DOB as a required field?

It's not purely and advertising issue, but it seems that of all Zen Cart forums this is the one fits the most: It is not a technical issue (I know how to make any field required or not required), yet it has to do with putting potential customers off:

Should the date of birth be a required field?

Some web sites are required by law to verify purchaser's age (e.g. adult content, social networking, etc.). However, I have yet to see a technology store (hardware and/or software) that requires date of birth to register.

I am interested to listen to others' opinion: Would making DOB a required field put off potential customers?

It wouldn't send me somewhere else, but it is an annoyance unless required by law, so I'd say get rid of it.

Some sites collect that info to send birthday greetings, but I don't need a birthday card from some website I did business with once.

Stevesh, thanks for your comment. It aligns with feedback I received from a small circle of beta testers for my web site.

I must admit that I had a similar hunch, but I decided to leave the Zen Cart out-of-the-box defaults, thinking that there must have been a good reason for the Zen Cart packagers to make DOB a required field.

I am now going to remove DOB as a required field.

zcnb:

Stevesh, thanks for your comment. It aligns with feedback I received from a small circle of beta testers for my web site.

I must admit that I had a similar hunch, but I decided to leave the Zen Cart out-of-the-box defaults, thinking that there must have been a good reason for the Zen Cart packagers to make DOB a required field.

I am now going to remove DOB as a required field.

I have had customer tell me they did not login and buy because they did not want to put their year of birth. How did you stop requiring DOB, but yet still offer it. I want to offer, but not make it a requirement.

Better yet I would like to have DOB divided into groups like 18-24, 25-35, etc. But have not been able to find anything on the forum for it and no responses to thread I left.

Thanks,
Kim

Why don't you just setup the Date of Birth to NOT be required?

In the Configuration ... Customer Details ... read the setting:

Date of Birth
Display date of birth field during account creation and with account information
NOTE: Set Minimum Value Date of Birth to blank for not required
Set Minimum Value Date of Birth > 0 to require

true
false

Then go to the Configuration ... Minimum Values ... and set that correctly ...

Next, edit the language file with your templates and overrides and change the '*' to '" on the require ...

Now the field is optional ... :smile:

Ajeh:

Why don't you just setup the Date of Birth to NOT be required?

In the Configuration ... Customer Details ... read the setting:

Then go to the Configuration ... Minimum Values ... and set that correctly ...

Next, edit the language file with your templates and overrides and change the '*' to '" on the require ...

Now the field is optional ... :smile:

Where is the language file located?

Are you talking about...

includes/languages/english.php?

I could only find this for date of birth information.

define('ENTRY_DATE_OF_BIRTH', 'Date of Birth:');
define('ENTRY_DATE_OF_BIRTH_ERROR', 'Is your birth date correct? Our system requires the date in this format: MM/DD/YYYY (eg 05/21/1970)');
define('ENTRY_DATE_OF_BIRTH_TEXT', '* (eg. 05/21/1970)');

Which one do I change to '''?

Thanks, Kim

If you remove the * then it would not be flagged visually as a required field ... :smile:

NOTE: leave the visual display of the format ... just take out the asterisk that would make the customer think the Date of Birth is required ...

Ajeh:

NOTE: leave the visual display of the format ... just take out the asterisk that would make the customer think the Date of Birth is required ...

I left the visual display. Thank you for your help. Kim