PD DigitalOcean App Platform for Blesta

PD DigitalOcean App Platform — Sell Managed App Hosting as a Native Blesta Package

Sell fully-managed app hosting on DigitalOcean under your own brand — deploy from Git or a container image, billed in Blesta

Made and supported by Projektif Digital Ltd. Runs inside PD Modules, the panel every module installs into.

Servers & Compute
Build the package once — plan, region and limits — and it is ready to sell.
Build the package once — plan, region and limits — and it is ready to sell.
The service as you see it: its state at the provider and every control, in one place.
The service as you see it: its state at the provider and every control, in one place.
Connect your own provider accounts — your keys, your billing, no middleman.
Connect your own provider accounts — your keys, your billing, no middleman.
What your customer sees: their service, its state, and the controls they can use themselves.
What your customer sees: their service, its state, and the controls they can use themselves.
Your customer sees exactly what happened and when — fewer "what is going on?" tickets.
Your customer sees exactly what happened and when — fewer "what is going on?" tickets.
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PD DigitalOcean App Platform lets a hosting company sell fully managed app hosting as its own Blesta package. Your customer orders in Blesta, points the app at a public Git repository or a Docker Hub image, and DigitalOcean builds and runs it on your account with no servers for either of you to manage. The customer manages the app from your client area, which carries your brand. You set the price, DigitalOcean bills you its list price, and the difference is your margin.

It is built for hosts who want to offer app hosting to developers without running build servers, and without a support ticket every time a customer wants to redeploy after a push.

Why hosts choose PD DigitalOcean App Platform

Sell app hosting under your own brand. Customers see your company, your prices and your client area. Apps run on your own DigitalOcean account, so customers need no account of their own, and your account and API token are never exposed to them.

Every paid order sets itself up. When Blesta activates the service, through its Provision Paid Pending Services task or a staff member pressing Activate, the app is created exactly once with the region, plan and instance count the customer chose.

Deploy from Git or a container image. After payment, the service waits for its source and the customer sets it on the Information tab: a public Git repository over https with an optional branch, or a public Docker Hub image. The first deployment starts as soon as they do.

Customers help themselves. Redeploy after a push, point the app at a different repository or image, and read a plain activity history, all without a ticket. The current version keeps serving until the new one is live.

Pricing with the cost in view. The Products page shows what DigitalOcean charges each month for every app plan, read live and shown in dollars and in your default currency. Set a margin and each choice shows a suggested price and your margin per sale. The margin is optional and changes nothing until you use it.

Nothing left billing. Cancelling a service deletes the app from your DigitalOcean account, and a background sweep confirms it is gone. No create, retry or double request can leave a second app billing unseen.

How it works

  1. Connect your DigitalOcean account. Create an API token with Full Access and add it under Settings, Company, Modules as an account with a name and the token. Test Connection in PD Modules checks every connected account with one read-only call each.
  2. Create your package. Set region, plan and instance count as defaults, then generate the order options in one click from DigitalOcean's live catalogue. You choose which the customer sees.
  3. Your customer orders. They pick region, plan and instances (one to five) and pay. The app is created when Blesta activates the service.
  4. The app goes live. The customer enters their source, the first build takes a few minutes, and the live https address appears on the service page once the deployment is active. A deployment that fails is shown as failed, never as live.
The customer's service page: waiting for a source, with a form for a repository or image
The customer's service page: waiting for a source, with a form for a repository or image

What you get in Blesta

Selling and pricing

  • Order options for Region, App plan and Instances, generated from the live DigitalOcean catalogue; prices start at zero for you to set under Packages, Configurable Options
  • Show or hide each option; saving visibility keeps your prices
  • Rebuild from the live catalogue at any time: choices you hid stay hidden and customers keep the choices they already made
  • Customers change plan and instance count through Blesta's option change, and the running app keeps its source
  • Every field on the package form carries its own help
  • A resource name prefix for new apps, and a DigitalOcean project to group them under

Provisioning you can trust

  • A region and plan combination DigitalOcean cannot build, a shared plan with more than one instance, is refused before anything is created
  • Anything that is not a public https repository or a public Docker Hub image is refused with a clear message
  • Suspend puts the app into maintenance: visitors see a maintenance page, nothing is deleted, and unsuspending takes it out again. DigitalOcean keeps billing a suspended app
  • A regular read-only check flags an app deleted directly at DigitalOcean

Running it day to day

  • Clients and Apps lists every app against the client paying for it, with its state
  • The app's name shows in service lists and on the service page heading
  • Read-only assistant tools that report an app's state and list your apps

What your customers get

  • A live address: the app is served over https once the first deployment is active
  • Change source to a new repository, branch or image, and redeploy, without opening a ticket
  • Redeploy now to build and roll out the latest code from the current source
  • An Activity tab beside Information that says what did not happen when an action fails or is still pending

Redeploy and Change source are each a switch on the package. Turn one off and the customer cannot use it. Pages follow the Blesta client template and every string can be translated or reworded. Private repositories and private registries are not supported.

Security built in

  • Your API token is stored encrypted, is never shown to customers, and is sent only to DigitalOcean. When you edit an account, leaving the token box blank keeps the stored token.
  • The DigitalOcean account is never exposed to customers, and the customer's panel does not name the provider in its own words.
  • A suspended customer can no longer redeploy or change the source until the service is unsuspended.

