Newsletter Subscribe or Other Solution?

Hi, I'm new to ZC, am creating a new store with Zen Cart 1.3.8a, http://www.thenaturesgift.com/. I've spent hours looking for this info, to no avail, so I'm just gonna ask!

My client wants to sell products that will be shipped, will be using Authorize.net AIM. If I understand correctly, most customer fields will be required in order to process CC's, ie, address fields, etc.

But client also wants a link on each page (on sidebox) that will require the visitor to signup to get "Free Reports", that will then be immediately available either by direction to a page with a link to download a pdf, or for the report pdfs to be emailed to him right away. If the person is also signed up for a monthly newsletter, that would be a bonus, but not required.

Main thing is that I need to require minimal login info (name, email address), then provide a way for visitor to immediately receive reports.

I have played with modifying includes/modules/pages/page/header_php.php to require login to view the Free Report download page, but the visitor is then unnecessarily required to enter tons of info just to register for free report.

I've read the posts about Newsletter Subscribe, but it is not clear as to whether or not I can provide a way for the person signing up to receive the report immediately.

Can anyone tell me if Subscribe has that functionality? And if not, is there another addon that does? Or a better way to approach this?

Thanks!

I use the Newsletter subscribe module on a client's site and I don't believe it has the functionality you are looking for. The only thing that is sent to the customer is an email asking them to confirm the subscription. Once they are confirmed they are in the newsletters group and will receive all newsletters sent from the site.

In order to have pdf reports sent automatically you are probably going to need some custom php work. You could probably build a form to capture "report subscriptions" and then have a function to email the reports to everyone in the list. As I said, it would be custom work. I am not aware of any modules that do this, but there may be something out there.

Thanks for your reply, I was afraid that would be the answer. :lookaroun

Debra