Applying Register/Login to your Checkout Process

Tutorial created by Ray Borduin, WebAssist

Categories: eCart, PowerStore, Dreamweaver, MySQL, PHP

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Before you begin

This tutorial begins with eCart and SecurityAssist functionality already implemented. For information on creating the eCart checkout functionality, or the SecurityAssist user registration and login functionality, please see the following tutorials:

1. eCart Getting Started Guide
   
2. SecurityAssist Getting Started Guide

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Requirements

You will need to have the following items ready to go before starting this tutorial:

1. Dreamweaver CS3 or later
   
2. Dreamweaver site with eCart checkout functionality already created.
   
3. SecurityAssist 2
   Register, log in and log out functionality already created
   
4. WebAssist Free eCommerce MySQL database (Optional) wa_ecommerce_db.zip

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Create the Download Center

The first step in applying security to your checkout pages is to create a URL variable that we will use for when the redirect to the Login page occurs.

1. Open your Login page in Dreamweaver.
   
2. From the Bindings panel, choose Add ( ) > URL variable.
   
   
   
   
3. In the URL Variable Name field, enter checkout.
   
4. Click OK.

This will allow us to specify content to display on the Login page, only when arriving from one of the checkout pages. This is a very common practice, to alert your customers to why they are being asked to login.

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Add Access Pages Rule

Next, using the SecurityAssist Access Pages Manager, we will specify the rule that redirects users who are not logged in to the Login page.

1. From the WebAssist menu, choose Security > Manage Site Access > Access Pages Manager.
   
2. In the Access Pages Manager, select all the pages related to the checkout process.
   You want to select all pages (except the cart page) to prevent visitors from accessing those pages without having logged in.
   
   Hold down Ctrl on your keyboard to select multiple pages at a time.
   
   
3. From the Grant access if menu, choose Logged in to users.
   'users' may be different depending on your database configuration.
   
4. Choose the If access denied, go to field browse icon.
   
5. Choose the Login page.
   
6. Click OK.
   
7. Place your cursor at the end of the path to your Login page.
   
8. Type ?checkout=1.
   
   
   
   
9. Click OK to apply these changes.

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Create the Access rule

Now that we%u2019ve created the redirect to the login page, we need to create the access rule that will be used for visitors who access this page from the checkout page.

1. From the Modify menu, choose Security > Access Rules Manager.
   
2. Click the Add icon.
   
3. In the name field enter checkout rule.
   
4. Click the Conditions Add icon.
   
5. Select the Value field lightning bolt.
   
6. Expand the URL option and select the checkout URL variable.
   This refers to the URL variable we created earlier.
   
7. Click OK.
   
8. From the Criteria menu, choose =.
   
9. Enter 1 in the Compare to field.
   
   
   
   
10. Click OK.

This rule will activate whenever the Login page is accessed via the redirect (/users_Login.php?checkout=1) we created earlier.

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Apply conditional text

This final step will allow you to specify some conditional text to appear on the Login page when a visitor has arrived there via the checkout page.

1. Open the Login page in Dreamweaver.
   
2. Place your cursor on your page where you wish this conditional text to appear.
   
3. Enter the text you wish to appear.
   For example, 'Before proceeding, please log in.'
   
4. Highlight the text you just entered.
   
5. From the WebAssist menu, choose SecurityAssist > Show Region.
   
6. From the Rule menu choose, checkout rule.
   
   
   
   
7. Click OK.

You have now applied a login redirect to your checkout pages allowing you to ensure that users are logged in before making purchases on your site.

What to do next...

There are a number of features you can add to your cart, now that you are requiring them to register or log in before checking out. For example, you could automatically populate certain fields of the checkout page, based on their user information. Or, you could create an Order History page to allow your customers to see what purchases they have made. You could even create a Download Center page that allows you to provide digital files to be downloaded.

1. Automatically populate form fields on checkout tutorial
   
2. How to Create an Order History
   
3. How to Create a Download Center for selling digital goods

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