[thelist] storing user information and allowing them to "finishlater" and payment issues

[Nan Harbison]

Hi Joel,

I wasn't clear about my problem, first I should say this website is for
consultants to post themselves as avaialble for consutling work and for
companies to post consulting projects they need done, braintrustinc.com. So
how do I know when the resume is complete so it can be shown to companies? I
can't see having to check all the required fields every time, I guess I need
a field that flags whether it is complete? Otherwise that is a lot of extra
work for the database for some day when this site is really busy, I hope.
But the site is already live, so adding a field to the table is really
scary.

So okay, there is no good reason not to put the payment fields on the same
page!!! I just don't feel like doing it.
:-(

Thanks Joel!
Nan

-----Original Message-----

> What is the best way to let users choose to finish the registration
later?
> Do I have to check all the fields every time they log in to see if
their
> resume is complete? Has anyone had to handle something like this
before?

What we've done with our online questionnaire is make the first two fields
(username, password) mandatory, then ask them to save the page (we provide a
button that writes to the database.) There's a 'Save'
button at convenient locations down the page. All it does is update every db
field with the current info.

When they return and log in, it populates the form fields from the db, which
they can leave alone or update.


> About putting the payment info on the same page as the registration
page,
> who does that? On all websites where I buy stuff, the payment page is
a
> separate page. Does anyone have a good reason I can give my client on
why
> we
> shouldn't do it this way!!!!

are they paying for what they're registering for? not sure what you're
doing, so this is a guess, but if you're filling in registration for a
service or product, and payment information will be required, why would you
NOT put them on the same page? other than technical reasons (which aren't
the client's problem :)

joel