I'm going to explain this in some detail so the problem is clear. We are using 3.3.5 Gold.
Our new coustomers will be refered to our site by many different "merchants" we work with. When a new customer comes to our site for the first time from one of these merchant sites, we want the customer to fill in a very small registration before they can even see the x-cart. This small registration will require only the following:
First name
Last name
email (which will also be their username)
password (they choose)
In addition, we must set their membership level based on what merchant site they came from. We can pass a variable from the refering site (merchant_code=5000, for example) to get the proper level. We don't want the customer to see this level though, customers will have no idea we are using levels to set pricing.
The idea is to capture the customer's basic info and flag it with the refering merchant so that the customer is assigned to that level right away. This is essential.
Once this is done, the customer can browse the shop normally, and see the correct pricing level. I understand about the member levels and pricing, the issue we can't resolve is this special registration form.
Additionally, we would require the customer to fill out the standard registation form before being able to order anything. So this new form must be separate from the standard one.
To sum up, we want the customer to have to register with name, email, password, and member level (level being set invisibly based on refering site) before they can even enter the main site. Once this is done, customer is still required to fill out the standard registration form at any time prior to ordering.
We are so-so with PhP coding, so if you can help, please assume we are fairly noobish
Thanks for reading!