ModularMerchant
Knowledge Base
Shopping Cart Software Online Manual
Customer Attribute
Customer Account Area Customer Field
Location Home > Glossary

Customer Attribute

A customer attribute is an input that may be created to provide additional information for individual customer accounts.

Available attribute formats include checkbox, dropdown menu, list, radio button, and text field.

A customer field is another type of input that may be created to collect information from individual customers.

The creation and configuration of customer fields and customer attributes is very similar -- currently the options of the Customer Attribute Editor are identical to the options of the Customer Field Editor.

The difference between customer fields and customer attributes is that customers may edit the values of customer fields, while customers may only view the values of customer attributes.

All active customer attributes will automatically be displayed in the Customer Attributes section of the Customer Editor. Store admins may also assign attribute values to individual customers within the Customer Editor.
 

example: customer field vs customer attribute
One common form of input is a group of checkboxes. For instance, a checkbox group might be titled Colors, and include six checkboxes labled Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple.



In order to display the group of checkboxes on the checkout page, to allow customers to select their favorite colors when they place an order, first create a customer field in the Customer Field Editor.

The customer field would be of the Checkbox type, would be named Colors, and would have option values of Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple.

As a result, the group of checkboxes will be added to the checkout page below the Billing Information section. When a customer places an order, the customer will be able to select any of the Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple checkboxes before submitting the order.

The customer's selections will be saved in their account. If the customer places another order, the checkboxes they selected during the previous order will still be selected. The customer may select different checkboxes during each new order. The most recent selections will overwrite any previous selections.

Store admins will also be able to view the customer's color choices when viewing the customer's account in the Customer Editor. Store admins also have the capability of selecting different checkboxes, which would overwrite the customer's customer's selections.



In order to display the group of checkboxes within the Customer Editor, to allow store admins to quickly choose color values from the set group, while preventing customers from altering the selections, first create a customer attribute in the Customer Attribute Editor. The customer attribute would be of the Checkbox type, would be named Colors, and would have option values of Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple.

As a result, the customer attribute will then be added to the Customer Editor for all customer accounts. Store admins will have access to the Colors attribute and the  Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple checkboxes from within the Customer Editor.

The text associated with the checkboxes may optionally be displayed to customers in emails or added to pages of the storefront customer account area, but customers will never have access to the actual checkboxes to make different selections.


— Last Edited - 04/1/2013 4:06pm PDT
Rank and add a comment to this article
Only logged in users may leave comments and rank articles. Log in to have your say!
  Knowledge Base Home

  QuickCode™ Tag Glossary

  Modular Merchant.com Homepage

Not Logged in.
Either Log in or create a User Account.

Other articles in this category...

Active

Adjustment

Admin Account

Administration Area

Administrator

Alternate Storefront URL (Product Editor Field)

Attribute

Attributes vs. Fields

Audio Samples (Product Editor Option)

Avatar

AVS

Back Office

Backend

Basket

Billing Address

Bounce Date

Breadcrumb Links

Bug

Category

Checkout Area

COGS

Control Panel

Core Shopping Cart Files

Coupon

Credit Card Security Code

Cron Job

CSS

Customer

Customer Account

Customer Account Area

Customer Attribute

Customer Field

Customer Group

CVV2

Digital Delivery

Digital Object

Digital Product

Display Order

Dropshipper

Dropshipping

Email Batch

Email Instance

Email Opt In

Email Queue

Email Series

Email Series Step

Email Template

End Date

Event

Event Engine

Feature

Featured Product

Field

File Storage Area

FTP

FTP Active/Passive Modes

Fulfillment

Fulfillment Report

Gift Certificate

Grand Total

Hidden Category

Hidden Product

Hosting

Inactive

Internal

Inventory Control (Product Editor Option)

Inventory Object

ISO Codes

Knowledge Base

Manual (Process Offline) payment gateway

Memo

Modular Mailer

Modular Mailer Email Messages

MSRP

Navigation Menu

Note

Off-Site Payment Gateway

On Hold (Subscriptions)

Order Item

Order Processor

Parent Product

Part Number (Product Editor field)

Password Fields (Place an Order tool)

Payment Gateway

Plesk

Price (Product Editor Field)

Price Suffix

Processing Order

Processing Times

Product Groups vs. Fields

Product Price

Public Event

QuickCode Block Tags

QuickCode Tag

Ranking Criteria and Ranking Criteria Groups

Redeem Limit

Result

Retain Balance

Reusable

RGB Value

Sale Price (Product Editor Field)

Search Keywords (Product Editor Field)

SEO

SEO Friendly URL

SFTP

Shelf Life

Shipping Address

Shipping Method

Ships Solo (Product Editor Field)

Shopping Cart

SID

Store-Generated Email Messages

Storefront

Subscription

Subscription Item

Subscription Product

Subscription Queue

Subtotal

System Log

System Settings

Template

Template Package

Third-Party

This product may only be shipped by the following methods (Product Editor Option)

Trial Period

Trigger

Universal Template

UNIX timestamp

Vendor

Wish List: Public Access Code

Zone Fee