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Dear Max,

As discussed earlier, I want to create a secured area for my users, using the Chronoform as (Joomla) register / login part (to avoid the standard Joomla login in the sidebar).

I used the tutorial mentioned above to create the user registration module (very nice & helpful), but I have one more question / issue: People only have to register only once, thereafter they only have to login. So I am looking for a login module - only fill-in Username / Password and then a 'login' button. I am tweaking the registration module to see whether this works, but until now it doesn't, although it should be simple. Any clues about how to do?

Thanks in advance, kind regards,

Fishhead

Hi Fishhead,

Sorry but I can't understand how do you want them to register only once, the module will have the login boxes and those 2 other links, do you need to remove those links only ?

Regards,
Max

Hi Fishhead,

I agree with Max, just hide the 'Register' code in the standard Login module. Or use the hack in the Tutorial which will divert to your CF registration page anyhow.

Bob

Bob

Dear both,

I feel I should explain better, since I am now only waisting your time, which I don't want since you're both very helpful. Maybe it is just an issue with my incorrect understanding or definitions (I am neither a pro in programming and in English..), or I am just overlooking something.

I am building a website where people can find holiday homes for rent. I want to create a special area where owners of such a holiday homes can create an advertisement for their houses. For this, I want need a secured area. For two reasons, I don't want to use the standard Joomla login/registration module in the sidebar:
- I don't want everybody to see the login / registration module, since this is only intended for owners of houses, not for people who are looking to rent one and I don't want to create confusion.
- I want to include the registration part in a larger form, including e.g. their name, the name & location of their holiday home etc.

According to my understanding, people only register the first time they come to my page, and log-in when they come back later (e.g. to modify their advertisements). The registration part works well, based on the tutorial mentioned above, But if an advertiser comes back later, he has to be able to log-in (he has already registered) - how to arrange this? Is this also possible w. the registration module, but do I have to change some items?

Basically, what I am looking for building the following Joomla module in Chronoforms (basically copied from your site!)

Advertisers Login [ ]
Username [ ]
Password [ ]
Remember Me O (not really necessary)

Forgot your password?
Forgot your username?
Register

Again - please don't put too much time in it - I might just be thinking too difficult, and should need the standard Joomla login!

Thanks again an kind regards, Fishhead

Hi Fishhead,

Thanks for that, the explanation is very helpful. It's often surprisingly tricky to understand what people are wanting to do when you read a dozen or more posts on diffferent topics :-(

If I understand this, what you are looking for is the ability to give a group of your users some special access. The Joomla Registration plugin is only really intended to do 'all purpose' registration.

There are a couple of different ways to manage group access:
[list]

The simplest, but not necessarily the most useful, is to wait for Joomla 1.6 which should have this built in.

Or you could use one of the Joomla Group Access extensions - though the bette J1.5 extensions are commercial

Or you can build your own version. I'm working on something like this for a client right now and I'm creating little user table that will link a user-id to a status for this extension. When the user accesses a page we check this table to see what theri rights are. Ideally this would link right into the [url=http://api.joomla.org/phpGACL/gacl.html]GACL code[url] in Joomla but I'm not sure I'm going to get that far!

[/list]

In your case I think the standard Joomla login is OK. You can turn off the sidebar module and add a small link somewhere for advertisers to click to register/login. You could also add a cookie for existing advertisers to show them the login module, but this isn't 100% reliable as tehy may login from some new pc.

There is no way of reliably recognising users before they log in so you have to provide some kind of link.

To control access once they are logged in you still need to add to your form a check that the current user has the rights to edit that particular entry.

I hope this help a little.

Bob

Dear Bob,

Thanks again for your quick and appropriate answer! I fully understand your problem w. trying to understand all questions that are 'fired' upon you via this forum! I was also considering how easy it would be if could just sit together w. someone for 5 minutes w. some sketches, but the UK is quite far away (from the Netherlands), and I am sure that you are not really looking forward to invite our all in your premises...

Regarding your answer - this is indeed just what I want to build:

- A (public) information page for advertisers on which I put some information about the benefits of registering and a link for advertisers to register (let's call this page 1).

- This 'registration page' on which they can actually register (let's call this page 2)

- A 'restricted area' that they enter when registered, with the possibility to create an advertisement / modify / delete his existing advertisements or find specific information (like sample-rental contracts, legal information, a dedicated forum for advertisers (if possible) etc. (let's call this page 3)


Building page 1 with a link to page 2 is easy. Building page 2 with the registration form is also easy, using Chronoforms and the 'Joomla Registration' tutorial and plugin.

Building page 3 and the advertisement form is also easy (again using Chronoforms)

However, my issue is the following:
- If an advertiser has registered, and a couple of days later he wants to enter the 'restricted area' (page 3) again, he does not have to register, but he has to log-in. So on page 1, next to the link 'register', I need a 'log-in' area, where this advertiser can fill in his user name and password, after which he will be directed to the restricted area (page 3)

This Log-in part is my headache - how to create this using ChronoForms? So basically similar to the Registration form, but then only the 'username' and 'password' fields. So I feel it should be simple, but I just cannot find the clue...

Hopefully, this explanation is even more clear. Thanks again for your efforts to help, have a nice weekend.

Ps. I've just discussed w. my partner, we are planning to purchase your Chronoforms & ChronoConnection modules within a couple of days.

Gr. Remko.

Hi Fishhead,

I'm in Brittany at the moment - a little further than London, but you can get here on land!

For a login you don't need to build this as it's a standard Joomla login. If you want something smaller try the Signal Login Module. It's light and configurable and you can hack it if you need to.

If you want it tucked away even more you can set it up so with an 'Advertisers' menu item and only show the login module on the advertisers page.

Bob

Signal Login at the top right of a page
[attachment=0]22-11-2008 17-35-04.png[/attachment]

Hmm. Britain, How's the weather over there?

I assume it is about the same as here - Wet snow & Hail...

I go for the later option - just use the standard Joomla login in the sidebar in a advertisers menu, and show it only in the sidebar when people are in the advertising menu.

So I was looking for a too difficult solution for a non-existing problem...

Still there is one issue that I am considering...

I was discussing with a couple of friends this afternoon, and they came up with the same remark that I discussed a couple of days earlier w. Max on the forum: Many people are reluctant to register (too much hassle, privacy point of view etc..) - so it might be a good idea to choose a fully different solution:

- Advertisers come directly on a 'create your advertisement' page, (without any need to register!)
- When finalized, they get an email with a link that they have to click to confirm their advertisement.
- In this email, there is also a link to a personal page on the site where they can modify or delete their advertisement.
This offers a much lower treshhold for the advertisers to create their advertisement, however (what we find out w. Max) is rather limited in the extra possibilities.

For usings such an identification method, you need to have an email w. an unique (random) identification link, this I can build. However, you also have take care that, if an user clicks on this link, he arrives at a 'personal' site where he can edit / delete his advertisement. For this, I don't have a clue how to do this...

A well-known dutch site <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.marktplaats.nl">www.marktplaats.nl</a><!-- w --> uses both: you can just simply create an advertisement without registering (authentication via a separate email) or register, and create & manage your advertisements after loggin in.

Anyway, please don't put too much time in this, I start implementing the solution as you proposed, this will work out well for me.

Kind regards,

Remko