where in admin to set up email notifications?

I must be looking right past it, but...where in admin do we set up the criteria for emailing customers? I want to eliminate the auto-email whenever an order changes status (or at least eliminate the email when I change an order from "pending" to "processing").

Thanks.

In the Admin->Customers->Orders screen, when you click on an order and scroll down to the spot where you update its status, you can change the status via the pulldown, and then below it you'll see two checkboxes. If you uncheck "Notify Customer", it will not bother emailing the customer anything when you click the submit "Update" button to save the new status.

So ... just uncheck the box when you wish to not send the email.

You'll find this topic discussed in the eStart Your Web Store With Zen Cart book.

Ah, thanks, Doc. So...no way to make non-notification the default, then?

If you must, you can hack the /admin/orders.php file to change the default state yourself.

Well, if that's what it takes, I'll live with it the way it is. I'm sure I already have enough little time bombs waiting for me when the next upgrade comes along.

Might I suggest this as a feature in a later release?

So, you're suggesting that it's wise to NOT notify customers of updates when you update their order with information like shipping details etc? Seems non-customer-friendly.

No, I'm suggesting it's wise to give the store operator an option. In a store like mine, in which the business model has no customer-centric distinction between the "pending" and "processing" statuses, an automatic email is likely to generate more heat than light. It would be nice to skip notification of that step by default.

All just IMO.

If there's no distinction, then why are you using both statuses at all?

I didn't say there was no distinction, I said there was no customer-centric distinction. In other words, a change from "pending" to "processing" is probably not of much interest to the customer (at least in my shop). An email announcing this serves little purpose, and may only confuse the customer or raise unnecessary questions.

This really isn't that big a deal; I just thought it would be nice to have the email notification default to be configurable.

What needs to be altered in the ADMIN.PHP file to remove this as default??

-- I also agree it would be our store preference to have it set OFF...irrritating to have to manually change with every single order (we process alot of orders)...

Thanks!

The check box is not in admin.php, it is in admin/orders.php on line 611 (approx), you need to replace (assuming you are using the latest zencart;)):

<td class="main"><strong><?php echo ENTRY_NOTIFY_CUSTOMER; ?></strong> [<?php echo zen_draw_radio_field('notify', '1', true) . '-' . TEXT_EMAIL . ' ' . zen_draw_radio_field('notify', '0', FALSE) . '-' . TEXT_NOEMAIL . ' ' . zen_draw_radio_field('notify', '-1', FALSE) . '-' . TEXT_HIDE; ?>]   </td>

with

<td class="main"><strong><?php echo ENTRY_NOTIFY_CUSTOMER; ?></strong> [<?php echo zen_draw_radio_field('notify', '1', FALSE) . '-' . TEXT_EMAIL . ' ' . zen_draw_radio_field('notify', '0', true) . '-' . TEXT_NOEMAIL . ' ' . zen_draw_radio_field('notify', '-1', FALSE) . '-' . TEXT_HIDE; ?>]   </td>

If you are using super orders (a must if you have a lot of orders in my view!) then it is admin/super_orders.php line 997 (approx)

replace

echo zen_draw_checkbox_field('notify', '', true); echo ' ' . ENTRY_NOTIFY_CUSTOMER . '<br />';

with

echo zen_draw_checkbox_field('notify', '', false); echo ' ' . ENTRY_NOTIFY_CUSTOMER . '<br />';

Hope this helps

Thanks totalsam! We just started using the update part. And I did not realize that is sent notifications out until this morning when I got 20+ emails from confused customers. We use the 'Delivered' status as our 'Shipped' due to internal processes.

Ah we had this and decided it best to change the titel of the status, that way you can inform the customer you have dispatched it but they don't get confused expecting it to be with them right away.

To do this go to your admin > Localisation > Orders Status, click on delivered and click edit and you can change the name. You can also add new statuses by clicking insert or remove status' by clicking delete (will only work if the status has never been used on any orders).