modify blocknewsletter to add as customer

[jaytech]

Hello, I need modify the newsletter block module in order for it to do the following:

• Require a first name, last name, email address and password from the subscriber
  
• Create a customer account for the subscriber without requiring a postal/billing address
  

I know it is possible to have customers without an address, as I have used the import tool in the backend to create customers with just these details.

 

I thought it might be possible to modify the newsletter block to accept a First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Newsletter Opt-in and, using functions available to the import tool, create a customer account when a user subscribes via the newsletterblock.

 

I think this would be a useful feature that would allow easy management of non-customer subscribers (as there wouldn't be any!) and would also encourage sales from newsletter subscribers as they would only need to supply address details upon their first checkout.

 

If anyone has any ideas they would like to share it would be much appreciated!

[jaytech]

Alternatively, since it doesn't need to be a module, a better solution might be to

• create a new page 'subscribe.php', based on the relevant code from Authcontroller.php;
  
• create 'subscribe.tpl' based on a modified authentication.tpl; removing the entire lower fieldset containing the address & phone fields.
  

Anyone know if this could be done? Thanks