Designing a Self-Registration Form

Owned by Luc Richard
Last updated: Dec 28, 2023
3 min read

If self-registration is enabled on your site, a default form will allow users to self-register. This default form captures the fields that are mandatory by default in the learning environment, which are:

  • Username*

  • Email address

  • Password

  • First name

  • Last name

* The system can be configured to allow users to log in using their username. If that's the case, the concept of a username can be hidden and not required on the form.

You can add more fields to this self-registration, including instructions. 

NOTE: In this article, self-registration refers to the user's ability to create a profile in your learning environment. Self-registration is not the same as self-enrolment, which allows a user with an existing profile to enrol in one of your courses.

Step-by-step Guide

To add fields to the self-registration form:

  1. Go to Site administration > Users > Accounts > User profile fields

  2. Click on the "Create a new profile field" hyperlink to see the list of available field

    1. The list of fields are described in the table later in this article

  3. Select a field type from the list 

  4. Configure the settings for the field and make sure you that set the value "Display on signup page?" to "Yes". 

  5. Click the "Save changes" button

The following field types are available.

Important Notes

  • Due to the various security aspects associated with allowing users to self-register in your system, self-registration can only be enabled by Dual Code after discussing the various use cases with you. Numerous options are available, including for example the ability to restrict self-registration to specific email domains, and the ability the require administrator approval on each and every self-registration request. 

  • You cannot remove the mandatory fields (e.g. username/email, password, first name, last name) from the form, nor can you position other fields above these mandatory fields.

  • The order of the fields on the "User profile field" page (e.g. the page where you add custom fields) dictates the order that they will appear on the self-registration page.

  • If you want to add instructions to your form, you can do so by adding the "Static text" field type. These instructions will appear below the mandatory fields.

  • If you want to add a core field (e.g. a field that exists in the learning environment "out of the box" with the exception of username/email, password, first name, last name), you must the "Associated input" field type.

    • The default "Country" and "Province/State" fields in the learning environment uses codes based on https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-2. For example, instead of storing "Canada" in the database, the learning environment stores "CA". And instead of storing "Ontario", it stores "ON". As such, if you are adding your own custom user profile field for country and are using the "associated input" type, you must also use values based on the ISO implementation. If you prefer to use values like "Canada" or "United States", you cannot use and associated input field type. You should instead use a dropdown menu type.

  • The "Alias" field type is a read-only field. It therefore makes no sense to try to display it on the self-registration page.

  • You can add conditional fields. That is, fields that only appear when a specific value is selected in another field. Read Managing Custom User Profile Fields for more details on how to add conditional fields.

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