Conference Registration

Two Options To Do The Conference Registration

The collective.conferences Plone add-on provides two ways to process the registration for a conference. The first option is done within a folder of the site. If you choose this option everyone, who registers for the conference, had to get an account on the site and create a content object inside the registration folder.

The second option works with a page about the conference registration process and use a mail form for the registration itself. If you choose this option there is no need for an account and no content object will be created on the site.

Option 1: Registration Done Inside A Folder

The registration of conference attendees will be done inside a folder object within this option 1. This folder could be created inside the root of the Plone site. Therefore go to the root of the Plone site and click in the menu bar on the left side on the entry ‘Add new’ and choose from the opening submenu ‘Conference Registration Folder’. This opens the edit form to create the folder for conference registrations (see screenshot below).

_images/conference_registration_folder_form01.png

The form starts with a field for the title of the registration folder. This could be e.g. ‘Registration’. This field is mandatory. It is followed by a field for a description of the registration folder, which is optional.

The field with main information about the registration process follows. This field is not mandatory, but it could and should be used to describe the registration process, including e.g. a conference fee.

The following field needs an answer to the question about a conference fee. If this field is set to ‘yes’ you need to carefully edit the field ‘Payment Options’. The strings in that field will be displayed in and used for the registration form which a conference attendee has to fill out (see below).

Once the fields were completed save the edit form and the conference registration folder will be created inside the Plone site root.

Publishing the registration (folder)

The default state of the created folder will be ‘private’. If you want to change this state, click inside the menu bar on the left site on the entry with this state and choose from the opening submenu ‘Submit for Publication’ or if available ‘Publish’. If you could only submit the conference registration folder for publication a user with the appropriate permission need to publish the folder later.

Conference Attendee Registration

People, who want to register for the conference, first need to get an account on the site and log-in. Thus they had first to register on the site.

Once they logged-in they could click on the folder / page for conference registration, that was already created and published. There they choose from the menu bar on the left the entry ‘Add new’ and click in the opening submenu on the item ‘Attendee’. This opens a form to add a new conference attendee (see the screenshot below).

_images/conference_attendee_form01.png

The attendee has to fill in his full name, his address and his e-mail address into the form. If he is member of an organization he could provide this information in the last field of the form.

If a conference attendee has to pay a conference fee (the appropriate field in the registration folder edit form is set to yes; see above), the registration form for the attendee contains three further fields (see screenshot below).

_images/conference_attendee_form02.png

The first field asks, if the conference fee has already been payed. The next question is about the used bank account out of a list of available accounts (they are added on the registration folder edit form). The last field is about the users bank account, which was used for the payment.

Once the attendee has filled in the necessary information she/he could save the form and the registration finished. A new attendee will be created. The default state is ‘private’.

Option 2: Page About Registration And Mail Form

If you prefer to do the conference registration process within a mailing to the conference committee (and its e-mail address) instead, you can create in your Plone instance a conference registration page with information about the conference registration process. The view of this registration page will contain a link to a mail form.

You could add this registration page inside the root of your Plone site by clicking on the entry ‘Add new’ in the menu on the left side. Then choose the entry ‘Conference Registration Page’ from the opening sub-menu. You will get a form to create the registration page (see screenshot below).

_images/registration_page_form01.png

The form contains a mandatory field for the title of the registration page. The further fields for a summary (‘Registration Description’) and detailed information about the registration process (‘Information About The Registration Process’) are optional fields. But it is necessary to add here the necessary information about the registration proceding for the people which want to take part in the conference. Thus this fields are only techinically optional.

Publishing the registration page

The default state of the created registration page will be ‘private’. If you want to change this state, click inside the menu bar on the left site on the entry with this state and choose from the opening submenu ‘Submit for Publication’ or if available ‘Publish’. If you could only submit the conference registration page for publication a user with the appropriate permission need to publish the page later.

Conference Registration by Email

Once the conference registration is published every visitor of the site will find a link to an email form on this page. If the user clicks on this link a form opens with fields for the necessary user data for the conference registration process (see the screenshot below).

_images/registration_mail_form.png

The attendee needs to submit his name and contact address. He had also to fill in a valid email address. If the attendee has to pay a conference fee the form contains (like in the screenshot above) field to inform the organization committee, if the fee was already payed, on which bank account and from which bank account. This makes it easier for the organization committee to find the payment data of the conference attendee.

The form is secured with a recaptcha field. Once the user filled the necessary data into the fields and got the recaptcha challenge solved she/he could press the ‘Send Email’ button and an email will be send to the default email address of the Plone instance. This email address has been configured inside the administration page of the Plone instance by the administrator.