AppSuite:Connector for WHMCS Installation Guide

Under Development: Connector for WHMCS

Description

Integration of OX App Suite with WHMCS/cPanel makes the deployment of OX App Suite simple for service providers and their customers. Web hosters can easily replace their existing webmail system on WHMCS/cPanel and provide customers a state-of-the-art, web based user interface with the benefits of a best in class, full-featured mobile web application – optimized for smartphones! The combination of OX App Suite, the provisioning of cPanel and the billing system WHMCS provides the perfect package for cPanel Hosting Provider and Reseller

Requirements

The Connector for WHMCS can be installed in any Linux platform that supports WHMCS. Version needs to be 5.2.5 or newer.

For WHMCS installation and licensing, please refer to: http://docs.whmcs.com/Installing_WHMCS http://docs.whmcs.com/Licensing

At least one cPanel server with OX plugin for cPanel, is needed for integration as well.

For information on how to install the OX cPanel plugin, please refer to: http://oxpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=Open-Xchange_cPanel_Installation

Mode of Operation

To be able to use the Connector for WHMCS, you will need at least one host with cPanel installed and properly configured to work with OX App Suite and Open-Xchange Hosting Edition and an additional server with WHMCS release 5.2.5 or newer.

The Connector for WHMCS enables hosting companies and their resellers to add OX packages to their product offerings as well as billing and support. The following architectural diagram shows how the Connector for WHMCS interacts with other components:

Installation

Obtain the tar file from the link above and save it to a temporary location.

Open a terminal to login as the root user and find the WHMCS base directory within the apache document root (for Debian it is /var/www/whmcs, for CentOS and RHEL it is /var/www/html/wmcs/).

$ cd /var/www/html/whmcs

or

$ cd /var/www/whmcs

Go to the modules/addons subdirectory of the WHMCS base directory and create a directory called “openxchange.”

$ cd modules/addons
$ mkdir openxchange

Untar the contents of the OX WHMCS add-on archive.

$ cd openxchange
$ tar xof /path/to/open-xchange-whmcs-version.tar.gz

	Now login to the WMCS console via http://your.server.name/whmcs/admin
	Once you login, go to Setup -> “Addon Modules”
	After getting to the Connector for WHMCS within the list of modules, proceed to activate and configure the Connector by providing the OX App Suite URL and login credentials.

Configuration of WHMCS

Launching WHMCS

Login to the WMCS console via http://your.server.name/whmcs/admin

Setting Up cPanel server

	Once within WHMCS, go to Setup -> Product/Services -> Servers -> Add new Server.
	Enter the different attributes for the new cPanel host instance, make sure to scroll down and choose type cPanel and the right credentials to access the host

Setting Up WHMCS plans

In order for WHMCS to integrate properly with cPanel, one needs to create the plans and packages to match cPanel. Each package which exist in cPanel must also exist in WHMCS.

	Go to Setup ⇒ Products/Services -> Products/Services -> Create a New Product
	Click on continue and proceed to enter relevant information
	Go to the Module Settings tab and enter „Module Name“ and „WHM Package Name,“ this is the name that must match with cPanel.

Importing cPanel accounts

	Once WHMCS plans have been created to match cPanel packages, you may import cPanel accounts from Utilities ⇒ cPanel/WHM import
	After choosing the right cPanel host and clicking on „Get Account List“ you will be see all the cPanel accounts which exist on the cPanel server

Creating cPanel Clients

	Go to Clients -> Add New Clients
	Go to the „Products/Services“ tab and choose the plan for the new client
	Click on „Submit Order“
	Make sure to choose the right cPanel server and check „Run Module Create“ and click „Accept Order“. You may login to cPanel to verify that the account has been created in cPanel.
	You may also check the OX environment to make sure the OX context has been created.

Configuration WHMCS Client

WHMCS Client Login

	WHMCS clients may login to their accounts from http://whmcs.open-xchange.com/
	From there, they are able to see the plans they have bought as well as billing information, such as unpaid invoices.

cPanel Account Login

	From the WHMCS Clients ⇒ View/Search Clients, choose a client and then go to the „Products/Services“ tab.
	And, finally, click on the “Login to cPanel“ button.
	You may also go to http://cpanel.open-xchange.com:2083 and login with cPanel credentials for the user

Additional Configurations

Creating Email Accounts from cPanel

	It is also possible to crate Email accounts from cPanel. Once in cPanel, click on the „Email Accounts“ icon, enter the new email account information and password. You may use the „Password generator“ tool if so you choose.
	Once a user is created this way, it must exist under the respective context in OX App Suite.

Deleting WHMCS Clients

Go to Clients -> View/Search Clients, click on the Client you intend to delete. In the „Summary“ tab under the „Other Actions“ pane there is a „Delete Clients Account“ action. Click on it and accept the confirmation dialog. After an account has been deleted, it should not exist neither in the cPanel system any longer. Furthermore, the OX App Suite context and all users underneath the context must not exist as well.

WHMCS Addon Options

Go to „Addons“ -> Open-Xchange -> List Open-Xchange packages. From this screen one may add Open-Xchange specific packages, Open-Xchange package bundles and set pricing for Open-Xchange packages.

Known issues

• If you have existing cpanel plugins that use /script hooks (or /usr/local/cpanel/script), as well as /usr/local/cpanel/hooks, take care to make a backup of these files because they will be replaced by the open-xchange-cpanel rpm
• Users with the same email localpart from different domains in a single cPanel account and a single context do not work because user names as well as display names must be unique
• cPanel account names cannot be renamed when using the ox integration
• Error handling needs to be improved.
• Add-on domain handling needs to be improved
• Unable to indicate errors in open-xchange account creation when adding users in WHM/cPanel because the WHM/cPanel hooks have no possibility
• transferring cpanel users from one cpanel server to another is not supported