Integrating with another System

[david3]

Hello,

We are using the latest version of Zen-cart and it works fine as a stand alone product for us. The problem we are encountering is when a user makes an order from an account created automatically via our community/forum site. In order to create these accounts we do the following.

1. Insert a new record into the customers table.
2. The only fields we are putting in are first name, lastname, password, and email address.

This works, as it allows the user to login and make orders.

The problem we are finding is, when someone makes an order from one of these auto-generated accounts, the orders record is missing the email address and the billing address.

First blush would seem we are not creating the user records correctly, or they are incomplete.

Can anyone who has knowledge and/or experience in integrating zen cart please give any assistance? It would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
David

[DrByte]

In order to create these accounts we do the following.

1. Insert a new record into the customers table.
2. The only fields we are putting in are first name, lastname, password, and email address.

The problem we are finding is, when someone makes an order from one of these auto-generated accounts, the orders record is missing the email address and the billing address.

First blush would seem we are not creating the user records correctly, or they are incomplete.

David, you are correct in guessing that the user records are being created incomplete.

You should be creating records like this:
1. "customers" table
2. "address_book" table, but update the customers table with the address_book_id after insertion
3. "customers_info" table ... this record can be virtually blank initially

Note: properly creating the address_book record requires also properly determining what "zone" the customer resides in. If this is not set properly, then taxes won't be calculated and in some cases shipping options will not be handled correctly.

[david3]

Thank you greatly Dr Byte,

I shall follow your directions and report back with my results.

Sincreley
David

[david3]

Success!

Everything works fine now. Setting up the zones and ensuring that the defualt adderss id is set fixed my problems.

Thanks DrByte