Privacy Plugin

Privacy Plugin — Domain Knowledge

Location

j2commerce/plg_privacy_j2commerce/

What This Plugin Does

Extends Joomla's com_privacy with J2Commerce-specific data handling:

• Exports J2Commerce orders, addresses, cart data on privacy export requests
• Enforces configurable retention periods before allowing data deletion
• Anonymizes orders outside the retention period instead of deleting them
• Detects lifetime licenses to preserve email after retention expires
• Adds a consent checkbox to the J2Commerce checkout
• Renders a self-service privacy tab in the J2Commerce MyProfile page
• Runs a scheduled automatic cleanup task

Key Files

Events Handled

See references/architecture.md for full details.

Plugin Architecture

Relationship to Joomla Core

This plugin is a privacy group plugin that extends com_privacy. It does not replace the core privacy system — it adds J2Commerce data on top.

Joomla core handles: request management UI, export/deletion workflow, consent tracking (#__privacy_consents), action logging.

This plugin handles: J2Commerce-specific data in exports, retention enforcement, order anonymization, lifetime license detection, checkout consent, MyProfile tab.

Reference: Joomla Privacy Suite Guide

Class Structure

J2Commerce extends CMSPlugin (via PrivacyPlugin)
├── onPrivacyExportRequest()      — collect export domains
│   └── collectExportDomains()
│       ├── createOrdersDomain()
│       ├── createAddressesDomain()
│       └── createCartDomain()
├── onPrivacyCanRemoveData()      — check retention
│   └── checkRetentionPeriod()   — NOT checkOrderRetention()
├── onPrivacyRemoveData()         — anonymize/delete
│   ├── anonymizeOrders()
│   ├── deleteAddresses()
│   └── deleteCartData()
├── onAfterRender()               — fallback injection
│   ├── injectConsentCheckbox()
│   ├── injectDeleteAddressButtons()
│   └── injectPrivacySection()
└── onAjaxJ2commercePrivacy()     — AJAX address deletion

AutoCleanupTask extends CMSPlugin
└── autoCleanup()                 — scheduled task
    ├── hasLifetimeLicense()
    ├── partialAnonymizeUserData()
    └── anonymizeUserData()

AJAX

Address deletion uses Joomla's com_ajax:

index.php?option=com_ajax&plugin=j2commerce_privacy&group=privacy&format=json&task=deleteAddress&address_id={id}

No dependency on plg_ajax_joomlaajaxforms — uses Joomla Core com_ajax only.

Language Loading

The privacy plugin group is not auto-imported in the Joomla frontend. The plugin has $autoloadLanguage = true which loads the language when the plugin is triggered. For template overrides that need language strings before the plugin fires, load manually:

Factory::getLanguage()->load('plg_privacy_j2commerce', JPATH_PLUGINS . '/privacy/j2commerce');

Database Tables Used

Known Issues and Decisions

Language Overrides Not Working in Emails

Issue: Language overrides created via Joomla's Language Manager do not apply to email tags like [ORDERSTATUS], [BILLING_COUNTRY], [SHIPPING_METHOD].

Root cause (confirmed, GitHub Issue #273): 1. helpers/email.php loads overrides into $jlang = JFactory::getLanguage() (global instance, Factory::$language) 2. Tag resolution uses $language = JLanguage::getInstance($order->customer_language) (separate instance, Language::$languages[]) 3. These are two distinct static caches — overrides loaded into one are not visible to the other 4. Additionally, loadLanguageOverrides() only loads from JPATH_ADMINISTRATOR, but Joomla Language Manager writes overrides to JPATH_SITE/language/overrides/

Status: Reported upstream to j2commerce/j2cart#273. Fix pending from j2commerce team.

Workaround: None currently — JavaScript-based workarounds are fragile.

onAfterRender and Privacy Plugin Group

The privacy plugin group IS able to hook into onAfterRender. The plugin explicitly registers this event. The README previously stated otherwise — this was corrected in v1.5.0.

