Synchronizing customer and user properties

Customers (part of the CMS.Ecommerce namespace) and users (part of the CMS.Membership namespace) are different entities within Kentico. To avoid unnecessary configuration, the system contains mechanisms for synchronizing the properties of users and customers.

The synchronization uses methods in the CustomerInfoProvider class in the CMS.Ecommerce namespace and runs in two ways:

From customer properties to user properties
From user properties to customer properties

From customer properties to user properties

If a customer’s properties are changed, the CopyDataFromCustomerToUser method is triggered.

Properties synchronized by default

	Column name in the database
	From	To
First name	COM_Customer.CustomerFirstName	CMS_User.FirstName
Last name	COM_Customer.CustomerLastName	CMS_User.LastName
Full name	COM_Customer.CustomerFirstName + CMS_User.MiddleName + COM_Customer.CustomerLastName	CMS_User.FullName
Email	COM_Customer.CustomerEmail	CMS_User.Email
Phone	COM_Customer.CustomerPhone	CMS_UserSettings.UserPhone

Overriding the default synchronization

To change the default synchronization, override the CopyDataFromCustomerToUserInternal(CustomerInfo customer, UserInfo user) method.




protected virtual bool CopyDataFromCustomerToUserInternal(CustomerInfo customer, UserInfo user)
{
      bool updated = false;

      // Checks that both customer and user are not null
      if ((customer == null) || (user == null))
      {
            return false;
      }

      // Checks whether the customer's first name was updated
      if (!string.Equals(customer.CustomerFirstName, user.FirstName))
      {
            user.FirstName = customer.CustomerFirstName;
            updated = true;
      }

      // Checks whether the customer's email was updated
      if (!string.Equals(customer.CustomerEmail, user.Email))
      {
            user.Email = customer.CustomerEmail;
            updated = true;
      }

      // Checks whether the customer's last name was updated
      if (!string.Equals(customer.CustomerLastName, user.LastName))
      {
            user.LastName = customer.CustomerLastName;
            updated = true;
      }

      // Checks whether the customer's phone number was updated
      if (!string.Equals(customer.CustomerPhone, ValidationHelper.GetString(user.UserSettings.GetValue("UserPhone"), "")))
      {
            user.UserSettings.SetValue("UserPhone", customer.CustomerPhone);
            updated = true;
      }

      // Sets the full name from the first, middle and last names
      user.FullName = UserInfoProvider.GetFullName(customer.CustomerFirstName, user.MiddleName, customer.CustomerLastName);

      // Returns a bool value that indicates whether any of the customer's synchronized properties were changed
      return updated;
}

From user properties to customer properties

If a user’s properties are changed, the CopyDataFromUserToCustomer method is triggered.

Properties synchronized by default

	Column name in the database
	From	To
First name	CMS_User.FirstName	COM_Customer.CustomerFirstName
Last name	CMS_User.LastName	COM_Customer.CustomerLastName
Email	CMS_User.Email	COM_Customer.CustomerEmail
Phone	CMS_UserSettings.UserPhone	COM_Customer.CustomerPhone

Overriding the default synchronization

To change the default synchronization, override the CopyDataFromUserToCustomerInternal(CustomerInfo customer, UserInfo user) method.




protected virtual bool CopyDataFromUserToCustomerInternal(CustomerInfo customer, UserInfo user)
{
      bool updated = false;

      // Checks that both customer and user are not null
      if ((customer == null) || (user == null))
      {
            return false;
      }

      // Checks whether the user's first name was updated
      if (!string.Equals(customer.CustomerFirstName, user.FirstName))
      {
            customer.CustomerFirstName = user.FirstName;
            updated = true;
      }

      // Checks whether the user's email was updated
      if (!string.Equals(customer.CustomerEmail, user.Email))
      {
            customer.CustomerEmail = user.Email;
            updated = true;
      }

      // Checks whether the user's last name was updated
      if (!string.Equals(customer.CustomerLastName, user.LastName))
      {
            customer.CustomerLastName = user.LastName;
            updated = true;
      }

      // Checks whether the user's phone was updated
      if (!string.Equals(customer.CustomerPhone, ValidationHelper.GetString(user.UserSettings.GetValue("UserPhone"), "")))
      {
            customer.CustomerPhone = ValidationHelper.GetString(user.UserSettings["UserPhone"],"");
            updated = true;
      }

      // Returns a bool value that indicates whether any of the user's synchronized properties were changed
      return updated;
}