Sell Downloads

Description

Sell Downloads is a WordPress eCommerce plugin designed specifically for selling digital products. Create an online store for audio, video, documents, images, books, software, and other downloadable files without the shipping, inventory, and product-management settings normally associated with physical products.

The plugin provides tools to organize and display digital products, manage purchases, protect downloadable files, create promotions, and track sales. Products can be filtered and sorted by different criteria, displayed using different store layouts, and inserted individually or as product lists into WordPress pages and posts.

Main features:

  • Sell downloadable audio, video, documents, images, and other digital files.
  • Accept payments through PayPal.
  • Filter products by file type.
  • Display products using different store layouts.
  • Paginate products and sort them by popularity, price, name, or publication date.
  • Insert individual products or complete product lists into WordPress pages and posts.
  • Add descriptions, images, publication year, duration, file type, and additional information to products.
  • Provide demo files that visitors can access before purchasing.
  • Protect purchased files through server-side download validation.
  • Set download expiration periods and download limits.
  • Share products through social networks.
  • Track sales and review reports by period, currency, country, or product.

Store and product display

The store can be configured to match the needs of the website. Products can be filtered by type, displayed in multiple columns, paginated, and sorted according to different criteria.

Individual products can also be inserted directly into pages or posts. The plugin integrates with:

  • Classic WordPress Editor
  • Gutenberg Editor
  • Elementor
  • Page Builder by SiteOrigin
  • Beaver Builder

For other editors, the generated shortcodes can be inserted using their HTML or shortcode controls.

Basic Sell Downloads installation and usage.

Sales statistics

The sales reports module allows store managers to review purchases over a selected period. Reports include sales totals and can be analyzed by currency, country, or product.

Sales reports can also be deleted when necessary, for example after a refund, to keep the statistics consistent with the actual sales.

Premium features

The premium version adds features for stores that need more advanced sales and promotion tools:

  • Shopping cart for purchasing multiple products in a single transaction.
  • Product widget for displaying individual products in sidebars.
  • Product-list widget and shortcode for displaying the most rated, newest, or top-selling products.
  • Sales discounts with configurable dates, promotional text, and discounted prices.
  • Discount coupons that can be applied to store purchases.
  • Additional product and product-list insertion options.

Premium Sell Downloads features.

Premium version demo

https://demos.dwbooster.com/sell-downloads/wp-login.php

https://demos.dwbooster.com/sell-downloads/

Download security

Purchased files are not intended to be accessed directly from their URLs. Sell Downloads stores purchased files in the sd-downloads directory and uses server-side validation when processing download requests.

The download settings can be configured to:

  • Limit the period during which a download link remains valid.
  • Limit the number of downloads allowed for a purchase.
  • Request the purchaser’s email address before allowing a download.

These mechanisms help control access to purchased files, although the overall security of a website also depends on its server and WordPress configuration.

More information

http://wordpress.dwbooster.com/content-tools/sell-downloads

Inserting products and product lists into pages and sidebars.

Interface

Store settings

Configure the store through Sell Downloads > Sell Downloads Settings. The settings include the store page, product filtering, layout, pagination, social sharing, payment options, download security, discounts, coupons, and notification emails.

General settings

  • URL of store page: URL of the page containing the store.
  • Allow searching by taxonomies: Allows WordPress searches to find products through their taxonomies.
  • Allow to filter by type: Adds a product-type filter to the store.
  • Store layout: Selects the store layout.
  • Allow multiple pages: Enables pagination.
  • Items per page: Defines the number of products displayed per page.
  • Share in social networks: Displays social sharing buttons.
  • Facebook app ID: Facebook application ID used for sharing.

Payment gateway

Sell Downloads uses PayPal for processing payments.

  • Enable PayPal Payments: Enables PayPal sales.
  • PayPal email: Email address associated with the PayPal account.
  • Currency: Currency used for payments.
  • PayPal language: Language of the PayPal interface.
  • PayPal button: Selects the PayPal button design.
  • Increase the download page security: Requests the purchaser’s email address before providing the download.
  • Download link valid for: Defines the expiration period for download links.

