Magento Birthday Coupon

User Guide & Documentation

Installation

This extension can be installed in a few minutes, by going through the following steps:

• Download/purchase the extension
• Unzip the file in a temporary directory
• Copy folder "app" and paste it in your Magento installation root directory. This extension will NOT replace existing code.
• Go to your admin panel and clear cache. Hit refresh on any of your Magento pages and you're done.

Configuration

To start using the extension you need to configure it first. Configuration involves the following 4 important steps:

1. 1) Creating email template
2. 2) Adjusting extensions settings
3. 3) Adjusting cron jobs
4. 4) Enable date of birth in your Magento store

Creating email template

To create a new email template use the fillowing steps:

1. 1) Go to System -> Transactional emails
2. 2) Click "Add new template"
3. 3) From "Templates" dropdown select "Birthday coupon"
4. 4) Click "Load template"
5. 5) At this point you should have the bottom form filled automatically for you.
6. 6) Set "Template name" to Birthday Coupon
7. 7) Set "Template subject" to "Happy birthday" or something of your choice.
8. 8) Adjust template content if needs be.
   
   Be careful not to replace any code similar to eg. {{var website_name}} as these are used internally by Magento for forking dynamic data into the template
9. 9) Click "Save template"

Adjusting extension settings

To configure the extension, use the following steps:

1. 1) Go to System -> Configuration -> Anowave extensions (tab) -> Birthday Coupon configuration
2. 2) Set "Send emails" to Yes
3. 3) Choose preferred email sender
4. 4) Set "Email template" to "Birthday coupon" or whatever you named it in the transactional emails section
5. 5) Select discount type
6. 6) Enter discount amount
7. 7) Fill remaining options with your preferred choice
8. 8) Click "Save config"

Adjusting cron jobs

In order to make the extension work automatically, the cron.php file located in the Magento root will need to be run periodically, for example every 5 minutes.

Ex.1 Typical command line for CPanel

*/5 * * * * php -q /home/htpdocs/cron.php

Ex.2 Typical command line for CPanel with CGI

*/5 * * * * /usr/local/bin/php /home/cron.php

* Note that path to php and cron.php can be different on your server.

Enable date of birth in your Magento store

In some occasions, date of birth may not be available in customer's account screen on your frontend. To enable date of birth follow these steps:

1. 1) Go to System -> Configuration
2. 2) Go to Customer Configuration
3. 3) Expand "Name and address options"
4. 4) Set "Show date of birth" to Optional or Required

Transaction log

The extension allows store owner to see all generated coupons via intitive grid including ability to filter dates, coupon codes, uses etc.

To access transaction log, go to Anowave Extensions -> Birthday Coupon from your top menu in the Magento admin panel.

This screen shows generated coupons by the automated cron jobs. It alse serves as log to prevent multiple coupon generation. If a coupon is generated and exists for particular user for today's date any futher job invokation will not generate coupon code twice. If you however still want to generate another coupon for a user, just delete the coupon for the user for today's date and next time cron is triggered a new coupon will be generated.

Technical aspects

The extension is using a cron setting set to send birthay coupons every 5 minutes to allow for newly registered customers whose birthday is today to still receive a birthday coupon. Those who have already received it, will not receieve it again. To change this setting go to /etc folder in your extension and update the following code with your own settings:

<crontab>
    <jobs>
        <birthday>
            <schedule><cron_expr>*/5 * * * *</cron_expr></schedule>
            <run>
                <model>birthdaycoupon/observer::sendEmail</model>
            </run>
        </birthday>
    </jobs>
</crontab>