Hi folks
I just installed Chrono forms, it's looking like it might be what I need, however I'm just a little stumped as to how to achieve it exactly, so I have a few questions.
What I would like to do is have the Chrono form displayed via the module, on my website's landing page. I want to create a "squeeze page", and the registration info I want to capture is ONLY "Email Address" and "Password" (making it incredibly simple and quick and painless for users to sign-up to my site), however I want this info to be sufficient for users to log back into the site in the future.
Firstly, I presume the "Email Address" field can double (triple) as the "Name" and "Username" fields when linking to Joomla's standard registration (the part when you link the form to "Joomla Registrations plugin" part) - would this be correct?
Secondly, and this is the part I'm more unsure, how could I link this data up with aweber (email marketing company), so that that user is automatically entered (provide they confirm registration via the double-opt-in process) into an aweber mailing list?
Any insight would be tremendously helpful - I'm pretty sure what I've just talked about is very possible, I'm just not sure how to go about it, because I guess the database needs to do the second action (submitting the info via aweber API perhaps?) after the first one (accepting user registration to Joomla Registration via plugin), so I guess there needs to be some form of "second action" triggered after the first.
I hope that makes sense!
Hi SevenHelmets,
Welcome :-)
1) Yes you can use the email addres as Name, Username and Email address. And the Joomla Registration plugin can generate a password for you too so that process can be done as you describe.
2) As far as I recall Aweber has an API that you can use to subscribe new members, you can use the ChronoForms CURL plugin to do this behind the scenes. Just how you handle the opt-in for AWebre and the password confirmation for Joomla may need a little thinking through in terms of getting the best work-flow through the process.
Bob
PS Have you seen Aweber's leaked email problems over the last few days?
Thanks for the quick reply GreyHead!
Also, thanks for the info regarding aweber - I was unaware of the breach. They posted an update on their blog - apparently they were "hacked" via 3rd party software they use (I guess that means they won't be using that software again!).
Regarding your comments:
1) I was unaware that Joomla registration can generate a password - does this mean that for a member to sign up to my site, they potentially only need to enter their email address? Although I think for the purposes of my site, putting in their own password is probably better than an auto generated one, which they will most likely not remember.
I'll look into the API and see if I can figure out how it could work. I'm absolutely NOT a programmer, everything is self taught, so this should be interesting! If I can figure it out, I'll post an update here for future users.
Cheers
Seven
Ok I'm really confused - I've followed the tutorial exactly, but after I fill in the form and click submit, the user isn't created.
Just to check that everything was working, I created emails to send to both the "user" and myself as the "admin" once the user processes the registration form, and they DO work once the person has "registered" - it acknowledges the Name/Username/Email/Password details, and I get the emails in my inbox. Running the debug process also seemed to show nothing.
I just don't understand why the person is not then input into the user database list? Am I missing something really simple here? Judging by the tutorial, this entire process should be REALLY simple. The only thing I haven't done is the last step, redirecting users away from the regular registration page, however at this stage I don't believe that has any bearing on whether a user gets created in the database or not.
Any help or input would be MUCH appreciated!
I'm an idiot. 😶
I just found out what I was missing. After extensive searching throughout the forums, on page 6 of my search I finally found someone who had the same issue as me, and what we'd both missed.
For future people searching - if you follow the tutorial, and wonder why the user isn't being created, make sure you ACTIVATE the plugin (in this case the Joomla Registration plugin).
When you click on the "plug-ins" tab, they will appear with GREEN ticks on them. This means they are UNACTIVATED. Clicking on the tick icon will ACTIVATE them, and the icon will turn to a RED "X", meaning if you click on it again, you are DEACTIVATING that plugin.
🙄
Back to our usual programming....
Hi Sevenhelmets,
Sorry about not replying earlier - it was night time here.
Yes, you must enable the plugins - I've added a reminder message to one or two of my beta versions.
The ChronoForms Joomla registration plugin (latest versions) can generate a password - so it's possible to do a completely 'silent' registration if you have an email address. Though as you say that's a trade-off between usability, security and the hassle of forgotten passwords :-(
Bob
No worries Bob, I believe we are on opposite sides of the world, so no need to apologise for getting some sleep! 8)
Yes I think a reminder to enable the plug-ins is a good idea!
To be honest I've used/tried a few different form components over the years with my sites, and most of them left me scratching my head in bewilderment. ChronoForms is probably the first that is actually REALLY easy to design a form, and get it to work. Having said that, some of the documentation is a little lacking, so simple little notes like telling people to activate the necessary plug-ins within each form would probably save you (and others) a lot of time in answering the common questions! Ie a FAQ. 🤣
I gave the password generation a try, but it didn't generate a password. I noted in one of the "unofficial" PDF tutorials that it was mentioned when users were emailed, there was a glitch where it wouldn't send the password. I'm not sure if this glitch still hasn't been solved....? In any case, it's not a huge issue for me right now.
Hi sevenhelmets,
I agree that there should be a better and more up to date FAQ. It's harder to update the ChronoConnectivity version that Max created here so it tends to get ignored :-(
I have a version of the Joomla Registration Plugin with the password creation & sending working - let me know if you need it.
Bob
hi, could you please send me this plugin file please, thanks
This series of messages has been very helpful. I'm looking into using ChronoForms and I'm not a programmer. It is critical to me that they work with Aweber. You have answered my questions before I asked them! That's really great.