Revision as of 10:09, 19 January 2015

Glossary of Terms

This section will attempt to clarify what is meant by terms used in WHMCS and the documentation.
This page is a work in progress

API

An acronym of Application Programming Interface, specifies how two pieces of software communicate. For example WHMCS uses the eNom API to community domain registration requests to eNom. The WHMCS software has its own API that in turn allows other pieces of software to perform actions in WHMCS remotely.

Array

Currently Undefined

Boolean

A Boolean data type is a data type with only two possible values: true or false.

Billing Cycle

The frequency with which a service will generate invoices, such as monthly, semi-annually and annually.

Configurable Option

Allows for the customisation of products within set parameters. Typically used to allow clients to choose certain aspects of their hosting product (disk space, bandwidth). Always takes the same billing cycle as the service.

Decimal

A number with decimal amounts. Mostly with two decimal places, but in some situations can have more. xx.xx

Email

An email address formatted with an @ symbol

First Payment Amount

When Next Due Date = Registration Date, this value will be the amount the client is initially invoiced for their service. It is the sum of the product Setup Fee + Price + configurable options.

Integer

An integer is a number that is written without a fractional component. For example, 21, 4, and −2048 are integers; 9.75, 5½, and √2 are not integers. The set of integers consists of the natural numbers (1, 2, 3, ...), zero (0) and the opposites of the natural numbers (−1, −2, −3, ..., that are negative).

Json

Json is an open standard format that uses human-readable text to transmit data objects consisting of attribute–value pairs. It is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application, as an alternative to XML.

Module

A file which contains the code that communicates between WHMCS and provider's API. For example the cPanel module contras the code to communicate with the cPanel API. The eNom module contains the code to communicate with the eNom API and so on. Comes in three types; provisioning, registrar and gateway.

Next Due Date

The date at which the client's next renewal payment is due. Invoices are typically generated several days in advance based upon your Automation Settings. It will automatically increment forward one billing cycle when a renewal invoice is paid.

Product

An item that can be purchased by a client via the order form. Usually with a fixed price although they can be customised via configurable options and product addons. These are configured in the administration area under Setup > Products/Services > Products/Services.

Product Addon

Can be added on to a product to increase the price. Usually one-time or recurring items that you may wish to upsell to clients such as a software licence. They should be considered on/off options and can have a separate billing cycle as the service.

Recurring Amount

Provided Next Due Date =/= Registration Date, this value will be the amount the client is invoiced for the next renewal of their service. It is the sum of the product Price + configurable options.

Sandbox

The 'Sandbox' is a development system that enables you to test your checkout for functionality without being 'live' so any transactions you use to test it are not 'real'. When you are happy that everything is working properly just deselect that option.

Standard Hook

A standard hook is determined within WHMCS to be a hook that runs when a specific action occurs. A return may be accepted, see the hook page for more information, but no validation occurs on the hook return.

Service

When a client orders a Product, that particular instance is referred to as a Service. The Service record can be accessed from the client's Products/Services tab and can be customised form the default price, billing cycle, addons can be added and configurable options can be changed.

String

A string is generally understood as a data type and is often implemented as an array of bytes (or words) that stores a sequence of elements, typically characters, using some character encoding. A string may also denote more general arrays or other sequence (or list) data types and structures.

Telephone

A standard phone number, in local format, without any country code

International Telephone

An automatically formatted number using the client country to add the country code. In the format +CC.xxxxxxxxx

Validation Hook

A hook that runs to perform a validation check on the data being entered. The return from this hook can stop the saving of data from occurring. See the hook page for more information.