X-Cart:User Memberships

Overview

X-Cart makes it possible for you to define various membership levels for different types of store users.

Membership levels for customers are commonly used for marketing purposes. For example, membership levels can be set up in such a way that users of different levels will have different permissions for access to products and categories, will be taxed differently, will be able to use different discounts and will have different payment methods available to them.

Membership levels for administrators and providers regulate access of specific users to resources within the respective X-Cart areas.

An installed X-Cart provides some pre-defined membership levels:

Type of user account	Pre-defined membership levels	Purpose
Customer	Premium Wholesale	Can be used to create customer groups with privileged access (e.g., to products/discounts/special offers/etc).
Administrator/provider (X-Cart GOLD and GOLD PLUS) or Administrator (X-Cart PLATINUM and PRO)	Fulfillment staff	Restricts access of the user to all the resources of X-Cart Admin area except orders and statistics.
Provider (X-Cart PLATINUM and PRO)	Root	Turns the user into a kind of super provider with access to the products and settings of all the other providers in the store. Does not allow the user to see the field 'Order details (not visible to customer and provider)'. Can be used for the purpose of supervision only, MUST NOT be used to change any settings.

The above listed pre-defined membership levels can be used 'as is' or be renamed/deleted. At any moment you can create more membership levels for any user account type.

Note: With regard to administrator and provider memberships, only Root and Fulfillment staff membership levels are employed by X-Cart to regulate access of users to X-Cart resources. Any other administrator and provider memberships which you might create will not have any effect on the access level of the user, so you will be able to use them only as a basis for classifying users with administrator and provider privileges.

Administrator and provider memberships can be assigned to users only by administrators.

Depending on the value of the option 'Enable sign-up for membership ' defined in General settings->General options, customer users may or may not be able to sign up for memberships. When the option 'Enable sign-up for membership ' is enabled, a customer can select a desired membership level from the 'Signup for membership' box in his or her personal profile and submit the 'Profile details' form for administrator's approval. Administrator reviews the application and, in the case of a positive decision, assigns the membership to the user who requested it. When the option 'Enable sign-up for membership ' is disabled, there is no 'Signup for membership' box in the 'Profile details' form, but administrator can still assign memberships to customers.

Roles in user membership management

If you are an X-Cart GOLD or GOLD PLUS administrator/provider or an X-Cart PLATINUM or PRO administrator:

• You can create membership levels for all types of users (Study the section #Adding User Memberships).
• You can manage all existing membership levels (See the section #Managing User Memberships):
  • view and modify membership levels,
  • delete membership levels.

If you are an X-Cart PLATINUM or PRO provider:

• You cannot create any membership levels.
• You cannot manage any membership levels.

Adding User Memberships

User membership levels are created using the 'Edit Membership Levels' section of the Admin area. In X-Cart versions 4.4.0 and later, this section can be found at Users menu -> Membership levels; in X-Cart versions 4.3.x, this section can be found at Management menu -> Membership levels; in earlier versions, this section can be found at Administration menu-> Membership Levels.

Creating membership levels

To create a new membership level:

1. Go to the 'Edit Membership Levels' section of your store. This section contains forms for adding membership levels for different types of user accounts.
2. If your store supports more than one languages, make sure the 'Language' box above the 'Membership levels' forms displays the name of the default store language.
3. Choose the appropriate 'Membership levels' form (customer, provider or administrator).
4. Use the MEMBERSHIP field in the 'Add new' subsection of the form to type in the name for the new membership level.
5. If you wish the membership level to be activated immediately after it is added, select the ACTIVE check box.
6. (Optional) Adjust the order of the membership level relative to the other membership levels in the 'Membership' and 'Signup for membership' drop-down boxes by entering a position number into the ORDERBY field.
7. Select a membership level type from the TYPE drop-down box.
8. Click the Add new button. The membership level should be added to the list of membership levels available at your store.

Multilanguage membership level names

If your store supports more than one languages, you need to provide names for membership levels in all the languages supported by your store.

To add a name for a membership level in a language other than the default store language:

1. In the 'Edit Membership Levels' section, switch the 'Language' box above the 'Membership levels' forms to display the name of the language in which you wish to add a membership level name. The language of the interface should change to the selected language.
2. In the list of available membership levels, find the membership level for which you wish to add a name in the language selected at the previous step.
3. Edit the name of the membership level, replacing its name in the default language by a name in the current language.
4. Click the Update button. The name for the membership level should be added.

Note: Names of membership levels for which foreign names are not defined are always displayed in the language in which they were created - regardless of the language of the interface selected as current.

Managing User Memberships

User membership levels are managed using the 'Edit Membership Levels' section of the Admin area. In X-Cart versions 4.4.0 and later, this section can be found at Users menu -> Membership levels; in X-Cart versions 4.3.x, this section can be found at Management menu -> Membership levels; in earlier versions, this section can be found at Administration menu-> Membership Levels.

Editing membership levels

If you wish to rename a membership level, change the position of a membership level name in the 'Membership' and 'Signup for membership' drop-down boxes or enable/disable a membership level, do the following:

1. Go to the 'Edit Membership Levels' section. This section contains forms listing membership levels for different types of user accounts.
2. If you are going to rename a membership level, make sure the 'Language' box above the 'Membership levels' forms displays the name of the language in which the membership level name needs to be changed. If you are not going to rename anything, the language does not matter.
3. Find the name of the membership level you wish to edit in one of the 'Membership levels' form (customer, provider or administrator).
4. Edit the membership level details:
5. the membership level name - by editing the value of the MEMBERSHIP field;
6. the membership level's availability status - by using the ACTIVE check box;
7. the order of the membership level relative to the other membership levels in the 'Membership' and 'Signup for membership' drop-down boxes - by changing the position number in the ORDERBY field;
8. the membership level type - by selecting a different type from the TYPE drop-down box.
9. Click the Update button. The updated membership level details should be saved.

Deleting membership levels

Membership levels that you no longer need can be deleted.

To delete a membership level:

1. Go to the 'Edit Membership Levels' section. This section contains forms listing membership levels for different types of user accounts.
2. Find the name of the membership level you wish to delete in one of the 'Membership levels' form (customer, provider or administrator) and select the check box next to it.
3. Click the Delete selected button. The membership level should be removed.