I have been informed that I need to customize the woothemes / wocommerce / Authorize.NET CIM plugin so that it will support a 'Validation Mode' setting to allow me to select 'Validation Mode > Create Profile Only"

This will allow my users to place an order with credit card, but instead of charging that card right away, it will only create a profile with authorize.NET

So then I can calculate shipping, and charge my customer all at once. 

Has anyone ever done anything like this before?

I am new to PHP, and im not sure where to start. 

Thanks.