Hi all,

I am currently working on a subscription based application and curious to know the best way to deal with serving features to uses that are subscribe to different plans.

This is how I am currently doing it but I am sure there are more efficient ways:

In my 'Plan' model I have the following function:

//Function to check for subscription plan features
    public static function checkSubscription($route)
    {
    	$user = Sentry::getUser();
        $account = $user->account()->first();

    	if($account->plan->id == 1) //Free Plan
    	{
			switch($route) {

	    		case 'apiaries':
	    			//Fetch all apiaries for this account
					$apiaries = Apiary::where('account_id','=',$account->id);

					if($apiaries->count() >= 1){
						Session::put('plan-message', 'You have reached your maximum number of Apiaries. To add more please upgrade your plan.');
	    				return true;
					}else{
						Session::forget('plan-message');
						return false;
					}
	    			break;
	    			
	    		case 'harvests':
	    			//Fetch all harvests for this account
					$harvests = Harvest::where('account_id','=',$account->id);

					if($harvests->count() >= 1){
						Session::put('plan-message', 'You have reached your maximum number of Harvests. To add more please upgrade your plan.');
	    				return true;
					}else{
						Session::forget('plan-message');
						return false;
					}
	    			break;

	    		case 'tasks':
	    			//Fetch all tasks for this account
					$tasks = Task::where('account_id','=',$account->id);

					if($tasks->count() >= 1){
						Session::put('plan-message', 'You have reached your maximum number of Tasks. To add more please upgrade your plan.');
	    				return true;
					}else{
						Session::forget('plan-message');
						return false;
					}
	    			break;

	    		default:
	    			Session::forget('plan-message');
	    			break;
	    	}
    	}
    	Session::forget('plan-message');
    }

This is then called from the base controller:

//Check subscription plan features
//Return bool
$this->hasAccess = Plan::checkSubscription(Request::segment(1));

I then use the hasAccess variable in my view files to hide and show buttons etc

Thoughts?