Hello,
i'm pretty new to chronoform, in fact i just installed the module some hours ago. What i actually planned do is to integrate a simple but effective way to subscribe to our newsletter. I designed a form on my website in which the user simply needs to fill in his email-adress, gets a validation-email including a link and gets his personal database-entry afterwards.
My problem is that i dunno how to use the "Email Verification"-plugin. I got absolutely no idea; i just need a simple mail including a link for the user to validate he's not entering a different email. Afterwards a small database-entry with the user's email-adress should be written.
Hopefully you can help me out!
Hi chris93 ,
Which version of ChronoForms are you using? You can find the version from Site Admin | Extensions | Install/Uninstall | Components in Joomla! 1.5 or Site Admin | Extensions | Extension Manager | Manage in Joomla! 1.6.
The answer is quite different for the two versions.
Bob
Hello, I'm using the "component"-variant, i.e. Joomla 1.5
Hi Chris,
Sorry but that doesn't help - both ChronoForms v3 & v4 run on Joomla! 1.5 :-(
Bob
I've got the same question an i'm running V3
Can you help me ?
Hi mdejong,
The plug-in is pretty simple.
You set up a database table that includes a TINYINT column to be used to check the verification. The plug-in sets the column to 0 and sends an email with a verification link to the user. As far as I can see only the DB Connection is run and any other plug-ins set to run before this one.
When the user clicks the link they are returned to the same form - but the plug-in takes over and updates the table column from 0 to 1. Any form emails are run then and I think that the On Submit Ater email code is also run.
The plug-in also has code boxes that run PHP before the verification email is sent and in the three cases after the link is clicked: success, failure and already verified.
Bob
Thanx for you reaction.
I've tried it.
But when i push the send button i get "Could not instantiate mail function." error.
I'm using phpmailer, i only get this error if i use the plugin.
every other form i've greated works fine.
Regards
Hi Meinte,
Do other forms send Emails OK?
Bob
Hi Bob,
Yes other forms works fine.
Meinte
Hi Meinte,
Hard to think of why you'd get this message if the Emailer is running OK.
Do you have any CC or BCC addresses on the email?
Can you try switching to SMTP?
Bob
Hi Bob,
For now it seems to work, i get the mail.
Now i just need to get an very good email verification manual.
Do you have one ?
I've bought the book "Chronoforms 3.1 for Joomla! Site Cookbook", but can't find an explanation.
Regards.
Hi Bob,
I have the email verification a bit going on.
I now use smtp.
There is now an email with an activation link if the link is followed then the value in the "validation" field changed to 1 instead of 0 in the database. This works just fine.
But how do I delete unconfirmed subscriptions from my database?
For example, if an application within 24 hours has not been confirmed it must be removed from my database.
I hope you can help me further.
Sincerely,
Meinte de Jong
Netherlands
Hi Meinte,
Good to hear that you solved the email problems :-)
Neither Joomla! nor ChronoForms have any sense of time so there's no automatic way of checking if a record has been unanswered for 24 hours.
Hopefully your web host supports Cron jobs through the CPanel/Plesk/hosting admin pages. If they do then you can set up a simple PHP file to run on a timed schedule. This could be once a day or once an hour, . . . You can either use a plain PHP file and write the code in 'raw' PHP + MySQL; or you could use a added event in ChronoForms (or a page using Jumi) to run a set of Joomla! commands.
If there is no Cron support then there is (or used to be) a Joomla! Cron extension that did something similar. Or you can add a little code snippet to a frequently viewed page to run a check as needed.
Either way the code would check the database table and delete any records that were more than 24 hours old and not checked.
Bob
Thanks for the reply.
But is the email authentication plugin not meant to make sure that something first must be confirmed before it is included in the database.
Now the database is still full.
Hi Meinte,
It depends how you set it up. The form data has to be stored somewhere while you wait for the email verification respose. It might as well be the final table but if you prefer you can save it to a temporary and then copy it over when the email is verified.
Bob
How can i do that ?
That is exactly what i want
Hi Bob,
Do you have a guide to achieve this?
Is it possible to combine certain plugins.
For example, if you clicked on submit first a confirmation page, if it is confirmed that a verification email, which is waaneer conducted a mail return form with all information?
Thanks for your comment
Regards,
Meinte de Jong
Netherlands
Google translate isn't that great.
I ment,
when i fill in a form these things should be done
1) Confirmation page
2) email verification
3) mail msg with all the information as filled in.
I looked at V4 but didn't understand anything of it and you book is about v3
Hi Meinte,
I think I would do it like this. Set up the first form and a 'temporary' table.
On the first form have the Confirmation page plug-in enabled*, then sfter that run the DB Connection and the Email verification plug-in.
Have the Verification URL come back to a second form with just a 'Confirm' button. Have this second form copy the dats from the temporary table to the permanent one and then send out the email.
It will take a little planning and coding but should woek OK.
Bob
* Because of the problems with the Confirmation Page plug-in I'd get this working first without the plug-in to establish the way it will work. Then add the Confirmation page plug-in - if it works all is well; if it doesn't then you can adapt. One way is to add another form using the Profile Page plug-in to redisplay the data for confirmation.