Auto referral for new users?

I have looked and have not seen anything as of yet for what I am wanting to do. I am very new to PHP so please bare with me.

What I am looking to do is make it to where when someone makes a purcahse on my site, there is automaticly a referal code that is generated for them to be able to pass out to other people. I would like for the referral code to be generated by the first and last inital and the last 4 of their phone number. I also want to be able to track how much was purchased under each referral code. Is any of this possible?

Any help would be appreicated. I am using version 1.3.8a.

Thanks everyone

What you're looking to do is quite specific, but that's the joy of open source software, you can roll your sleeves, lift the hood and rework the code to do whatever you like.

In this case Zen Cart has some bits to help. You'll want to create your your referral code in checkout_success header file ready to be displayed on the checkout success page, and no doubt write it to the database too having extended the customer record to accommodate it. Zen Cart then already has a referrals field in the checkout - though it's free text so you wouldn't be able to track mis-typings, unless you change how it works.

However, there is a big warning associated with this. There's a fine line between affiliate programmes and pyramid selling. You appear to be describing the later, which are illegal in many countries.

Ok, I will see what I can do with what is already thre.

I do not really think that is a pyramis selling because the person who refers someone does not get any financial progress from it. I just wanted to be able to thank them for their referrals. If I am misunderstanding, please let me know. The last thing I want to do is something illegal.

But thanks for the heads up on how to go abouts doing this. I jsut need to figure out the exact line of code that should be able to be used.

Gives me something to work on for a while but your help was a huge plus.