DotAdmin User Guide

The Sign-Up / Edit User Template

Note: This page is long because the template itself is quite complicated. The default template should be suitable for most applications, however, so developers should expect to only have to make minor alterations to it

This template has an ID of “signup” in the process templates folder, but performs double-duty for both the sign-up and edit user processes. Like the login template, this template uses lots of conditional instructions to output appropriate messages to the user depending on what action is being performed.

The Sign-Up / Edit User Template

BLOCK {header}

At the top of the template is BLOCK {header}, which is used to return an appropriate title for the page.

<!-- BLOCK {header} -->
  <h1>
    <!-- IF {newuser} -->
      Create A New User
    <!-- /IF {newuser} -->
    <!-- IF {edituser} -->
      Edit User: {input_username}
    <!-- /IF {edituser} -->
    <!-- IF {new_success} -->
      Created New User: {input_username}
    <!-- /IF {new_success} -->
    <!-- IF {edit_success} -->
      Edited User: {input_username}
    <!-- /IF {edit_success} -->
  </h1>
<!-- /BLOCK {header} -->

BLOCK {header} offers four alternative page titles.

The only placeholder available to this block is {input_username}, to make the title relevant to the user account we're editing.

After the header block, we have two conditions: IF {logged_in} and IF {not_logged_in}. These tell the user (where appropriate) that he cannot create a user account when he is logged in already, and that he cannot edit his user account if he isn't logged in.

BLOCK {report}

This block reports back the results of successful user registration and editing (error reporting is done in a later block - see below).

<!-- BLOCK {report} -->

  <!-- IF {new_success} -->
    <p>A new user has been created with the following details:</p>
  <!-- /IF {new_success} -->

  <!-- IF {edit_success} -->
    <p><b>{input_username}</b> has been edited, here is a summary:</p>
  <!-- /IF {edit_success} -->

  <!-- BLOCK {reportlines} -->
    (Any data which have changed are reported here.)
  <!-- /BLOCK {reportlines} -->

<!-- /BLOCK {report} -->

Reporting success to the user.

BLOCK {reportlines} outputs a line for each record that the user has input or edited. You may wish to include each line within its own conditional instruction to avoid outputting lines with no value, as shown in the example below:

<p>
<!-- BLOCK {reportlines} -->

  <!-- IF {input_name} -->
    <b>Full Name: </b>
      {input_salutation} {input_f_name} {input_l_name}<br>
  <!-- /IF {input_name} -->

  <!-- IF {input_screen_name} -->
    <b>Screen Name: </b>{input_screen_name}<br>
  <!-- /IF {input_screen_name} -->

  <!-- IF {input_username} -->
    <b>Username: </b>{input_username}<br>
  <!-- /IF {input_username} -->

  (...and so on).

  <!-- /BLOCK {reportlines} -->
  </p>

BLOCK {reportlines}

Note: The condition IF {input_name} checks for the existence of either the first or last name. Conditional instructions checking for the first and last name individually can be used if preferable.

There are three other specialist conditional instructions in the reportlines block. The first is IF {priv_requested}, which reports if the user has requested access to a privileged zone (The {priv_requested} placeholder will output the zone's title). IF {password_mailed} informs the user that a temporary password has been emailed following a successful user registration, and IF {password_changed} tells the user if he has successfully changed his password without outputting the new password to the page.

BLOCK {form}

The first template element inside the form block is BLOCK {errors}. This block informs the user if the form submission contains data that cannot be accepted. Six conditional instructions are used to cover each possible reason for rejection:

<!-- BLOCK {errors} -->

  <!-- IF {missing_fields} -->
    <p><b>Error: </b>One or more required fields were not
    completed.</p>
  <!-- /IF {missing_fields} -->

  <!-- IF {pwd_mismatch} -->
    <p><b>Error: </b>The two passwords you entered did not
    match.</p>
  <!-- /IF {pwd_mismatch} -->

  <!-- IF {bad_username} -->
    <p><b>Error: </b>The username you supplied ({bad_username})
    is already in use.</p>
  <!-- /IF {bad_username} -->

  <!-- IF {illegal_username} -->
    <p><b>Error: </b>The username you supplied ({illegal_username})
    contains illegal characters. Please use only alphanumeric
    characters (upper- and lowercase letters, digits, and the
    underscore "_" character are all valid).</p>
  <!-- /IF {illegal_username} -->

  <!-- IF {bad_email} -->
    <p><b>Error: </b>The email address you supplied ({bad_email})
    belongs to an existing user.</p>
  <!-- /IF {bad_email} -->

  <!-- IF {malformed_email} -->
    <p><b>Error: </b>Your email address: ({malformed_email}),
    is not of the correct format. Please re-type it.</p>
  <!-- /IF {malformed_email} -->

<!-- /BLOCK {errors} -->

Reporting errors to the user.

The registration/edit form itself has an action attribute of “/content/{process}”. This is because this template is used by both the sign-up and edit user processes, so the action URL must be added by the system.

The form also has two hidden fields.

  <input type="hidden" name="ref" value="{ref}">
  <input type="hidden" name="required"
  value="input_f_name,input_l_name,input_username,input_email">

Hidden fields in the Sign-Up / Edit User Template.

The first hidden field shown above (“ref”) carries a referring ID (url) if the user arrived to register an account in order to access a protected zone. The second hidden field ({required}) is a comma-separated list of required fields. The form will not accept a submission unless all the fields specified in this list are completed.

BLOCK {editpwd}

Contained within BLOCK {form}, this block ensures that the password entry fields are not shown during user registration. Following a successful registration, a password is generated and emailed to the user, so during registration the password fields do not need to be displayed.

BLOCK {destinations}

Contained within BLOCK {form}, this block repeats to show a drop-down list of countries for the user to choose from. Its only feature is the IF {selected} condition, which pre-selects the user's country if it is already known (For example: during the Edit User process, or if the form is returned because the submission contained errors).

BLOCK {referer}

Contained within BLOCK {form}, this block is shown if the user arrives to register from a protected zone. This block offers a checkbox for the user to apply for permission to view the contents of that zone.

At the end of the form block, we have two simple conditional instructions. IF {newsubmit} and IF {editsubmit} allow you to change the appearance of the submit button, depending on which process is being used.

Below is a summary of all template instructions used in the Sign-Up / Edit User template: