HS3 to HS4 Plugin Upgrade Information

[jseer]

Hello Devs,

We really appreciate the feedback you are providing on a daily basis. HS4 would not be the great product we intend it to be without your assistance, cooperation, time, and hard-work. I have some updates regarding existing plugins and upgrades.

• The ability to add HS4 plugins to the plugin portal is coming this week. This will allow all of us to start testing with a live updater file and get a better sense of the availability of plugins in HS4. As well as start the process for the giveaway.
• We are adding a feature to the plugin portal allowing you to offer a FREE HS4 plugin with the purchase of your existing HS3 plugin. We anticipate this to be rolled out in the next couple of days. There will be a checkbox to offer a "Free HS4 License" within the plugin portal which will issue new customers an HS3 and HS4 license. You will have the ability to turn this off by unchecking the box. This option should only be used if you intend to offer an HS4 plugin.
• In the next couple of weeks we will be rolling out the plugin upgrade web app. This will allow users to enter their existing HS3 plugin license and receive a coupon code with a discount to the corresponding HS4 plugin product. Developers will be able to determine which plugins to offer an upgrade discount to and how much the discount is. The coupons will be tied to your HS4 plugin and will expire after 30 days. The options to enable this will be available in the plugin portal when ready. More information will be released when we get closer to release of this feature.
• If you wish to offer a new HS4 plugin at full price and no free HS4 plugin with the purchase of HS3, simply create a new listing in the portal and ignore the above features.

Please add any additional feedback regarding free HS4 licenses and upgrades. If you have scenarios that to do not fit in the above offerings, please post them. So far the user feedback on HS4 has been excellent and the upgrade offering went very well. The initial customer base for offering an HS4 plugin (new or upgrade) will be substantial, especially compared to when we released HS3.


Please note: If you intend to offer a free HS4 plugin, when you create your HS4 product, the HS4 plugin ID will need to be the same as your HS3 plugin ID, we will take care of the rest on our end, more info to come.

~Jon

[jseer]

There has been a delay on the development of these features. We are finalizing today and trying to roll out by tomorrow. The HS4 portion and free upgrades are working but we are fixing some bugs that have been plaguing devs and admins for a while now. With these fixes we intend to improve the quality of the portal. Thanks for your patience!

~Jon

[jseer]

We are rolling out the HS4 update now! Should be ready in 30-60 minutes. For more information click here.

If you have questions feel free to post them here. If you have issues or need to report bugs, please email plugins@homeseer.com.

Major Change Log:
*Added HS4 submissions
*Added ability to add Free HS4 Upgrade
*Improved backend on sales reporting
*Improved Admin side logging
*Improved Admin side approval process
*Updater Name is now Plugin ID
*Added HS4 Compatible check box

[kriz83]

Hi Jon,

Thanks for the update. Isn't the "HS4 compatible check box" confusing? I mean, all plugins ARE compatible? What should it be used for ?

[dcorsus]

Hi Jon,

Thanks for the update. Isn't the "HS4 compatible check box" confusing? I mean, all plugins ARE compatible? What should it be used for ?

I actually like the idea that I can mark up my HS3 PI not to work with HS4. I'm planning to go from free to paid, I could use this. Haven't fully formed my HS3 to HS4 strategy, there is a good chance that I end-of-life the current free version (v3.1.x) but allow it to work under HS3 and HS4 but no fixes or new features, whereas I was thinking to step up the minor version number on HS3 (v3.2.x), make that paid but let it come with a free license for an HS4 version. So in summary, those who don't want to pay, can stay with the current version that works actually really well or buy a license which would give them a HS3 version that should stay up-to-date with fixes but no new features and a HS4 version with new features. Now need to study what was just released to see if I can actually do that ....

Dirk

[jseer]

Hi Jon,

Thanks for the update. Isn't the "HS4 compatible check box" confusing? I mean, all plugins ARE compatible? What should it be used for ?

You are correct that they are all compatible. This checkbox is simply to give us an internal idea of what plugins have been loaded and used in HS4 already. We very well may load some ourselves and end up checking that box but we open the ability to check it off to the authors as well.

