will not be recommended to be used in a production environment. There will also be a Git to view and download the very latest changes to the code and allow others to participate in the development.
Support
Once Frontmin is released people will most likely have problems and want some support. I will add a forum to this site and there will be a bug tracker available. Users can create an account, login and submit bugs and feature requests.
Maintain
All bugs and feature requests will be looked at carefully. Bugs will be fixed as quick as possible. Features may or may not be implemented, depending on the complexity and time it takes to add.
Future
At the start there will probably be a lack of features for some people. The goal is to get it out and running with the basic set of features required to run a successful hosting business. As time goes on, Frontmin will become more feature rich with each new release. Eventually support will be added for Cloudmin.
More to come soon…