Specialized Checkout

Is there a way to create specialized checkout for only a few items, while keeping the standard one for most items?

Well you can change some stuff in the views of the checkout base don the products in the cart (provided that you know php), but you won't be able to have a different checkout workflow.

that's too bad. I'm a martial arts instructor, and wish to have a specialized checkout for 1st time customers interested in purchasing a trial membership, vs. existing students purchasing gear. The trial membership would include some instructions that are not needed for existing students.

Could that be a feature you may include in a later version?

If it's just a matter of adding some text in the checkout based on the products in the cart,
You could do that by editing the code of the file cart of the view checkout via the menu Display->Views.


Something like this:
$found = false;
foreach($this->rows as $row){
if($row->product_code=='special_product_code'){
$found = true;
}
}
if($found){
echo 'My special instructions displayed when buying the product special_product_code';
}

I have thought about that, and will likely do that. However, I was shooting for a completely different look and feel to the checkout for the 1st time customer, similar to another martial arts site: tsk.com

You could display the checkout with a different style and add text etc based on the products...You could already change it a lot with just that. The only limitation of that solution is that the checkout workflow cannot be changed.

As an alternative, you could have two websites, one with the normal checkout and one with the special checkout and have a user synchronization plugin so that if a user registers on one it will be added on the second one. Then, you could direct you users on the good website based on who they are.
That's for example what joomla.org does. Each menu of the joomla.org website is a different website in fact.

Which file would I use to modify the text based on product?

LOL, never mind. You already told me Thank you.

speaking of specialised checkout, is there a way of hiding the ADD TO CART BUTTON for unregistered users?

That's an interesting question.

With the business version of hikashop, you can set access levels on prices of products. So you could set all the prices of your product to be only available for registered users. The product will be seen as free for unregistered users and the "add to cart" button will be hidden (provided that the option "Display 'add to cart' button for free products" is turned off in the config under the tab display). Finally, you can change the "Free" translation string into something like "Not available for unregistered users" in the config under the tab languages by overriding the translation of Free.

hi,

sry for delay in getting back but had an exam (and thus had to delay the project).

Oki thanks for the above. My customer would like the below config:

The product manufacturer will manage a database of products. The products are only physically sold through retails shop. The retail shops procure their products through a number of distibutors.

Thus: Manufacturer (site owner) -> Unique Distibutors -> Unique Shops

Note that for example shop number 1-50 purchase only from Distibutor A, Shops 51-100 purchase only from Distibutor B etc etc. There are 4 distributors. Then each distibutor purchases the ordered products from the manufacturer and delivers them accordingly. No contact is done directly with manufacturer from shop owners.

The manufacturer would like to create accounts for Distibutors only. Thus, each distributor will have a single username and a single password.

Each distributor will give his username & password to the shops that he services. Thus, distibutor A gives his username and password to shops 1-50 only. By loggin in, the shops wouldn't have password change rights. Once logged in, the shop owners can select the products they require and their "order" will be forwarded by a simple email to their rispective distributor.

The process basically ends there as the distributor manually order from the manufacturer by summing their total orders (manually)

Normal users would visit the site (i.e. not shop owners) will simple have VIEW ONLY (catalogue) funcionality. They cannot purchase online. If they would like to purchase a product, they will have to purchase physically from a shop

Note that the distributor doesn't need to have any admin rights. The site is solely maintained by the Manufacturer.

No payment transactions should be carried out at any stage.

Is the above possible with the business version?

Let me know if you need further clarifications.

thanks.

ian

With the method I explained above it's possible yes. Note that with the solution above, the non logged in users won't see the prices since the prices will only be visible by the logged in users and that's what will activate the add to cart button. If you need your non logged in users to see the price you will have to add it also in the description of the product or do it differently: you could leave the prices displayed for everyone (so without access levels) but add an access level check in the view file via the menu Display->Views.
You will have also to remove the "payment_" view from the checkout workflow so that there is no payment asked during the checkout.

Thanks for your feedback!

What about the rest of the functionality I've explained above?

I don't see any problem with the rest of your description.

perfect thanks!