Getting Reorder to ignore stock levels in magento

Question

i've been tasked to create a system where a customer can edit an order before it reaches the processing stage, i figure that the easiest way is to use the cart but with some edits to it to detect that your editing the order rather than making a new one

i have been testing out theories so far and everything seem to pan out, one theory i have been trying to get to work is utilizing the same process for re-ordering to populate the cart with the previous order, however i've ran into a problem, if an item is out of stock or does not have sufficient stock, it wont be added and until the customer confirms the change to their order i can't go and release what they ordered incase if it gets snatched up by another customer while they are editing the order, i can store how much the customer ordered but only if the item is added to the cart

i've tried removing the Try Catch in Mage_Sales_Controller_Abstract in the function reorderAction() and it's adding the items however this means also i can't catch the exception of it's if it's just a notice or if there is any other reason why it can't add the item to the cart besides not having the stock also if the item has been set out of stock a report is generated

so is there a way to get magento to add items to the cart with the re-order while ignoring what stock levels are

Answer 1

You should enable backorders to sell products out of stock: http://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/edu/magento/103-magento-products-and-inventory-settings/how-to-allow-backorders-in-magento