YUDU has developed a standalone redemption code platform that can be white-labeled and integrated with your YUDU Publisher account.
This platform is intended for the redemption of individual publications or bundles of publications, as opposed to subscriptions.
Image 1. (Above) Login Screen – logo can be white-labeled
Please note: The redemption code platform does not currently offer the facility to generate redemption codes as this can be done easily using free, third-party tools. We anticipate our clients generating and selling codes via external platforms. This grants you the freedom to choose your own selling platform with inbuilt specialist functions.
There are three types of user that can be added to the YUDU redemption code platform, each of which will see a variation of the interface with different functionalities. They are:
Tenant Admin User- a regular admin, who can import digital publications and create/upload redemption codes and manage intermediary Client accounts.
End Users - users that have purchased redemption codes and login to redeem their codes and access their digital publication content.
Client Users (optional) - an intermediary Client account for a school, training centre or distributor, for instance. This is an optional level of admin.
Tenant Admin User
This is a multi-tenant platform and the first step is for YUDU to create a tenant account for you and add your first Tenant Admin User.
Once the Tenant Admin User (or users) have been created, you will need to add a shared secret and API key from YUDU Publisher.
After the shared secret and API key have been added to your account, your digital editions can be retrieved from Publisher by clicking a button labelled “Import Publisher Editions”.
This will retrieve a list of your digital publications and their respective node IDs from the relevant publication group(s) on YUDU Publisher and display them within the Redemption Code interface.
Please note: the list of editions that is displayed will be dependent upon the location of your API Key and Shared Secret on Publisher. These are generated against a Publisher admin user and admin users can be located at either a publication group or the client account level. To future proof this, you may wish to create a new, generic admin user for this purpose, so that the API Key and Shared Secret are not linked to a specific admin user at your end.
After your list of digital publications has been imported, you can start adding redemption codes.
How to Create a New Redemption Code
This can be done manually by creating individual codes within the interface or by uploading a CSV file that lists a collection of appropriate NodeID(s) against their respective redemption code(s) and permissions.
Image 2. (Above) Creating a new redemption code manually via the interface
There are two variations of the CSV file that can include the following columns:
1. Name, redemption_code, max_uses, editions, valid_for_days
2. Name, redemption_code, max_uses, editions, valid_from, valid_to
Dates must be formatted as YYYY-MM-DD.
The valid columns are optional and can be omitted if access to the digital publication is intended to be permanent.
Fig 3. (Above) Bulk upload of redemption codes via CSV
As you can see from the CSV file formats, each redemption code can be made valid for one or more editions.
The redemption code can also be valid for all time or a specific start/end date can be applied, or you can specify a number of valid days from the point of redemption, after which the End User’s access expires.
You can also specify the number of times that a single redemption code can be redeemed (max_uses), allowing you to sell a redemption code licence that is redeemable 100 times, for instance.
However, we wouldn’t recommend selling multi-use codes to end users directly, otherwise they could share those codes with other people who haven’t made a purchase.
Multi-use codes are intended for use by Client-Admin Users (see final section below), such as schools or training centres, who send direct invites to their students and redeem access on their behalf.
Image 4. (Above) Your Redemption Codes
How to Redeem Codes - End Users
Once the redemption codes have been created/uploaded, they are ready to be redeemed. In order to do that, an End User (i.e. someone that has purchased a redemption code) needs to register an account on the redemption code platform.
They should be given a register URL upon making their purchase.
After registering and logging into the redemption code platform, the End User can input their code and click “Redeem” to be granted access to the relevant digital publication(s). They can then proceed to login to the digital publication(s) or associated apps using the details they have just registered.
Please note: For GDPR and privacy reasons, the personal details of End Users that have registered via the redemption code platform will not be visible on the platform.
End User details are not stored on Publisher either. In practice, this means that End Users will need to manage their own passwords, which they can reset via the usual method, and their device limit is determined by the default limit specified on Publisher at the client account level.
Setting Up An Intermediary Account - Client Users
The purpose of a Client account is to give an intermediary provider (such as a distributor, school, college, university or training center) the ability to create and redeem codes on their customers' behalf. A perfect example would be a college that has purchased a redemption code licence for a textbook. The licence may have 100 uses and the college can proceed to manage access for 100 students by sending them invites and granting (redeeming) access to the textbook for them.
If you choose to create an intermediary Client account, e.g. for a school or training centre, then you will need to specify the name of the institution and create a Client User against it. You can create multiple Clients under your main account.
The Client User can subsequently login to their Client area on the redemption code platform and manage the distribution and redemption of codes directly.
For instance, a Tenant Admin User may have created a redemption code for a textbook with 100 uses and which grants access for 365 days from the point of redemption and then assigned this redemption code to a specific Client. The Client User cannot alter this redemption code, the number of uses or its expiration date, but they can send out Invitations to their students and, once the student has accepted and validated their account, redeem the code for them. In turn, the Tenant Admin User will be able to see how many uses remain for the redemption code but they are unable to see who has redeemed it - the student information remains visible only to the Client User.
In the Client User interface, under a Users dropdown, there is the option to create additional (Client) Admins, Non-Admin users or send out Invitations to non-admin users (i.e. the individuals that will redeem the codes).
Image 5. (Above) Client User Options
Unlike a standard end user, Non-Admins are visible on the redemption code platform under their particular Client area but can only be seen and managed by Client Users.
Non-Admins are issued an email Invitation to register and verify their account by the Client User and, once verified, the Client User can proceed to redeem their codes - and thereby grant access to the associated digital publication(s) - on the Non-Admins behalf. This means there is no risk of Non-Admins sharing multi-use codes.
For ease of administration, Non-Admins can also be assigned to Groups.