Restricting Customer Access

[mauryg]

I need to set up a separate area in the shop where only certain customers can access those items. All customers have to register and login to shop, so this would another level of security. In other words I guess I need two or more "classes" of customers. Is there a way to set up attributes for certain customers or password restrict certain areas, pages or products in the shop?

[Ajeh]

This is not built into Zen Cart at this time and would require customization to the code to manage this ...

[mauryg]

So it sounds like my only option would be to create a separate "sub-shop" with separate database and login for the restricted items and then link to it from the main shop. I was hoping that I could establish different security for a subset of pages, but I guess that wouldn't work. Put it on my wishlist for the next version.
Thank you for the quick reply.
Maury

[mauryg]

Ajeh (or whoever has an answer),
Can I set attributes on certain products which would allow them to be ordered SUBJECT TO APPROVAL and still allow the customer to log in and order other normal products at the same time?
Would the two classes of products have to be separate transactions in order to process the credit cards thru the gateway properly?
Or could the presence of restricted items on the order simply push the whole order into an approval queue to be post-processed by the staff?

Thanks for your advice

Maury

[Ajeh]

Might be easier to create a new product type ... and only allow customers flagged with a given code access to see/order the product ...

Then just add filters on various displays of products ...
sideboxes
centerboxes
listings
search
etc.

This allows the flexibility of blocking products from display or allowing some display etc.

Would be quite a bit of custom coding still but would save a lot of problems in the long run to have the flexibility of what to do it you end up with multiple blocks or want complete exclusion or want to flip a switch and a second later a whole new flock of products would be available to customer ...

[mauryg]

Maybe I should have been more specific. The shop is for my daughter who is a veterinarian. Most of the products would be available for general sale, but certain products can only be sold to customers whose animals are currently under her medical supervision. So it may be more difficult to pre-flag the customers than to approve the sale when the restricted items are ordered. I'm still leaning toward the idea of separate pages (a sub-shop or department) where all orders would queue for approval. Any other thoughts are welcome.

Maury

[ecdiscounts]

Maybe I should have been more specific. The shop is for my daughter who is a veterinarian. Most of the products would be available for general sale, but certain products can only be sold to customers whose animals are currently under her medical supervision. So it may be more difficult to pre-flag the customers than to approve the sale when the restricted items are ordered. I'm still leaning toward the idea of separate pages (a sub-shop or department) where all orders would queue for approval. Any other thoughts are welcome.

Maury

Maury did you find a way to do this? I am running into the same type problem, i have a client that I am setting up a Magazine site for and they need the Adult Magazine section protected fron minors and right now he's loosing income because we have then disabled.

[mauryg]

Scott,
Haven't had the chance to explore this further yet. I think my problem may be somewhat different than yours. Most adult sites request that the user self "certify" that they are over 18. But of course someone underage could lie. Or they request some ID like a credit card which presumably only an adult would have. Then they get access to the subsite. My case is similar only in that the restriction has to be to "seeing" the products, not just acceptance of an order, so the subsite has to be password controlled. The question becomes how a new site user gets the password without a long delay or hassle. You would like the user to have only one password, the one chosen when they first sign up for the website, so it's beginning to look like there has to be a database of "pre-approved" clients to certify a user when they first set up an account. Otherwise they would have to queue up for human verification before they could see the subsite. That would negatively affect use of the site. I'm thinking about the "Organic Groups" concept with Drupal, but I don't know if there is anything like that for ZenCart.

Maury

[jvoce]

Might be easier to create a new product type ... and only allow customers flagged with a given code access to see/order the product ...

Then just add filters on various displays of products ...
sideboxes
centerboxes
listings
search
etc.

This allows the flexibility of blocking products from display or allowing some display etc.

Would be quite a bit of custom coding still but would save a lot of problems in the long run to have the flexibility of what to do it you end up with multiple blocks or want complete exclusion or want to flip a switch and a second later a whole new flock of products would be available to customer ...

Exactly how would someone give a customer an "access code" for certain categories?
What I'm thinking is that I'll have to add certain categories into a different side box (ex. document sidebox) and have that sidebox appear only to certain customers.
Does that make any sense, or would it have to be more involved?

[mauryg]

It would appear that this problem is resolving into two issues:
If the restriction is that only certain users will be allowed to PURCHASE items from a designated subset of items, then a notice to this effect can be put on the site and the order can be post-processed and non-eligible orders rejected.
If, on the other hand, the subset of items, like the adult magazines, can't be DISPLAYED to ineligible users, then either the shop will have to be linked to a database of eligible users or new users will have to wait for an approval process in order to have access to the subsite. Clearly the tougher problem to solve.