Discounts and coupons

Premium versions can define store-wide discounts and coupons with configurable percentages, minimum purchase amounts, validity dates, and promotional text.

Notifications

The notification settings control emails sent to customers and store administrators.

  • Notification “from” email: Sender address.
  • Send notification to email: Administrator notification address.
  • Subject of user confirmation email: Subject sent to the customer.
  • Email confirmation to user: Customer email body. The %INFORMATION% tag is replaced with purchase information such as download links.
  • Subject of email notification to admin: Administrator notification subject.
  • Email notification to admin: Administrator notification body. The %INFORMATION% tag is replaced with purchase information.

Affiliate Royale integration

Sell Downloads can integrate with the Affiliate Royale plugin when it is installed on the website.

Creating products

Go to Sell Downloads > Products for Sale to manage products. Select Add New to create a product.

Each product can include:

  • Title: Product name displayed in the store and product page.
  • Description: Additional information displayed on the product page.
  • Sales Price: Product price.
  • File for sale: Downloadable file selected from the WordPress media library.
  • File for demo: Optional demo file accessible before purchase.
  • File Type: Product type used for filtering.
  • Image: Image representing the product.
  • Duration: Duration for audio or video files.
  • Publication Year: Publication or creation year.
  • Additional Information: URL containing additional product information.

Premium versions can also define product-specific discounts with a new price, validity dates, and promotional text.

Publishing the store

Insert the store into a WordPress page or post using the Sell Downloads insertion controls. The plugin generates the corresponding shortcode.

The insertion interface includes options such as:

  • Filter results by product type: Displays only products of the selected type.
  • Columns: Defines the number of columns used by the store.

After creating the store page, its URL can be entered in the plugin settings so visitors can return to the store from individual product pages.

Store shortcode attributes

The [sell_downloads] shortcode supports attributes for controlling the store display.

columns defines the number of columns:

[sell_downloads columns="3"]

filter_by_type accepts `1` or `0` and enables or disables product-type filtering:

[sell_downloads columns="3" filter_by_type="1"]

show_order_by accepts `1` or `0` and enables or disables the ordering controls:

[sell_downloads columns="3" show_order_by="1"]

order_by defines the sorting criterion. Supported values include `plays`, `price`, `post_title`, and `post_date`:

[sell_downloads columns="3" order_by="post_title"]

Inserting an individual product

Premium versions allow individual products to be inserted into pages or posts by entering the product ID. The product can also be displayed through the corresponding widget.

Inserting a product list

Premium versions allow product lists to be inserted into pages, posts, and sidebars. The list can display:

  • Top-rated products.
  • Newest products.
  • Top-selling products.

The insertion interface allows the number of products and columns to be configured.

Screenshots

Blocks

This plugin provides 2 blocks.

  • Sell Downloads
  • Product

Installation

  1. Download and unzip the plugin.
  2. Upload the entire sell-downloads directory to /wp-content/plugins/.
  3. Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress.
  4. Go to Sell Downloads > Sell Downloads Settings and configure the store.

FAQ

Why doesn’t the sales button appear?

Go to the store settings and verify that PayPal is enabled and that the seller’s email address has been configured. Also verify that the product has a price and a file associated with it.

How are discounts treated by the store?

If a store-wide discount and a coupon apply to the same purchase, only the larger discount is applied.

How can I download all purchased products as a single file?

Enable the ZIP option in the Sell Downloads settings. The ZIP feature requires the necessary PHP extensions to be available on the web server.

Why isn’t Sell Downloads loading on my page?

Verify that the theme includes the wp_footer(); function in its footer or relevant template.

What can I do if the Sell Downloads directory already exists and the premium version cannot be installed?