One product, every feature

PD DigitalOcean App Platform is one paid module with everything included. There are no add-on tiers and no per-app fees or cut from us: DigitalOcean bills you directly and you set your own price. It installs into PD Modules in one click and updates itself.

If your subscription ever lapses, your customers are not cut off. Running apps are never stopped, deleted or changed. Once a licence has expired, new apps are no longer provisioned while existing ones keep being managed, and customers can still redeploy. Only if it is later suspended does customer management pause, behind a neutral message. Teardown keeps running throughout.

Requirements

  • Blesta 6 or later on PHP 8.2 or later, with the ionCube Loader and Blesta's cron running
  • A DigitalOcean account and an API token with Full Access
  • PD Modules, the free control panel every PD module installs into

Questions

Where does the customer's code come from?

The customer supplies a public Git repository (with a branch) or a container image at checkout — or sets it from the client area after ordering.

Can customers redeploy after pushing new code?

Yes — one click from the client area triggers a fresh build and deploy.

Can customers scale their app?

Yes — through Blesta Upgrade/Downgrade, which updates the instance size and count while preserving the source.

What happens when a service is terminated?

The app is deleted from your DigitalOcean account.

Do I need my own DigitalOcean account?

Yes. You resell on your own DigitalOcean account, at your own margin. Your API token is stored encrypted on your Blesta server and is never shown to a customer.

Does a lapsed PD Modules licence break my customers' services?

No. A licence lapse withdraws the management layer in stages but never stops, deletes or alters a running customer resource. Your customers keep serving throughout.

What does it cost to run, on top of the subscription?

Only what you already pay your provider. PD DigitalOcean App Platform adds no per-unit fee and takes no cut — it connects to your own account with your own credentials, so the provider bills you directly at your rates, and you set what you charge your customers. From us it is the module subscription and nothing else.

What data leaves my server?

Your customers' data stays in your Blesta. To confirm your licence, the platform sends us four things and nothing else: your licence key, the domain, your server's own IP address and the directory it is installed in — the four values recorded against your licence in your client area. Alongside that we see which module and version you run and whether its licence is healthy, so we can ship compatible updates. We never receive your clients' personal data, your credentials, or the contents of your Blesta. Crash reports are off unless you turn them on, and a diagnostic report is only ever sent when you send one, after showing you a preview you can edit.

Which Blesta and PHP versions does it need?

Blesta 6.0 or later, on PHP 8.1 or later. It installs alongside whatever else you run — it adds its own tables and templates rather than modifying Blesta files, so it does not collide with other vendors' modules or with a customised template. Uninstalling removes its own tables and settings and leaves no orphans behind.

How do I get help?

Open a ticket from your client area, or use Get help inside the PD Modules panel, which attaches a diagnostic report — you see a preview of exactly what it contains, and can exclude any part of it, before anything is sent. Support is included with an active subscription; bug reports are welcome whatever your licence state.

What’s new in 0.1.84

  • Suspending a service now puts the app into maintenance mode: visitors see a maintenance page until it is unsuspended.
  • Removing the module no longer gets stuck on an order that never provisioned.
  • Region, plan and instance count that you set on a product and hide at checkout are now used for every app ordered, instead of the first choice on the list.
  • The menu label, the answers shown after pressing a button, the confirmation window and the wording in Activity can now all be translated or reworded.
  • The product settings page opens quickly even when DigitalOcean is slow to answer, and saving keeps the project you chose.
  • If DigitalOcean cannot be reached, the settings show the last project list with how old it is, or say the list could not be loaded.
  • Test Connection also refreshes that list.
  • See what DigitalOcean charges you for each app plan, in your own currency, beside your prices. Set an optional margin per product to get a suggested price and your margin per sale; Generate and Rebuild then write those prices. Nothing changes until you set one.
  • A cancelled service can be re-activated with Uncancel.
  • Multi-line package settings are now text areas, so pasted text keeps its line breaks.
  • Suspend and Terminate always work, whatever the state of your PD Modules licence.
  • Product setup messages show screen names in bold rather than wrapped in asterisks.
  • Your admin list names the client paying for each app.
  • A checkout source that cannot be used is noted in the Activity, and the customer can always set the first source.
  • Project grouping now works.
  • Setup steps use your billing system's own words.
  • Ordering again never creates a second app, and a plan that runs one instance is refused with more before anything is created.
  • Suspension locks redeploys and source changes until it is lifted, including through a plan change; your Client switches are enforced, not only hidden.
  • A deployment that fails is shown as failed, and requests show as requested until they land.
  • Test Connection checks the token you typed, and the settings check tests every connected account.
  • Activity says what did not happen when an action fails, instead of showing the success wording beside a Failed badge.
  • The Rebuild warning now says prices go back to their generated starting price (zero where none is suggested).
  • The PD Modules menu now names this module “DigitalOcean App Platform” in full.
  • The button that rebuilds a product's cart options now reads "Rebuild from DigitalOcean"; it named AWS by mistake.
  • The module's description in the Store is reworded and no longer names another company's product.
  • Setup guidance and connection checks name the right screens for your billing platform.
  • Generate this module's order options for a Blesta package in one click, as on WHMCS; rebuilding them keeps the choices your existing customers made.
  • Links on this module's screens open the right client, service and product pages on every platform.

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