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Creating a custom login and registration page with Lectora

Build a branded login or one-tab registration page in Lectora that submits to CourseMill.

If your organization allows Self-Registration, CourseMill's standard login page contains a Create New User button that lets new users set themselves up in CourseMill. You can replace the standard login or registration page with your own page built in an authoring tool such as Lectora.

When users click Create New User, they are directed to the three-tabbed standard registration dialog: User Profile, Sub Orgs, and Additional Info. Some customers like to have the registration details all on one tab. They might also want to add disclaimer wording, or they might just want to incorporate some of their own branding.

Here is an example of what one customer has done with their unique customer branding:

Example of a customer's custom registration page with unique branding

The steps below show how to create a custom login page or registration page for your CourseMill site.

Create the form as an object

  1. In Lectora, create a data entry form. From the Add menu, select Object > Form Object > Form. This creates a form item in the Title Explorer. In this example, it is called LoginForm.

    LoginForm form item in the Lectora Title Explorer

  2. With LoginForm selected in the Title Explorer, go to the Form Properties in the ribbon. Make sure the Submit Form box is checked and Submit To is set to Custom Script.
  3. Click Settings (the Edit icon) and add userlogin.jsp (or the full path to userlogin.jsp) to the Submit To field in the Submit to Custom Script dialog. Leave the Method set to POST.
  4. Click the Additional Values button in the Form Properties dialog. Create a parameter named destonly and set the value to yes.
  5. If you are also using this form for registration, add two additional parameter names:
    • orgID – the value is your org ID
    • fromSelfReg – the value is y
  6. Back in the Form Properties, check the Receive Response box and select New Variable. Create a new variable named loginresponse.

Create the fields in the form

Now that the form is created, specify the fields in which you want users to enter the login/registration data you wish to collect. Open the Test & Survey ribbon. You can then select from various types of data entry formats:

  • Radio button group – Has no physical representation on a page. Radio button groups are used to group individual radio buttons. When a set of radio buttons is placed within a radio button group, the user will only be able to select one of the radio buttons within the group.
  • Radio button – Enables users to select a specified option. When radio buttons are contained within a radio button group, users will only be able to select one of the radio buttons. Possible values are the label of the radio button.
  • Check Box – Enables users to select and clear a specified option. Possible values are “on” or null.
  • Entry Field – Enables users to type a value. Possible values are anything that the user can fit into the entry field.
  • Drop-Down List – Enables users to select a value from a list of pre-defined values. Possible values are the values defined in the drop-down list.
  • List Box – Enables users to select one or more values from a list of pre-defined values. Possible values are any selectable item, and/or multiple of the selectable items in the list.

Set up the values CourseMill expects in the form

Important: All field names and variable names must be labeled as shown below, including the case of the name or variable.

Login box

The only values that are needed are:

  • user – The userID of the person to log in
  • password – The password of the person to log in

Registration area

Below are the possible values that can be included during registration. An asterisk (*) indicates a required field.

  • user – The userID of the person to register*
  • password – The password of the person to register*
  • orgId – Organization to enroll in (if more than one)*
  • firstName – First name of the user*
  • lastName – Last name of the user*
  • middleInitial – Middle initial (if one)
  • email – Email (if email is required)
  • regPwd – Registration password (if required for the organization)
  • newPwd – New password, if the password is to be changed
  • address
  • city
  • state
  • zip
  • country
  • phone
  • SubOrg0-15

Submit the form

Assuming you have added a Submit button to the form, do the following:

  1. Set up the Submit button to submit the data correctly. On the On Click tab for the Submit button, select Submit Form and select the name of your form.
  2. Create another action under the form to navigate the user to the proper place in CourseMill by entering the following in the Address field: javascript:eval( Varloginresponse.getValue());
  3. You may also want to verify some of the data before you allow the form to navigate users to CourseMill. There are many different ways to validate form values before a user submits information. For instance, email addresses should always have an “@” and a period. If that is not so, include an action that shows an error message.
  4. You may also want to validate by limiting the form field character length.

Once all pages in your Lectora title are set, publish your title to HTML and post it on your site. Your IT support person can help move it to the proper place on the server.

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