The Auto-Signup
script means that your customers will have to pay before their account is
generated. This might not be ideal for some of your customers (for instance, the
ones paying by bank transfer or Check), or those that have signed up for free
accounts. In these instances, it may be preferable to use the normal signup
script. Helm creates a HTML form you can place on your site and use to
automatically signup customers. If using this feature sounds attractive to you,
please read on because there are a couple of caveats.
The first caveat is
that users who signup through the signup script are assigned a random username
that’s a combination of the prefix you define in the user settings and an
incremented number. The second caveat is that once a user signs up using the
signup script, they still need to login to the control panel, pay their bill
using a specified payment gateway, and then setup their domain. While this
process isn’t exactly complicated, less knowledgeable Internet users may find
the process overwhelming to start with.
User Settings
After logging into
the control panel, click on the “Account Settings” icon and then click on the
“User Settings” icon. There are a few things
we need to enable at the “User Settings” screen before proceeding.
Account Number
Prefix:
This field is where you can input a custom username prefix that will be used for
the customer’s signup with the auto signup script.
Min Password
Length:
This field serves a dual role. First, it
acts as a password policy, in that when your users change their password they
will have to make their password at least as long as the length you
specify. The other role that it serves
is that when Helm emails out passwords to customers automatically, the passwords
will be randomly generated and will be the length you specify here.
Enable Remote
Auto-Signup Script: If this auto-signup
is not enabled, the script that Helm generates will not work.
Account
Vetting: With account
vetting enabled, whenever a new user is added to the system (either manually or
through the auto signup script) an email alert is sent to the email address
specified. You then have to login to
Helm and mark the account as approved. If vetting is not enabled, all accounts are created – including those
through the auto signup script. Customers are free to login to their account and add their domain name,
without any verification.
Signup Script
Generator
Step 1: Click on the “Signup Script Generator” icon.
Step 2: In order to generate
the signup script, the control panel requires just two pieces of information
from you – the success URL that
users should be directed to after their account has been added successfully, and
the failure URL that users should be
redirected to if there is a problem with setting up their account. Also, you
have the option of asking your customer to select a web hosting package.
Step 3: Click Next.
Step 4:
The control panel has now generated the signup
script for you. The code that it generates is standard HTML code, which means
that you should be able to copy it, and then add the look and feel of your
existing website to the Helm form very easily.
