Quote Originally Posted by picandnix View Post
... I have also installed phpBB notifier hook mod to the same test store, all works well thank you as new customers do generate forum accounts too as per your design.

My question, is it possible to offer the nick name field as optional rather than required, as I'm sure that not all customers will want to join the store's forum by default.
Thank you.
There are two trails to choose from to implement this behavior. The change must be made to the base Bulletin Board Integration plugin. If the setting Configuration->Minimum Values->Nick Name is set to 0, either:
  1. Create the bulletin-board account only if the customer has entered a Nick Name value. In this case, the customer's Nick Name value (if non-blank) will be displayed, but not changeable, on their account_edit page.
  2. Always create a bulletin-board account, using a randomly-created Nick Name value if the customer has not entered one. Another customer-table field is added to indicate whether or not the Nick Name was "system-generated". The (unchangeable) Nick Name value will be displayed on the account_edit page only if the Nick Name value was not "system-generated".

Although it's a bit more complicated, I'm leaning towards #2 because it gives the shop-owner the future flexibility to (albeit via phpMyAdmin) to link the accounts by changing the Nick Name in both the Zen Cart and bulletin-board databases if a customer changes their mind and decides that they'd like a linked bulletin-board account. I'm quite open to suggestions and opinions ...