Another customer account question

[pharry]

What links a customer account (a logged in customer) to the shopping cart saved on the server for that account?

Right now I don't use accounts, so the cart is saved on the server, and located by the system using a cookie stored on the PC. If cookies are cleared, then the customer loses their cart.

Are cookies required for customer accounts?

When I try V8 again, will cart contents be lost if customer accounts are in use? My first attempt at V8 wiped out everyone's carts.

[TraceyG]

Hi,

When a non-registered customer goes onto the site a '.session' file is created. If they save their basked a '.save' file is created with the same name as the session file. This name is also put into the cookie on the customers pc so if that cookie and/or the .session file is deleted they can't retrieve their basket as the next time they go onto the site a new session file will be created.

With customer accounts the save file is saved in the format of 'reg_X_00.save, where 'X' is the ID number of the customer, so for customer accounts it doesn't matter if the cookie on the pc or the session file on the server is deleted, they will still be able to retrieve saved carts when they log in.

[pharry]

Thank you, Tracey. Exactly what I needed to know.