22 Enabling Self-Registration

Spaces administrators can enable self-registration for the application. Through self-registration, invited and uninvited users can create their own login and password for the Spaces application. This chapter describes how to enable self-registration. It contains the following sections:

Section 22.1, "What You Should Know About Self Registration"
Section 22.2, "Enabling Self-Registration By Invitation-Only"
Section 22.3, "Enabling Anyone to Self-Register"

Audience

The content of this chapter is intended for Spaces administrators with the Application-Manage All permission.

22.1 What You Should Know About Self Registration

Self-registration allows users to create their own login and password for the Spaces application. A user who self registers is immediately and automatically granted access to Spaces and a new user account is created in the application's identity store.

If anyone is allowed to self-register, that is any public user, a Register link or button displays below the Spaces login form. To enable this feature, see Section 22.3, "Enabling Anyone to Self-Register".

Self-registration by invitation is available too. This feature allows space moderators to send out membership invitations to people who are not currently registered with the Spaces application but might be interested in their space. Before accessing the space, invitees must create an account with the Spaces application and their account details are added to the application's identity store. If approval is required, the moderator must approve their subscription request before gaining access to the space. If the space is public or further approval is not required, then new user gains access to the space immediately he logs in for the first time. See also, Section 22.2, "Enabling Self-Registration By Invitation-Only".

Note:

If self-registration is not enabled for the Spaces application, identity store management takes place through the WLS Administration Console (or directly into embedded LDAP identity stores using LDAP commands) and is the responsibility of your systems administrator. See also, "Adding Users to the Embedded LDAP Identity Store" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.

A self-registration page is supplied out-of-the-box. Users with the Administrator role can add new components to the page and change the page layout if required. See, Section 7.3, "Working with System Pages".

The self-registration page provided with Spaces offers to send a "user name reminder email" to anyone who tries to register with an email address that has already been used (Figure 22-1).

Figure 22-1 Email Address Already Registered

This feature only works if public credentials are defined for the external application that is providing authentication for the Mail service in the Spaces application. If users experience issues with this feature, ask your Fusion Middleware Administrator to check the mail server connection and its associated external application connection are configured correctly and that public credentials are defined. See also, "Registering Mail Servers" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal.

22.2 Enabling Self-Registration By Invitation-Only

Out-of-the-box, only existing users are candidates for space membership. While this might meet the needs of most Spaces applications it is likely that some spaces will want to recruit members outside of the Spaces community.

The Spaces administrator can extend space membership to users outside of Spaces by allowing them to self-register on an invitation-only basis. When this facility is enabled, moderators can invite anyone to join their space by sending them a customizable invitation by mail. The invitation includes a secure, self-registration URL which the invited party clicks to accept space membership.

New members recruited in this way must create an account with the Spaces application before gaining access to the space. Users who self-register by invitation are added to the identity store, and to the space's member list.

Note:

Users who self-register by invitation will be assigned the default application role too—Authenticated-User. Out-of-the box, users with the Authenticated-User role have access to their own Home space, pages that they create, and public pages. They are also allowed to view public spaces, join any space that allows self-subscription, and create spaces of their own. When you enable self-registration, consider modifying Authenticated-User permissions to suit your exact requirements. See also, Section 21.2.3, "Modifying Application Role Permissions".

To allow external users to join Spaces:

Open Spaces Administration.

For details, see Chapter 4, "Accessing Spaces Administration Pages.".
Click Configuration, then General.
Select Allow Self-Registration Through Invitations (Figure 22-2).

When you deselect this option, only existing users are candidates for space membership.

Figure 22-2 Allowing Self-Registration Through Invitations
Click Apply.

Moderators may invite non-WebCenter users to become members of their space. See "Inviting a Non-WebCenter Spaces User" in Oracle Fusion Middleware User's Guide for Oracle WebCenter Portal: Spaces.

22.3 Enabling Anyone to Self-Register

When anyone is allowed to self-register, that is any public user, a Register link or Register button displays on the Spaces login page (Figure 22-3).

Figure 22-3 Self-Registration Available on Login Form

New users must create an account before gaining access to the Spaces application.

Users who self-register are added directly to the Spaces identity store and assigned the Authenticated-User application role. Out-of-the-box, users with Authenticated-User role have access to their own Home space, pages that they create, and public pages. They are also allowed to view public spaces, join any space that allows self-subscription, and create spaces of their own. If you enable self-registration, consider modifying Authenticated-User permissions to suit your exact requirements. See Section 21.2.3, "Modifying Application Role Permissions".

To allow anyone to self-register with Spaces:

Open Spaces Administration.

For details, see Chapter 4, "Accessing Spaces Administration Pages.".
Click Configuration, then General.
Select Allow Public Users to Self-Register (Figure 22-4).

When you deselect this option, public users cannot self-register with Spaces. You still enable self-registration on an invitation-only basis if you want. See Section 22.2, "Enabling Self-Registration By Invitation-Only".

Figure 22-4 Allowing Self-Registration Through Invitations
Click Apply.