How can I Make certain Customer Registration fields optional?

[Ajeh]

There are also the settings in the Configuration ... Minimum Values ... related to the Customer Details ...

When 0 does not work on a non-required field, then use blank, as in nothing filled in for the length, just leave it blank ...

[Ne1512blvd]

I just installed this to relaunch my clipart site soon. I am also having this same problem. I have made the minimum values blank and also have them all set to 0 or false under customer details. And it still is asking for too many details.

To alter the file, would I just open it up in a text editor? How would I save it to make sure it gets saved still as the php file? I know html and can find my way around some other code also. Just not sure how to make sure that the file gets saved in the right format once the changes are made.

Thanks.

[Ajeh]

What do you want to REMOVE?

What do you want to make OPTIONAL?

NOTE: do not confuse the appearance of the * Required as meaning it did not work as that is just text that then needs to be updated in the language files so that it does not show on optional fields ...

[ruonan]

Can someone please tell me what exactly need to modified in the following three files to completely disable some of the fields? I'm not very comfortable with random deletions of code! I have already disabled everything I can in the admin tool.

modules/[your mod]/create_account.php
modules/pages/create_account/jscript_form_check.php
templates/[your mod]/templates/tpl_modules_create_account.php

[ruonan]

Nevermind. I did everything Ajeh said to do and it worked. The fields are no longer required and my customers can create an account with minimal personal information. Thought i contribute by summarizing everything.
To change the fields to blank: Go to Admin-Configurations-Minimum Values, change the settings to blank, NOT 0.
To get raid of the * by the fields: Go to includes/languages/english.php, starting at line 180, leave the '*' in mandatory fields (defined by you) and change all others to ''.

[FrankDeRosa]

I also found the "Zip code must be at least 0 characters" message a bit confusing, but setting the field to blank in the Minimum Values admin panel did the trick. I decided to try this setting for the State field length as well, which worked as far as making the field optional - but it had the side effect of causing a JavaScript error, disabling the client side form validation. It's best to just leave the State setting as 0 to make it optional. Quirky :)

I think my take home here is, "If zero works, leave it alone." If it ain't broke...

Thanks to all for contributing to the discussion.

[artcoder]

We've managed to make "State" no required when signing up, that wasn't an issue, but we're having trouble in the admin. We're using the dual pricing module as we've got a couple of customers who are resellers and to update their status we need to open their account in admin and change them to reseller status.

However, when doing this, we get told state is required and we can't update the details. We've set state under "minimum values" to blank (as per Ajeh's suggestion) but we're still told state is empty and required in admin.

Is there anything else one can do?

Since you are in the Zencart admin, just type "unknown" for the state.

[artcoder]

We've managed to make "State" no required when signing up, that wasn't an issue, but we're having trouble in the admin. We're using the dual pricing module as we've got a couple of customers who are resellers and to update their status we need to open their account in admin and change them to reseller status.

However, when doing this, we get told state is required and we can't update the details. We've set state under "minimum values" to blank (as per Ajeh's suggestion) but we're still told state is empty and required in admin.

Is there anything else one can do?

Or if you don't feel like just filling it in the state with a dummy value (such as "unknown"), you will have to remove the Javascript validation checks, the PHP backend checks, and optionally remove the display of the red alert text saying "required". This three are described in steps 3, 4, and 5 of the tutorial linked here. All code change happens in /admin/customers.php and when that is done, you will be able to update customer details in admin without filling out everything.

[anglerdvd]

Thanks Spidersilk,
I tried your solution and it worked so good, I was able to set all of the lines that i did not need to non-mandatory. Thanks again

[lauriesscraps]

You could also do this by just changing the settings in the Minimum Values for the Telephone number or Post Code to blank, not 0, but blank as in edit and make the input box blank and hit update ...

Then, change the language file for the Required for the field(s) to be '' vs '*' and you will not see the red asterisk ...

Which Language file are you referring to?