I am currently working on a Ubercart module to provide product rentals for a project of the company I work for. My boss wants me to release the module at drupal.org, but doesn't want to spend manpower on maintaining it. I don't know if I have time enough to fix all issues thay may arise after the release, so I am curious as to how enthusiastic you all are about this module. Maybe I can get enough help from others, so releasing the module won't be a problem.
Tue, 07/29/2008 - 07:05
free the code
I'd be interested in seeing the code. when you release it, just state that the users of this code will be the maintainers.
Re: free the code
Can't show you the code just yet. I need to have a working example before I will commit it to drupal.org.
Re: Rentals module
As for how enthusiastic we'd be about the release... well, I guess I'd have to know the features and use cases. However, I think if you release it the worst that can happen is someone else comes along wanting to use it and offers to take it over. You might have trouble getting a CVS account if you won't be able to maintain it, though. In this case, you can at least post the code up here in a Contribution. 
Re: Rentals module
Current (ideas for) features, spread out over two separate modules:
- Create new products that are rental products. Set a minimum rental period for each rental product, with a global setting for the unit in which these periods are measured (hours, days, weeks, months)
- Products can be returned to the store. By adding a new form a store admin can submit how many products of which type have been returned and at which date. This will result in products with a negative quantity on the invoice. When a rental product is being returned part of this behaviour is being interrupted and instead of adding the product with a negative quantity to the invoice the existing product is being updated, depending on how many periods this product has been rented. Example: renting a Volkswagen Passat will cost you 50 euros a day. When returning the car after nine days, the rentals module will automatically update your order with nine times a "Volkswagen Passat for one day" with a total of 450 euros.
- Returning products through the return module will also update your inventory if you use it.
As mentioned before these features will be spread out over a rentals and a return module. The return module may be used separately, but the rentals module depends on it. Both modules depend on a few other modules in Ubercart core.
I am writing these modules for Drupal 5, which is also the biggest problem I keep encountering. The Ubercart code for Drupal 5 is pretty horrifying to be frank. Some parts are bloated, unnecessary or just don't make sense. I believe the Drupal 6 version has been completely rewritten (kudos for that!), but as we're stuck to D5 for several reasons this means we're also stuck with Ubercart for D5. The interface looks great, it's just the code that makes development rather a complicated thing.
I hope I'll soon be able to commit something to CVS. The biggest problem I can foresee is that people start requesting features I don't yet have the time for, because in the next few weeks I still need to develop these modules for my boss and not for the community. I will do so after those few weeks, but until then all I need are testers. Would it be a good idea to commit it to CVS anyway or not?
Thanks for your enthusiasm, this makes developing this stuff more fun!
Re: Re: Rentals module
Hi. This sounds great. Will this be able to handle something like taxi or cab rentals?
Re: Re: Re: Rentals module
I don't know if the initial release will feature everything necessary for cab rentals, but I intend to maintain the module even after this release, so if you have any feature requests, feel free to post them when I have created a Drupal project at d.o.
Rentals with UberCart Marketplace
Hi, glad to hear you are working on a Rentals module. Quick question, would it be possible for this functionality to be implemented with UberCart Marketplace so that individual sellers can rent their on things?
Thanks
Re: Rentals module
Did this module ever get finished? I'm looking for something that UC Marketplace sellers will be able to use for adding product availability.
Thanks,
Matt
Hi,
Very interested in this.
Hi,
Very interested in this. Did this ever get developed?