how to verify user order

[loveday]

As part of my ecommerce project, I am curious about one thing.
I have a spec that requires a potential customer to register before placing an order using my client's online store.
A user can to any part of the website and browse.
However, if he/she wishes to place an order, s/he needs to register first, if s/he has not already registered.

But then we have a checkout.asp page which allows to user to enter his/her personal information including shipping address.

My doubt is this.

After registering, does the user still need to provide his/her personal information during checkout.
If no, can anyone suggest to me how to address this because it is a problem for me.
Thx in advance

 

[trollacious]

You can design the site so the information is stored in a cookie and personal information is automatically filled in on the checkout page, and you can use either client-side or server side scripting to do this. But you have to make it happen yourself, it's not automatic.

Lee

 

[loveday]

Thanks Lee,
I haven't done this before but I will try.

 

[DreXor]

instead of storing personal information in their cookie, i'd suggest just storing their unique id in your data system in their cookie

that way there's no personal information in there for possible security issues.

then use a login page to reset the cookie with user id

DreX
aKa - Robert
if all else fails, light it on fire and do the happy dance!

 

[trollacious]

While there's more than one way to do this, the personal information will still have to be loaded onto the checkout page, whether in a cookie or server side from a data file, and that will be stored in the temporary files on the computer. How much information is stored in the cookie is up to the programmer. I put the login name in a cookie, like DreXor wrote, and then load the rest of the information just with the checkout page.

The original question reminded me of a client who thought that something like this was accomplished "by just flipping a switch", rather than having to write the switch to be "flipped".

Lee

 

[loveday]

Ok, I thank all of you for your help in this.

Here is my login page.
Well, there is a page1.asp with form variables and once that page is filled, you are sent to this page for processing.

In this code, I am saying that if your information exists on our database, then send you to home page.

My question is should I use the checkout page as the registering page.

Because what my client wants to do is allow the user to register before checking out an order.
In other words, the user can browse the entire website without being challenged for login.
Only when the user wants to place an order should s/he be challenged.
If the user adds orders to the basket and is on the checkout page, if s/he has already created an account, then on checkout page, user's information will automatically populate his/her information based on login credential.

The client also want to provide a "My Accounts" page and "Order Status" page.
Again, if a user wants to go to his/her account, s/he will be prompted to login. If no account is available, the person will be required to register.

Same with "Order Status" page.

So I really need guidance on this since I have not done it before.

I do have a login page that works and a checkout page that works.

At this point, I don't know how to tie all of this together.

I mean, I need help tying checkout page, register page, login page, order status page and my account page.

I don't have my account and Order Status pages but I need to understand the flow and see how much help I would need in getting them done.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[trollacious]

You definitely have to use permanent cookies for what you want. If someone deletes their cookies, they'll have to log in again. What you're talking about is probably several hours worth of work, more than you can really get through this forum.

I've made login pages and registration pages the same page, but I wouldn't make the checkout and registration page the same.

Lee

 

[loveday]

Lee,
I understand the amount of work involved in this and like I said earlier, I have most of the pieces.
For instance, I have a working copy of login page, I have a working copy of registration page, I have a working copy of checkout page.

The only 2 that I am working on right now which I am struggling with a bit but will get them done eventually are the "My Account" page and I have most it done and the "Order Status" page.

The biggest issue that I have right now is how to ensure that when I user registers for the first time, when they place an order and are about to checkout, that they don't have to fill the checkout form anymore.
I will like the checkout page populated automatically based on the user's login credentials.

I am struggling to do that.

Perhaps, if anyone can take a look at my checkout.asp, perhaps they can tell me what I need to do since the checkout page has almost the same information as the registration page with the exception of things like username, password, etc.

Yes, I am struggling with it now but someone, like you who have done it before, will have no problem filling the holes on the checkout page.

Then next time, we may have someone else who might be in my shoes now and I will spread the goodwill.

 

[trollacious]

When the checkout page loads, read the data file with the personal information in it, find that person's information, then plug that in the appropriate text inputs with ASP. If they change the information, then you have to decide to save that and overwrite the previous data or ignore it.

For the account page, I would just list the orders and show which are completed and which aren't. Clicking on an order could bring up a new page with the current status information on the order chosen.

The account page could show the status of each order, like completed, partially filled, or pending shipment, and then the individual order page described in the previous paragraph could show details of that order.

Lee