Hiding "Add to Cart" button unless customer is logged in

[jilbert]

First, I am very new to this ... Second, I've been looking for an answer, but none of the answers I found really fit my situation.

I want my customers and potential customers to be able to browse my store and see the prices, however I do not want them to be able to add anything to their carts unless they are logged in. When I set the Customer Approval Status - Authorization Pending to 3, it looks like I'm getting what I want, but now I need to "approve" any new customers. I want any new customers to be automatically approved mainly because I'm not sitting at my computer all the time.

I have a reason for this ... when a customer is not logged in and begins the checkout ... if they click on the PayPay button on the first screen it takes them directly to PayPal. After logging in, they are brought back to Step 2 of 3 and the price has been reduced (for example something that was $3.15 ends up being $ .65).

If the same customer clicks on the "Check out" they are brought to the "Welcome, Please Sign In screen where they can either login, sign-up or checkout via PayPal. If they sign in, nothing is discounted. However, if they once again click on the PayPal express button (also on that page) the product gets discounted.

I am only using the included Payment Modules and only have the Free Order and PayPal Express Checkout (Debug) active.

Rather than get into the guts of all this, I feel the easiest way to control this issue is to find a way to "automatically" approve new customers while at the same time have Customer Approval Status - Authorization Pending set to 3.

This is the link to my store -- https://www.jilbert.org/shop/

Thanking you all for any help or insights you can provide this noob ...

[Ajeh]

You could use the settings on the Configuration ... Customer Details ... for:

Customer Shop Status - View Shop and Prices
Customer must be approved to shop
0= Not required
1= Must login to browse
2= May browse but no prices unless logged in
3= Showroom Only

2 will not display prices nor allow Products to be added to the cart unless the customer is logged in ...

[mc12345678]

I'm still trying to figure out what the issue really is...

I've read the above a couple of times to try to figure out what is it that is being attempted to be resolved other than how to automatically accept/approve a customer upon login. The other factor described is a reduction of price based on the individual choosing to express checkout through the use of PayPal. I'm inclined to offer the below to see if there really is an issue or if it is a misunderstanding...

At first it appears that there is a problem with the PayPal process (or associated plugin) and that using express checkout is causing the value to be collected from the customer to be incorrectly calculated. But the overall request has to do with ensuring that the individual is logged in before adding items to the cart... The reason for this is not explained, but if I had my guess it is because unlike what appears to be a problem with PayPal Express Checkout that the value of the product is actually reduced upon login to this "secret" location (secret because every SE is going to review/report the prices of items at the viewing price not the logged in price). Further, you are wanting your reduced price(s) to be seen by the customer because they have gone through the extra effort to login.

It further appears that the effect seen is that of the customer being logged in. When Express Checkout is used like you have described, an account is created first hand and if as stated above, a logged in customer sees prices differently than a browsing individual, then it is this reduced price that is being seen at step 2 of 3 upon return from PayPal (product does not require a shipping address).

In a way trying to figure out what the real goal is to maybe provide an inkling of assistance. Ajeh has suggested the must login to see prices route, but still trying to figure out the intent of prices reducing only when someone is already logged on with the intention of making the system permit anyone logging in if they choose to go through the process.

[jilbert]

The real underlying problem is (was) the PayPal issue. It seemed the only way to avoid it was to force the customer to log in before adding something to the cart. Turns out, it could even happen then if they chose PayPal Express.

The store is a digital scrapbooking store and my customer base would be turned off if they couldn't at least browse first. That meant they needed to see the prices. They also don't like having to wait on someone to approve them before they buy something. (Lessons learned from being an admin at a digital scrapbooking store.)

Turns out ... I really needed to take a step back and try to figure out what the problem really was and it was PayPal Express. NO idea why things were happening the way they work, but they were ... at least for me. My solution? I hid the PayPal Express button using CSS. A simple solution to a perplexing problem because PayPal could still be used, just not with the PayPal Express button.

Thank you for your patience with me and my over reaction to a simple problem.