Profile Types for Users and Vendors

Profile types - a profile of its own for an individual, a company and a dealer

CS-Cart has one customer form for everyone: an individual stumbles over a tax ID and company fields, and a company never leaves its details. The add-on splits customers and vendors into types, and every type has its own fields, its own user group, its own storefronts and its own rules.

Why a store needs profile types

An individual, a company, a sole trader, a dealer - they buy differently, and the store needs different things from them. One form for everyone either scares people off with extra fields or leaves the manager without the details they then have to ask for by phone.

Registration: the "Legal entity" type is chosen, and the form shows the company and the tax ID instead of a date of birth.

Where the customer chooses the type

• •  At registration. Radio buttons or a drop-down list, as set; the form is rebuilt at once and keeps what has been typed.
• •  In the account. The customer sees the fields of their type. Changing the type can be allowed always, once or never; on a change the user groups change too.
• •  At checkout. The choice is shown to everyone, to guests only or to nobody. The type of the order does not change the type of the customer profile.
• •  By a link with a fixed type. A registration address like ?cp_profile_type=CODE opens the form of that type, cp_profile_type_locked=1 forbids changing it - for a dealer mailing or a "For companies" page.
• •  Values are kept. Fields hidden for the chosen type keep what was typed: the customer switches back - and the company details are still there.

The account of a company customer: the fields of the type are filled in, the type can be changed.

Checkout: the type switch in the customer information block and the fields of the chosen type.

One list of fields, checkboxes per type

The add-on does not clone fields for every type. A field is created once in the standard "Profile fields" list, and it gets a row per type with checkboxes: show in the profile, at registration, at checkout, require in the profile and require at checkout.

• •  The "At registration" checkbox is separate: a field can live in the account without making the registration form longer.
• •  "Required" is set separately for the profile and for checkout - required in the order, optional in the account.
• •  Vendor fields get one more checkbox, "Show on the storefront": the value is visible on the vendor page.
• •  Reports, exports and other add-ons keep seeing the same field, whichever type filled it in.

Profile fields: one list, and every field has checkboxes for the "Individual", "Legal entity" and "Dealer" types.

The type decides: groups, storefronts, activation

• •  User groups. A customer of the type joins its groups - with the "Active" or "Pending" status. Change the groups of a type, and the change applies to existing users as well.
• •  Storefronts. A type is available on selected storefronts or on all of them. The "Let customers sign in only on the storefronts of their profile type" setting keeps a dealer off the retail storefront.
• •  Activation at once. A type has a flag: its customers sign in right after registration, even when new accounts in the store are activated by an administrator.
• •  The default type. The first active type in the list: those who did not choose register with it, and a guest checks out with it. Standard types can be hidden from the choice.
• •  Names are translated into the store languages, the order is a position, a disabled type disappears from the storefront while its users keep working as before.

The list of customer types in the admin panel: position, how many users each type has, status.

The "Dealer" type card: its own storefront, account activation at once, the "Dealers" group.

In the order, documents and the admin panel

• •  The profile type and its fields - in the order, in the "Customer information" dialog of order editing and in the order details of the customer account.
• •  The values of the type fields are passed to emails and printed documents: added to the invoice template once, printed in every invoice.
• •  In the customer card the administrator changes the type and fills in the fields of the type; an order created from the panel gets the fields of the chosen type.
• •  The customer list is searched by type; the type is in the export of customers and vendors, and the type code is checked at import.

An order in the admin panel: the "Profile type" block first in the sidebar, the company details in the customer information.

The customer card: the profile type and the fields of that type.

Vendors in Multi-Vendor

Vendors have types of their own - "Company" and "Individual seller", for example. Every type has its own fields in the application and in the vendor card and its own vendor plans: a company picks from one set, a private seller from another.

• •  A vendor application link with a fixed type works the same way as for customers.
• •  With a setting on, the vendor type name is shown on the product page instead of the "Vendor" label.
• •  A vendor field with "Show on the storefront" is visible to customers on the vendor page.
• •  The vendor type is in the import and export of vendors.
• •  The "Use profile types for" setting turns types on for customers, for vendors or for both.

A product page: "Individual seller: Sports World" - the type name instead of the word "Vendor".

The vendor card in the admin panel: the vendor type and the field of its type.

Settings

Ten settings with tooltips. All of them except "Let customers sign in only on the storefronts of their profile type" are set per storefront - in Multi-Vendor and in CS-Cart Ultimate.

• •  Who the types are for: customers, vendors or both.
• •  Type change by the customer: always, once or never; the group status after a change.
• •  Hide standard types from the choice on the storefront.
• •  The type choice at checkout: everyone, guests only or nobody.
• •  The choice view: radio buttons or a drop-down list.
• •  Reload the page when the type is changed - for stores with third-party captchas and scripts.
• •  The vendor type name on the product page; sign-in only on the storefronts of the type; invoice details from the profile.
• •  The "Manage profile types" privilege - a separate permission for administrator groups.

The add-on settings: the storefront icon next to a setting means it is set for every storefront separately.

What is new in version 2.3

• •  On a storefront with a single profile type, a customer registration and a vendor application save that type.
• •  A vendor application from the storefront gets a vendor plan of its own type.
• •  A vendor type change moves the vendor administrators from the privilege usergroups of the previous type to those of the new one.

Frequently asked questions