How to add custom attribute to Magento’s registeration page

For demonstration, we will add a height attribute to Magento’s registeration page
1. Add following lines from 7 to 10 in app\code\core\Mage\Customer\etc\config.xml
[code language=”xml”]
<customer_account>
…
<gender>
<create>1</create>
<update>1</update>
</gender>
<height>
<create>1</create>
<update>1</update>
</height>
…
</customer_account>
[/code]

2. In app\design\frontend\default\yourtheme\customer\form\edit.phtml, find the below code
[code language=”php”]
<li>
<label for="email" class="required"><em>*</em><?php echo $this->__(‘Email Address’) ?></label>
<div class="input-box">
<input type="text" name="email" id="email" value="<?php echo $this->htmlEscape($this->getCustomer()->getEmail()) ?>" title="<?php echo $this->__(‘Email Address’) ?>" class="input-text required-entry validate-email" />
</div>
</li>
[/code]
and then add this code snippet right after the above code
[code language=”php”]
<li>
<div class="input-box">
<label for="height"><?php echo $this->__(‘Height’) ?> </label><br/>
<input type="text" name="height" id="height" value="<?php echo $this->htmlEscape($this->getCustomer()->getHeight()) ?>" title="<?php echo $this->__(‘Height’) ?>" class="input-text" />
</div>
</li>
[/code]

4. Add this code at the beginning in the file app\design\frontend\default\yourtheme\template\persistent\customer\form\register.phtml
[code language=”php”]
<?php
$setup = Mage::getModel(‘customer/entity_setup’, ‘core_setup’);
$setup->addAttribute(‘customer’, ‘height’, array(
‘type’ => ‘decimal’,
‘label’ => ‘Height’,
‘input’ => ‘text’,
‘required’ => false,
‘sort_order’ => 8,
));
if (version_compare(Mage::getVersion(), ‘1.6.0’, ‘<=’))
{
$customer = Mage::getModel(‘customer/customer’);
$attrSetId = $customer->getResource()->getEntityType()->getDefaultAttributeSetId();
$setup->addAttributeToSet(‘customer’, $attrSetId, ‘General’, ‘height’);
}
if (version_compare(Mage::getVersion(), ‘1.4.2’, ‘>=’))
{
Mage::getSingleton(‘eav/config’)
->getAttribute(‘customer’, ‘height’)
->setData(‘used_in_forms’, array(‘adminhtml_customer’,’customer_account_create’,’customer_account_edit’,’checkout_register’))
->save();
}
?>
[/code]

Find the below code
[code language=”php”]
<li>
<label for="email_address" class="required"><em>*</em><?php echo $this->__(‘Email Address’) ?></label>
<div class="input-box">
<input type="text" name="email" id="email_address" value="<?php echo $this->escapeHtml($this->getFormData()->getEmail()) ?>" title="<?php echo $this->__(‘Email Address’) ?>" class="input-text validate-email required-entry" />
</div>
</li>
[/code]
and then add this code snippet right after the above code
[code language=”php”]
<div class="input-box">
<label for="height"><?php echo $this->__(‘Height’) ?></label><br/>
<input type="text" name="height" id="height" value="<?php echo $this->htmlEscape($this->getFormData()->getHeight()) ?>" title="<?php echo $this->__(‘Height’) ?>" class="input-text" />
</div>
[/code]

6. Reload the registration page, you will see the Height attribute showing up.

7. If you go to the Magento database, and run this query:
[code language=”sql”]
select * from eav_attribute
where attribute_code="height";
[/code]
you should see the newly added attribute “height”.

Note: The above are demonstrations for the steps needed to add a new attribute in Magento, which involved changing the Magento core files. The proper way to do it is to create a new module which won’t change Magento’s core files and does the necessary steps mentioned above for adding new attributes in Magento.