One of the new features in Enterprise Forms 3.6 is the ability customize user registration form and processes.  Unlike other custom registration modules, Enterprise Forms user registration feature leverage the full form designer and workflow capabilities in Enterprise Forms.   This in turn gives power users the ability to create user registration forms with custom look and feel of their choosing as well as create a business process workflow such that approval is required before users can be registered to the system.

The process of creating a user registration form is as simple as creating any other Enterprise Forms templates

• Create the form layout
• Create the workflow
• Fields mapping for user registration

Create the form layout

For the purpose of simplicity we create a simple registration form with minimal number of fields required to register a new user to the system

As shown in the image above, we need the following form fields in the forms.  You will find that the form looks very similar to the built-in registration form.  Of course it is possible to add more fields to your form to capture additional data as well as customize the look and feel to any way desired.

• Username – field to capture the user name
• First name – field to capture the user’s first name
• Last name – field to capture the user’s last name
• Display name – display name of the user
• Email – email address
• Password – password for authentication
• Password Retype – password confirmation

Once we have created the basic form layout the next step is to create the workflow for the user registration process. 

Create the workflow

Unlike the standard user registration process, once the user registered he/she can have immediate access to the system.  There is no mechanism to prevent or screen a user from registering to the portal.  The ability to create workflow that can perform such tasks is what distinguishes Enterprise Forms from the standard registration module and other similar products.  With Enterprise Forms it is possible to create a workflow that can map exactly to your business process. 

For the purpose of simplicity we create a very simple workflow that allows authenticated users to make a request to register to the system.  A staff user can then screen the registration requests before allowing or denying the request.  If the request is accepted, Enterprise Forms registers the user using the provided information. 

The workflow representation is shown below

New ==> Submitted ==>  Registered

                      |==> Rejected

As you can see, once the request has been submitted, there are two options; send the request to the Registered state (where registration process occurs) or reject the request.

Fields Mapping for userregistration

The final step is to create a mapping between form fields and the user profile properties in the workflow step that actually register the user to the system.  In this example workflow, it is the workflow step that represents the transition from the Submitted state to the Registered state (Submitted ==> Registered)

To perform the mappings

Go to the Edit screen of for the Submitted ==> Registered workflow step

1. Expand the Advanced Workflow Processing section
2. Select “Register/Edit User” Option Type
3. Leave Function field as “Register User”
4. Select an item from the User Profile field
5. Select a corresponding Form Field
6. Click on Add Mapping to add the mapping
7. Repeat Steps 4 to 6 until all Mappings are similar to the image below

NOTE:  There are other workflow properties such as custom form roles and security assignment are not discussed in this article