Deactivate and delete the free version from the WordPress Plugins section, then install and activate the premium version. Deleting the free plugin does not remove the products created with it.

Does Sell Downloads support a payment gateway other than PayPal?

The current version supports PayPal as its payment gateway.

Can customers pay directly with credit cards?

This depends on the PayPal account configuration and the payment options made available by PayPal.

Can I customize the appearance of products?

The appearance is controlled by templates located in:

/wp-content/plugins/sell-downloads/sd-templates

The main templates include:

  • product.tpl.html — used on the store page.
  • product_single.tpl.html — used on individual product pages.
  • product_multiple.tpl.html — used on pages containing multiple products, such as archives and search results.

Can I promote a product or product list?

Yes. Products and product lists can be inserted into pages and posts or displayed in sidebars using the corresponding widgets in the premium version.

Are product downloads protected?

Sell Downloads does not expose purchased files through their original direct URLs. Files stored in the sd-downloads directory are accessed through the plugin’s server-side download process.

Download access can additionally be controlled through an expiration period, a download limit, and optional email verification.

Can I customize the store design?

The plugin includes several store layouts that can be selected through the Store Layout setting. A layout can also be duplicated and customized by editing its style.css file.

How can I configure IPN on PayPal Sandbox?

See the PayPal documentation:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/sell/ipn-test-outside

Can I search products by their types from the WordPress search box?

Yes. Product types are stored as taxonomies. Enable Allow searching by taxonomies in the Sell Downloads settings to include product taxonomies in WordPress searches.

Where do I report security bugs found in this plugin?

Please report security vulnerabilities through the Patchstack Vulnerability Disclosure Program. The Patchstack team can assist with verification and CVE assignment and notify the plugin developers.

Reviews

May 20, 2024 1 reply
I chose (and sadly paid for) this program from reading what was offered. I needed something to sell downloads but that had the feature to give them at no charge to people who qualify for a free gift. A coupon code is what you need, right? Offer it with a "code' that they apply at checkout and make the discount 100%. Unfortunately the code offered by this program lets just ONE person redeem it, then it goes inactive. It also is not per product, but for the entire catalog of products. I don't wish to give everything on my site free, just the one that was qualified for. Still trying to figure out a way to make this work since the cost is so high.
November 23, 2020 4 replies
Instructions are not clear as to how to set this up to get purchase control. All sorts of demonstrating except how to insert the proper purchase link onto a page. meh
January 17, 2019 1 reply
I installed this plug in for a non-techie client who is selling mp3 downloads of her music. The plug in is working well for her without any problems. I appreciate all of the hard work you've put into it.
Read all 21 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Sell Downloads” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

Translate “Sell Downloads” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

1.2.4

  • Adds additional validation rules to the payment verification process, further strengthening its security and reliability. Special thanks to c4st1e and Patchstack team.

1.2.3

  • Improves the plugin security.

1.2.2

  • Improves the Elementor integration module.

1.2.1

  • Improves the integration with WordPress 7.0.

1.2.0

  • Modifies the IPN verification module.

1.1.12

  • Ensures full compatibility with WordPress 6.8.

1.1.11

  • Resolves a compatibility issue with WordPress versions previous to 5.5.

1.1.10

  • Resolves a notice by ensuring the language files are properly loaded.

1.1.9

  • Fixes a conflict with Elementor’s cache which is currently in Beta.

1.1.8

  • Strengthens data sanitation.

1.1.7

  • Improves the Gutenberg blocks.
  • Fixes an issue processing the store shortcode attributes.

1.1.6

  • Modifies the group by processing in the sales reports.

1.1.5

  • Fixes a conflict in the activation process with WP 6.5.

1.1.4

  • Preserves the original files’ names.

1.1.3

  • Modifies the integration with the payment gateways.

1.1.2

  • Modifies the module that identifies local files.

1.1.1

  • Modifies the links to IPN documentation.

1.1.0

  • Fixes deprecated notices in the latest version of PHP.