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Email confirmation of newly registered users

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    Email confirmation of newly registered users

    I wanted to see if anyone knew how email confirmations are typically done. As in, you sign up for an online service, and it sends you an email with a link that you have to click to complete the registration. I have a working model, but wanted to see if there is some other standard.

    Currenly, when someone registers for an online account, I do the following:
    • Create the user security record, but give it a Group membership of Pending, which means no access.
    • Create a record in users.dbf record with their personal data, plus a field that contains a GUID (different from the user's GUID in security).
    • Send them an email with a link to a special, unrestricted access A5W page.
    • The link contains a URL to the A5W page with the GUID as a parameter.
    • The A5W page looks up the GUID in the Users.dbf, and if successful, toggles the security group file from Pending to Customer.
    • I also delete that temporary GUID from the users.dbf record.
    • A page pops up saying they are accepted, and offers the login dialog.
    • It also sends them another email with complete login details.
    • I dump the users security and users.dbf record if they don't complete the process in some number of days.
    Steve Wood
    See my profile on IADN


    #2
    Re: Email confirmation of newly registered users

    I found a method description on the web, different than my approach. I like the one I found better and will adopt. By the way, this is a very important method to learn if you are doing any email marketing. The standard method today is to use "double opt-in" when registering new users or subscribers. This means the user has to make two passes to be added. It eliminates fake subscriptions and provides more assurance that they intended to sign up.

    So if anyone wants, I now have a decent routine for building double opt-in.

    Here is the method I found:
    • Person subscribes and you add them to TableA - "a pending subscription table".
    • The information you collect must include their email address, password and a UserID.
    • You send them an email asking them to confirm their interest by clicking a hyperlink.
    • The hyperlink is to your subscription processing A5W page with their UserID as an argument.
    • The A5W page accepts the UserID and moves the subscribers record from TableA to your primary subscriber's table, with appropriate permissions.
    • If for some reason the UserID is not appended to the hyperlink, the A5W page should provide a entry field asking what UserID they wanted to submit.
    • If successful, you redirect them to a login page and send them a new email with a welcome and login information.
    • Finer points; you can add a creation date to the initial record and then give them 72 hours to respond, or you delete their temporary record.


    Another method that would work well with Alpha is to create the new users record right in the official subscribers list, but use a5ws_Lockoutuser() to lock them out until they responded to the confirmation email. When they respond, just un-lock them out with a5ws_lockoutuserrelease().
    Steve Wood
    See my profile on IADN

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Email confirmation of newly registered users

      Good information Steve.

      Bill.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Email confirmation of newly registered users

        Not sure if this is of interests, but here is the final:

        When they register, I set them up in the official security table, and my local users table. I make the Group = Pending. I send them a link similar to this:
        www.mydomain.com/reg_conf.a5w?uid=stevewood.

        The script in the code in the reg_conf.a5w page is as follows. It validates they exist, and toggles their Group to User, which gives them appropriate access. The script below needs some more error checking and enhanced messages.


        Code:
        if eval_valid("request.variables.uid")
        	if request.variables.uid <> ""
        		dim request.variables.userid as c
        		dim request.variables.groups as c
        		dim request.variables.guid as c
        		dim output as p
        		dim output.controls as p
        		request.variables.userid = request.variables.uid
        		request.variables.groups = "users"
        		request.variables.guid = a5ws_get_guid_from_user(request.variables.userid,request)
        		if request.variables.guid = ""
        			error_message = "UserID not found"
        			? error_message
        			end 
        		end if
        		result = a5ws_save_user_values(output,request)
        		if result.errors = .t.
        			error_message = result.error_text
        			?error_message
        			end
        		end if
        	end if
        end if
        Steve Wood
        See my profile on IADN

        Comment

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