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Checking for existing user/s

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 4:05 am
by social_experiment
A registration script that I am working on follows these (standard) steps:

1. User enters info
2. Register account
3. Send activation email
4. Activate account.

I'm indecisive on where to check for the existing of the email address in the database that i want to use that as a username. Do i check during step 1, using an AJAX option or do i check during step 2 once the information is passed to the database? Now that i think about it more, both options should be in place; disabled Javascript would render the AJAX option pointless. Any thoughts / advice?

Re: Checking for existing user/s

Posted: Wed Aug 20, 2014 6:30 am
by Celauran
I think either option 2, or option 1 AND option 2 are fine. I like to keep my registration forms to the bare minimum -- typically just username and password -- so there wouldn't be much benefit for me in implementing the AJAX solution.

Re: Checking for existing user/s

Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2014 3:28 am
by social_experiment
Celauran wrote:typically just username and password
Is this a personal preference or a client specification; and if you had to, would you convince or attempt to, a client to go for the minimalist route? I'd also opt to have as few details as possible for initial registration and let the user update information at a later stage but i'm not sure the client i'm working with is up for it.

Re: Checking for existing user/s

Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2014 7:09 am
by Celauran
I think the fewer hurdles to registration you present, the better. Last thing I want to do is turn away a prospective client via an obnoxious sign up form. You can set your username later if email isn't a sufficient identifier. I assume you know your email, so I'm only going to ask for it once. I'll be sending an activation email to check for that. Ditto password. If you enter it incorrectly, there are recovery mechanisms for that. Most people will get it right the first time and appreciate the simplicity.