I'm currently designing an e-commerce site for my company, and I'm struggling with several things:

1. Is there any way to customize the fields that customers fill in during the registration process? I need to have the ability to add some extra fields for the customers to fill in, such as a Customer No.

2. Since we only do wholesale, I also want to limit the registration to those that have resale licenses. To be able to register, our customers need to enter a preset password I'll be assigning, and once they enter the password, they will be able to register. So for the Login, there will be 2 options. For new customers, they need to enter the password to continue registration. If they are already registered, they can simply login and continue shopping. How could this be implemented?

3. Is there a way to assign NEW registered customers into a price level other than the Default Price Level automatically rather than having to do it manually? I want guests to be able to browse and see the items we have, but I don't want them to see the prices, so only if they register, they can see the prices.

4. Is it possible to hide categories? There are some categories I want only for a few assigned customers to see and purchase.

5. Will function calls work in a .html custom made page?

Any input in this matter will be greatly appreciated.

Andres

We have a very similar setup to what it sounds like you're doing, so I'll let you know what I did.
1. No, you cannot customize the default registration page. What I did was use the formmail script that provides, create my own form, and process that way. You can view our registration form at http://www.totalcomputing.net/index.asp?Pa...ustom&ID=21. Make sure you disable registration in the backend, and put a link on your site to the custom registration page.

You want the form to start like this:
. I suggest adding validation rules through javascript (Dreamweaver has validation scripts built in).

Instructions for using formmail is here:
www.scriptarchive.com/formmail.html

Once a user completes the registration form, it will be emailed to you. You then have to go into the Customer section of the admin panel (or use Dataport) and manually add the customer and assign a price level (see below)

2. Don't give the option of registration at checkout if you want to use the above implementation. To limit who can buy, you can either password-restrict the entire site (which I don't recommend doing), or use the Call feature.

What you want to do is this; if anyone can buy a product, but registered users get preferred pricing, first create a price level in the backend; you could call it Wholesale. On your product page fill in the Price field with the price anyone can buy for, then in Advanced options, set the Price level price as the discounted price. Now any customer who's assigned to the Wholesale price level will get that pricing. Un-registered users will get the price in the Price field.

If only registered users can buy the product, in the Product page click the Call checkbox, and do not set the price. Set the call message to "Log in for Pricing" or something like that. Then in the Advanced Options set the Wholesale price level. This way, anyone who's not assigned to the Wholesale price level will see "Log in for pricing" where the price would normally be. Once someone logs in, they'll see the Wholesale price.

Here's a page with products that a user has to be registered to purchase. It also shows the different uses of the Call message:
http://www.totalcomputing.net/index.asp?Pa...ID=2&Page=1

3. OK, now I know you don't want to password-protect the whole site. Using the solution in #2, anyone can see the products, but they won't see pricing unless they're assigned a price level.

4. That's a tricky one. You can hide categories, but I don't believe you can hide/show based on login. Actually, if you're good at Javascript you could hide/show menu items based on price level, but that's beyond me.

What you can also do is create different price levels, and set the Call option in Advanced Options based on whether you want them to see the price or not. For example, create another Price Level called End User and click the Call option in the Price Level fields. Wholesale can see the prices, End Users can't. The End User is still registered, but their price level is set to Call, so they won't see ALL the prices.

5. That's a good question. They work on the Custom Pages, but I'm not sure about .html pages.

Hope that helps. Good luck!

totlcomp, Thanks a lot for your input!

It's a good alternative, but before getting to that point, I'd rather have the process done automatically, rather than having to put the customer's info manually. "index.asp?PageAction=CUSTREG" is still a good form, except for the fact that its fields can't be customized... for example, instead of a Nickname, I could use that field to enter the Customer No. but i don't know how to do that. I also believe that the not all field show up in the orders.... I will try to sort this up.

This process can be already irritating to customers, and at the same time, it would be not fair to them if retail customers can get products at wholesale prices.

It is complex, I know...

I'll see what else can I come up with.

Once again, totlcomp, thanks for your help!

Any other ideas are welcome!

Using the Price Levels they won't see the same pricing. Say a product retails for $5, and you want your wholesale customers to get it for $4. You set the Price on the first page of the Product Editor to $5, then in Advanced Options, set Wholesale price level to 4. This way non-registered customers see a price of $5, Wholesale customers see $4.

Using the Call method, set Default to CALL, Wholesale to $4, non-registered users see your Call Message ("Log in for pricing"), registered users in the Wholesale Price Level category see $4.

yes, that's true. It's just too bad that unless I assign the customer price level by hand, even if our wholesaler does register, and I never change it, they would still see "Log in for wholesale prices"

Thanks a lot for all your help!!

Ahhhhh....I see what you're saying now. I don't think there's another option, but if you find one please let me know

Best of Luck!