Next Steps with UserMgr

As the last article hinted, I had hoped to move forward with the web site. The next stage is an update to my UserMgr application.

As you can see if you attempt to access certain areas of the web site you are required to provide a user name and password. Currently those usernames and passwords are stored in a database, and behind the (username and password protected) Site Administration tab there is an application that allows me to edit this database. Also, the Family Area is also protected and there is part of the application on this page that allows members of the family to change their own user information. The code from all this can be found in the Software Projects area.

I plan to introduce bug reporting for the web site soon. Now I could allow anyone to just report a bug on the site – but I am worries that this might leave the bug database open to abuse by spammers. Instead, what I have decided to do is to allow users to register themselves (via their e-mail address) and to use the e-mail address as a valid log-in username for parts of the site (such as the bug reporting section). In order to ensure that the correct e-mail address is left, I will send them an e-mail with an http url back to this site with a one time code that enables them to confirm their e-mail address is valid.

Thus anyone who is prepared to spend a bit of time registering can get access.

In order to make this work I am updating the usermgr application to support the autoregistering of the e-mail approval transactions and to provide additional pages for users edit their own details and ultimately for me to adminstrate this new process.

UPDATE 26th February 2011

This post refers to an old version of the site and is no longer in use.