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Guest Account ver 1.0 Pre-November OS
Guest Account ver 1.0 Pre-November OS
This mod only works (probably) with pre-November versions of OS. It has
not been tested with multi-language shops but I cant see any reason why it
wouldnt work.
The idea is to add the ability for customers to create Guest accounts
rather than full member accounts. The changes are quite significant but
not especially difficult to make. All changes are to existing files.
How Does a Guest Account Work?
Note that how YOU want a Guest Account to work is very much down to
personal taste and need. This mod works as follows:
a) A new flag is added to the customer database to signal that the
customer is a guest and not a member.
b) The login page is now split into 3 boxes - Guest, Returning Customer
and New Customer.
c) Guests get exactly the same 'create account' page as normal but it is
automatically re-named to 'Billing Details'.
d) Adding the Billing Details actually creates an account as normal but a
random password is automatically inserted (and unknown to you or the
customer), the welcome email is surpressed, the check for duplicate emails
is retained but if found, the EXISTING EMAILS AND CUSTOMER NAMES ARE
DISABLED by adding @_ in front of them and WRITING THE DETAILS BACK TO THE
DATABASE.
e) So Guest Accounts can be endlessly created, each new Account disables
any old ones. Of course, you will eventually need to manually clean-up old
accounts from your database being careful that they do not have
outstanding orders attached to them.
f) Guest Accounts are signalled in Admin by having -1 logins shown against
them. Disabled Guest Accounts also have @_ prefixing the last name.
g) Guests can create full member accounts but members cannot create Guest
Accounts.
h) The Guest account lasts for the duration of the session or until the
Guest logs-off. After this, the Guest could use 'PASSWORD FORGOTTEN' to
re-activate the account (so it allows you to offer the option of turning a
guest into a member after they have created the account if you want) but
they are not told this.
 Guest Account ver 1.0 Pre-November OS |
Ian Davidson | 22 Nov 2002 |
Guest Account ver 1.0 Pre-November OS
This mod only works (probably) with pre-November versions of OS. It has
not been tested with multi-language shops but I cant see any reason why it
wouldnt work.
The idea is to add the ability for customers to create Guest accounts
rather than full member accounts. The changes are quite significant but
not especially difficult to make. All changes are to existing files.
How Does a Guest Account Work?
Note that how YOU want a Guest Account to work is very much down to
personal taste and need. This mod works as follows:
a) A new flag is added to the customer database to signal that the
customer is a guest and not a member.
b) The login page is now split into 3 boxes - Guest, Returning Customer
and New Customer.
c) Guests get exactly the same 'create account' page as normal but it is
automatically re-named to 'Billing Details'.
d) Adding the Billing Details actually creates an account as normal but a
random password is automatically inserted (and unknown to you or the
customer), the welcome email is surpressed, the check for duplicate emails
is retained but if found, the EXISTING EMAILS AND CUSTOMER NAMES ARE
DISABLED by adding @_ in front of them and WRITING THE DETAILS BACK TO THE
DATABASE.
e) So Guest Accounts can be endlessly created, each new Account disables
any old ones. Of course, you will eventually need to manually clean-up old
accounts from your database being careful that they do not have
outstanding orders attached to them.
f) Guest Accounts are signalled in Admin by having -1 logins shown against
them. Disabled Guest Accounts also have @_ prefixing the last name.
g) Guests can create full member accounts but members cannot create Guest
Accounts.
h) The Guest account lasts for the duration of the session or until the
Guest logs-off. After this, the Guest could use 'PASSWORD FORGOTTEN' to
re-activate the account (so it allows you to offer the option of turning a
guest into a member after they have created the account if you want) but
they are not told this.
Note: Contributions are used at own risk.