~Jon

[stefxx]

Hi Jon,

I am about to release a first (beta) version of my Neato plugin, fully converted to HS4 standards. Both HS3 and HS4 versions are paid, 39,95 but I would like to offer a 50% discount if someone likes to upgrade from a HS3 version. If I understand you correctly:

• I need to create a new HS4 listing WITH A DIFFERENT PLUGIN ID. If I use the same ID, it would be a free upgrade right?
• I have to wait for the "plugin upgrade web app" to allow users to upgrade their HS3 plugin at a discount.

I never released a beta version before, any instructions on how to do that? The updater doesn't allow me to upload a beta version (looks like the "Choose file" is missing for beta versions?)

Thanks!

[alexbk66]

I never released a beta version before, any instructions on how to do that? The updater doesn't allow me to upload a beta version (looks like the "Choose file" is missing for beta versions?)

That's an easy part:

[stefxx]

Thanks for the screenshot! Mine is a bit different... all beta functions seem to be disabled (also on new HS4 submissions):

[alexbk66]

Thanks for the screenshot! Mine is a bit different... all beta functions seem to be disabled (also on new HS4 submissions):

Ah, HST need to enable BETA for you - contact support.

[jseer]

Hey Devs,

I have an update for you. Next week we will be rolling out the Upgrade Discount page in the portal. This page will allow you to tie an HS3 plugin to an HS4 plugin and designate a discount for your customers. Each plugin can have a different discount percentage! On the customer side we have a page for them to enter their HS3 license ID, PW, and email. If they match what we have in our database, we will send them a discount code that has a 1 time use with your designated percentage off and tied to the HS4 version. This will only work is your have an HS4 plugin in the Shop and licensing DB. Here is a link to the customer side: https://shop.homeseer.com/pages/plugin-upgrades

Secondly, you will be receiving two emails next week. One will contain your HS4 STD license and the second will contain your HS4 PRO license. These licenses will be emailed to your developer contact email address. If you have not received your licenses by Jan 27th, please email me (jon@homeseer.com), pm me, or email plugins@homeseer.com and someone will make sure you get your licenses. When you register HS4, please make sure you enter your email address after registering so that the license is then tied to your email. We have our records but this will make sure you can use the license retrieval tool if necessary. If you have any questions let me know. Thanks for hanging in there!

~Jon

[jseer]

Upgrade Discount Update!

As some of you may have seen, there is a new Pricing menu option. This is where we will be putting all tools related to plugin pricing. The first available tool grants authors (you!) the ability to offer a discount on the purchase of your HS4 plugin if the user owns the HS3 version.

HS4 plugins will show up in the left menu (labeled HS4) and HS3 plugins will show up in the right menu (labeled HS3). In between those two lists is a discount box for setting the current discount. The disable checkbox will allow you to quickly disable any active discount rules.

Setup
Under the HS4 section, select the plugin that the customer will be purchasing. Now, enter the discount you wish to give to existing customers in the Discount(%) field. Lastly, in the HS3 section, you will select which HS3 plugin the customer must own to get the designated discount. Clicking submit will push the rule out for availability and a confirmation will show.

Your plugins must exist in the portal, the shop, and licensing database to show up in each respective list.

User Redemption
The end-user will visit our shop to get their discount code(s). Each user will need to have their HS3 license ID, password, and email associated with the license in order to receive a one-time-use discount code, only good towards the HS4 version. One discount per license. Users can get their discounts from here: https://shop.homeseer.com/pages/pluginupgrades or navigating to the Help menu on our shop and clicking Plugin Upgrades.


Let me know if you have any questions or feedback.

~Jon

[w.vuyk]

jseer Jon,

No luck when I try to fill in the discount. Once I click submit, I get kicked back to the logon screen. Checking back, nothing is noted.

Wim

[kriz83]

Same thing here. Even submitting a plugin is impossible. I already mailed 2 days ago and posted here on the forum, no reply yet ...

[jseer]

jseer Jon,

No luck when I try to fill in the discount. Once I click submit, I get kicked back to the logon screen. Checking back, nothing is noted.

Wim

I will look into this. I cant seem to recreate this but perhaps the engineer can.

~Jon