SUGGESTION : Improvement on generating Guest Customer

Hello,

I'm using Web API's to perform some customized stuff in nopCommerce (asset mgmt. of sold goods). The Web API methods receive information from an Android/IoS app. The app has the possibility to create a new user (customer in nop) and therefore I need to do some upfront checking: is the email already in use, does the customer exist,...:

            if (!String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(email))
            {
                var cust = _customerService.GetCustomerByEmail(email);
                if (cust != null)
                    return EEPC_BadRequest("Email is already registered");
            }

When executing this call, the 'Guest account' is created. I've tried to set the _workContext.CurrentCustomer to the build-in SearchEngine account like so:

            _workContext.CurrentCustomer = _customerService.GetCustomerBySystemName(SystemCustomerNames.SearchEngine);

However I guess that even the GetCustomerBySystemName() call will generate the Guest account.
So I try to set the _workContext.CurrentCustomer variables individually like so:

            _workContext.CurrentCustomer.Active = true;
            _workContext.CurrentCustomer.CustomerGuid = new Guid("0f806806-7a1d-4780-b5a6-320ca123c842");
            _workContext.CurrentCustomer.Id = 2;
            _workContext.CurrentCustomer.Email = "builtin@search_engine_record.com";
            _workContext.CurrentCustomer.IsSystemAccount = true;
            _workContext.CurrentCustomer.PasswordFormatId = 0;
            _workContext.CurrentCustomer.SystemName = SystemCustomerNames.SearchEngine;
            _workContext.CurrentCustomer.Username = null;
            _workContext.CurrentCustomer.VendorId = 0;

and make the call to GetCustomerByEmail(email), still the guest account gets created.

So simple question: How can I avoid the 'Guest' account gets created in my WebAPI method?

tx for the help!

Hello Guys,

I Know that b'coz of supporting Guest checkout we have to create new guest customer on every visit so guest customer can place order without registering.

I have one suggestion is instead of creating new guest customer on every new customer visit we can create one System customer like other system customer called like "Built In-GuestCustomer" etc and assign this user as _workContext.currentCustomer on every guest visit.

And when that customer add items in cart for shopping we just create new Guest Customer and set it as current customer and add cart item to current customer so they can checkout as guest as well.

so it will reduce the overhead of guest customer on customer table and may be we don't need schedule task for delete the guest customer as well.


Please suggest your opinion

...It creates a giant mess of clutter in the Customers table of the database....

Maybe using an IP Blocker or browsecap.xml file could help?

This is my solution, I was able to limit the new guest account, each IP accessing the website will be created as 1 new guest account.
In this case, you can Disable the DeleteGuests task as it will no longer be needed.

Open the file at the path: Nopcommerce\Libraries\Nop.Services\Customers\CustomerService.cs
and add the following line of code:

public virtual Customer InsertGuestCustomer()
        {
            //KEVIN NGUYEN - get current IP address
            var currentIpAddress = EngineContext.Current.Resolve<IWebHelper>().GetCurrentIpAddress();
            if (CommonHelper.IsValidIpAddress(currentIpAddress))
            {
                var guest = _customerRepository.Table.Where(x => x.LastIpAddress == currentIpAddress
                                                    && (x.Username == null || x.Username == string.Empty)
                                                    && (x.Email == null || x.Email == string.Empty)
                                                    && !x.IsSystemAccount)?.FirstOrDefault();
                if (guest != null)
                    return guest;
            }

            var customer = new Customer
            {
                CustomerGuid = Guid.NewGuid(),
                Active = true,
                CreatedOnUtc = DateTime.UtcNow,
                LastActivityDateUtc = DateTime.UtcNow,
                LastIpAddress = currentIpAddress
            };

            //add to 'Guests' role
            var guestRole = GetCustomerRoleBySystemName(NopCustomerDefaults.GuestsRoleName);
            if (guestRole == null)
                throw new NopException("'Guests' role could not be loaded");

            _customerRepository.Insert(customer);

            AddCustomerRoleMapping(new CustomerCustomerRoleMapping { CustomerId = customer.Id, CustomerRoleId = guestRole.Id });

            return customer;
        }