My Checkout Without Account Mod

[KGZotU]

I've come up with a checkout without account mod that I'd like to get some feedback on. It seems pretty solid, I developed it on one store, then packaged it and installed it on another. I've put it through its paces, and as far as I can tell it does everything I want to perfectly.

I'm putting it out as a beta, and am looking for the community's views on language, phrasing, usability, bugs, proper practices, etc.

I've got links in my sig which link to the mod and a demo store. Feel free to perform whatever experiments you'd like there.

The Pithy Explanation:
This mod allows users to checkout with or without an account. Like all other such mods it creates an invisible account which requires less effort/commitment from the customer. However, my mod uses a particularly simple method to keep the problem of multiple accounts with the same e-mail address from effecting those who create permanent accounts.

I've pasted this further explanation from the readme:

What this mod does:
When a visitor adds something to their cart and proceeds to checkout, they are greeted with three options. They can sign in to their existing account, they can create a new account, or they can proceed through checkout without an account. They are only given this third option if they have something in their cart. After entering their billing information they are sent to checkout_shipping. If they somehow manage to enter the COWOA sequence without something in their cart, then after they enter their billing information they are directed to their empty cart.

A visitor may COWOA as many times as they like using the same e-mail address. They may COWOA using a given e-mail address, and then later use that same e-mail address in the creation of a regular account. They may not COWOA using an e-mail address that is associated with a regular account.

There's more information about how it works in the readme.

Awaiting feedback,
Joe

[ideasgirl]

Hi Joe,

I was testing and when I hit "checkout" (COWOA) doesn't go anywhere.

PS: I inserted the link on url (main_page=no_account) and takes me to the page, but the button is not working.

[KGZotU]

Ideasgirl,

Thanks for testing it out. (;

I was having trouble replicating that, and then on a whim I tried IE. It's terribly weird but the button that works for FF doesn't work for IE.

So, I switched to split panel(the mod puts the button both on split panel and non-split panel login), and the button works in IE. I don't have time to figure out the problem tonight, but now that it's on split login it should work for all parties.

Thanks for giving it a test drive.

--Joe

[TPHoare]

This is great - just what we have been looking for.

Have tried it on 1.3.7 test site and it has worked fine - apart from the IE problem. (In fact have just tried it on Safari and have the same problem)

Is there any way to tell in admin which customers have registered and which have not. Would be really interesting to know for sure whether mandatory registration really is a turn-off - I personally would much rather have no registration at all but simply a mechanism to check order status with email address and order number.

[Boggled]

I like this!
It works great in FireFox, but not IE (as already noted).
Looking forward to trying it when you get the IE part fixed.

Edited to add...Only bug I see so far:

When you receive the confirmation email it still has a link to view the order, which it won't let you do because you didn't enter a password and don't technically have an account.

[KGZotU]

I had an opportunity to check this out with IE7 and it's even more screwed up. (;

I was checking IE6 last night when I said that it worked with the split login setup, but with IE7 it directs you to the standard account creation.

So, for the moment, the demo store doesn't work with IE7. If you only have IE7 then once you get to the split login screen you can manually go to:

https://www.theknitteur.com/zc/index.php?main_page=no_account

I'm sure this should be an easy enough fix, probably just have to put the link tags inside the div tags.

TPHoare: The emails of invisible accounts have a '.' at the end. I'm taking advantage of the fact that there's an implicit '.' at the end of every email address, and using it to keep invisible accounts from interfering with normal accounts.

At the moment there's no automatic sort, but I think that I could easily clone the admin 'customers' module into two more modules, one that shows only normal accounts and another that shows only invisible ones.

Boggled: Thanks for noting the email text issue. Glad for the feedback on the stuff I miss.

I have a question regarding the function of the mod. As noted, once a normal account has been created with a given e-mail address, that address can't be used to checkout without an account. That's a function I could easily remove, but I felt that it would lead to too many confusing issues. Any thoughts?

Also of note, you can pare down the information requirements on the no_account page using the admin module that controls account creation. You can see a more elegant implementation of the page here:

http://www.theknitteur.com/zc/screenshot.gif

Alright, thanks for all the feedback. I've got the button issue and the email text to do, and I'll look into the admin module.

Thanks much,
Joe

[JMS_Music]

Hi all great mod... BUT :-)

Just went throught the install in the test version runs great plonked it on the live site and all hell breaks loose!!

We are using the latest edition (3.7) edited and uploaded all files and get this error

--------------------------------

Warning: main(includes/modules/no_account.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/jms-music-de/htdocs/Shop/includes/modules/pages/no_account/header_php.php on line 17

Warning: main() [function.include]: Failed opening 'includes/modules/no_account.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/jms-music-de/htdocs/Shop/includes/modules/pages/no_account/header_php.php on line 17
------------------------------------

The php reads:

<?php
/**
* no_account header_php.php
*
* @package page
* @copyright Copyright 2003-2006 Zen Cart Development Team
* @copyright Portions Copyright 2003 osCommerce
* @license http://www.zen-cart.com/license/2_0.txt GNU Public License V2.0
* @version $Id: header_php.php 4035 2006-07-28 05:49:06Z drbyte $
*/

// This should be first line of the script:
$zco_notifier->notify('NOTIFY_HEADER_START_NO_ACCOUNT');


require(DIR_WS_MODULES . zen_get_module_directory('require_languages.php'));
include(DIR_WS_MODULES . zen_get_module_directory(FILENAME_NO_ACCOUNT));

$breadcrumb->add(NAVBAR_TITLE);

// This should be last line of the script:
$zco_notifier->notify('NOTIFY_HEADER_END_NO_ACCOUNT');
?>
-----------------------------------

We use 5 language packs as we have customers in various European countries and I figure it has something to do with this as we added the other 4 language files and copied the English data across.... (will make the translations available when finished)

I guess this is an easy php fix but either I am stoopid or its more serious....

Uploading the back-up as its a working shop so you wont be able to see the error but if a php wiz has an idea we would really welcome a reply....

Kind Regards

Richie
JMS Music
www.jms-music.de

[KGZotU]

Richie,

The server is basically saying that it wasn't able to find the no_account.php file at includes/modules/YOUR_TEMPLATE/no_account.php.

The most common reason for this would be misnaming the YOUR_TEMPLATE folder. Unfortunately this mod has its fingers in a lot of pies, so it can be tough to nail down every last YOUR_TEMPLATE. (;

If you renamed these folders from your computer, you might be able to go into the folder you uploaded to see whether or not this was the case.

If this isn't the cause, and this is actually the cause of some language issue I'm not familiar with, then you could temporarily work around it by placing the includes/modules/YOUR_TEMPLATE/no_account.php file directly into /includes/modules.

That said, I'm working out a couple of bugs today, namely around gift certificates.

Thank you for your encouragement. I hope it was this simple problem.

I hope this helps,
Joe

[JMS_Music]

It looks like a css problem, the text / layout is all over the place, have proofed the file names and had written spanish and french wrong (with CAPS), hey its only 00:30 here be crazy not to go for another upload :-)

Thanks once again for all your help....

Richie

[KGZotU]

Sure. (;

Let me know how it works out for you. Also, could you let me know what you think of the installation instructions? I separated the new pages and the overrides/writes into two separate folders for the convenience of the user, but I'm afraid that it might be confusing.

Thank you for your help,
Joe