Custom Field vs License Keys Table

Two separate tables are involved in lifetime license detection:

• #__j2store_product_customfields — marks products as lifetime licenses (populated via J2Commerce Custom Fields UI)
• #__license_keys — stores issued license keys per user (separate table, not visible in J2Commerce UI, created via SQL in post-install message)

Updates Not Shown in Joomla Backend

Issue: System → Update → Extensions does not show available updates for our plugins.

Root cause: Plugins without <client> in update.xml get client_id=1 in jos_updates. Our plugins install with client_id=0. Joomla cannot match the update record to the installed extension.

Fix: All plugin update.xml files must include <client>site</client>. See joomla-extensions/references/repo-structure.md.

Discovered: 2026-04-29, fixed in PR #69.

Minimum Requirements

• Joomla 5.0+ (uses DI container, Factory::getContainer())
• PHP 8.1+
• J2Commerce 4.0+

script.php enforces these via $minimumJoomla and $minimumPhp.

Recurring Subscriptions

Automated handling of recurring subscription products is not implemented. Subscription lifecycle management requires manual intervention.

Retention Logic

How Retention Works

checkRetentionPeriod(int $userId): array checks all orders for the user:

1. For each order, calculate order_date + retention_years 2. If any order is within the retention period → block deletion 3. Return array with can_remove (bool) and details per order

Anonymization (orders outside retention)

anonymizeOrders(int $userId) sets these fields on expired orders:

Order numbers, dates, amounts, and product information are preserved (required for accounting).

Lifetime License Exception

If a user has a lifetime license (#__license_keys + #__j2store_product_customfields.is_lifetime_license = Yes):

• After retention expires: orders are anonymized BUT email is preserved
• Reason: email is needed for license activation/verification
• partialAnonymizeUserData() handles this case (email kept, all other PII cleared)
• anonymizeUserData() handles the normal case (email also cleared)

Retention Periods by Country

Default: 10 years (Swiss standard).

Scheduled Cleanup

AutoCleanupTask runs via Joomla Scheduler. It processes all users with expired retention periods automatically, without requiring a manual deletion request. Configure under System → Scheduled Tasks → J2Commerce - Automatic Data Cleanup.

Template Integration

Two Rendering Mechanisms

Use the template override. The onAfterRender fallback is fragile — it searches for patterns like j2store-myprofile in the rendered HTML and silently fails if the markup differs.

Files to Copy

From advansit/advans.ch repo, src/template/html/com_j2store/:

MyProfile privacy tab:

myprofile/default.php
myprofile/default_privacy.php
myprofile/orderitems.php

Checkout consent checkbox:

checkout/default_shipping_payment.php

Target: templates/{your-template}/html/com_j2store/

Requirements

• Bootstrap 5 template (the override uses BS5 tab markup)
• Plugin installed and enabled

How default.php Activates the Tab

$privacyPlugin = PluginHelper::getPlugin('privacy', 'j2commerce');
if ($privacyPlugin) {
    $privacyParams = new \Joomla\Registry\Registry($privacyPlugin->params);
    $showPrivacyTab = (bool) $privacyParams->get('show_privacy_section', 1);
    Factory::getLanguage()->load('plg_privacy_j2commerce', JPATH_PLUGINS . '/privacy/j2commerce');
}

If the plugin is disabled or not installed, $showPrivacyTab is false — no errors, tab simply hidden.

Checkout Consent

default_shipping_payment.php reads plugin params directly from #__extensions (not via PluginHelper) because the privacy plugin group is not imported during checkout AJAX requests:

$_privacyPlugin = PluginHelper::getPlugin('privacy', 'j2commerce');
if ($_privacyPlugin) {
    $_pp = new Registry($_privacyPlugin->params);
    if ($_pp->get('show_consent_checkbox', 1)) {
        // render checkbox
    }
}

Consent is recorded in #__privacy_consents when the user reaches the confirm step.