How to add custom entity from admin in magento

Question

I am working on a project where I need to add a custom user from the magento admin panel. This user cannot purchase the products. He can only login to his section and write reviews on products or update his/her profile information. Magento admin should be responsible for creating this user with his username and password and other details. Please, help regarding this I really have no idea of the best practices when it comes to creating entity that is managed from the admin panel. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

First add new customer group

customer > manage group > Add New Customergroup

then create user and assign group to that customer

customer > manage customer > Add New Customer

To restrict customer to add to cart use this event

<checkout_cart_update_items_before>
<observers>
<cart_update>
<type>singleton</type>
<class>auction/observer</class>
<method>updatebeforeCart</method>
</cart_update>
</observers>
</checkout_cart_update_items_before>

check if customer belong to that user group

if(Mage::getSingleton('customer/session')->isLoggedIn()) {
$customerData = Mage::getSingleton('customer/session')->getCustomer();
$customerId=$customerData->getId();
$customer = Mage::getModel('customer/customer')->load($customerId);
$customer->getGroupId();
}

throw exception same as for the review add check for that if user belong to that group then add review..

Answer 2

Please try Magento user roles/permission. create one roles with product add / edit and review add /edit then create user in admin set that role.