How to handle user registration on our widget?

[huangkuan]

Hi Group,

I'd like to ask my users to register before they use my widget. I am
curious to know how you guys on the forum handle this feature for your
app? Here are my thoughts:

A. Asking users to register on an official website and then they can
use user/pass to log into the widget.
B. Providing a registration page on my widget when a user first time
logs inl
C. Does WHERE share the username with us third party developers
through API?


I am trying to keep this process as simple as possible so that
potential users wouldn't be turned away. Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks in advance.


hk

[Gil Cunningham]

hk-
What exactly are you looking to accomplish by having a user log in ?
Where already provides a parameter, "deviceid", which uniquely
identifies the phone.

http://where.com/create/reference/?dev=yup&uname=
(at bottom ...)

Unless you have some specific reason for forcing a user to log, I
would avoid doing it.

>>C. Does WHERE share the username with us third party developers
>>through API?

No. All the parameters we pass on are listed on the page above.

[Andrew Turner]

On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 8:45 AM, Gil Cunningham <gilcun...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> hk-
> What exactly are you looking to accomplish by having a user log in ?
> Where already provides a parameter, "deviceid", which uniquely
> identifies the phone.
>
> http://where.com/create/reference/?dev=yup&uname=
> (at bottom ...)
>
> Unless you have some specific reason for forcing a user to log, I
> would avoid doing it.

I agree that this is a tough problem. Personally, I keep hoping for
OpenID mobile
http://highearthorbit.com/where-is-openid-mobile/
http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2008/01/13/the-openid-mobile-experience/

But until then, my suggestion would be.

Provide a login with username & Password. If they don't have one, let
them just choose "new user" and you store their DeviceID as their
temporary username, but then they can use the mobile app as much as
they'd like to without having to go to the web site first.

Then later, when they go to your site, you can ask them if they've
already been using their mobile phone, and if so you instruct them to
go to the login page on the mobile version and you display a Unique
Number (like 5989023) or something that they then enter into the
website. You then allow them to create their user account which really
is just filling in information on the account you created with their
device id?

Make sense?

Andrew

>
>
> >>C. Does WHERE share the username with us third party developers
> >>through API?
>
> No. All the parameters we pass on are listed on the page above.
>
>
>
>
> On Apr 6, 10:58 pm, huangkuan <huangk...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi Group,
> >
> > I'd like to ask my users to register before they use my widget. I am
> > curious to know how you guys on the forum handle this feature for your
> > app? Here are my thoughts:
> >
> > A. Asking users to register on an official website and then they can
> > use user/pass to log into the widget.
> > B. Providing a registration page on my widget when a user first time
> > logs inl
> > C. Does WHERE share the username with us third party developers
> > through API?
> >
> > I am trying to keep this process as simple as possible so that
> > potential users wouldn't be turned away. Any advice is appreciated.
> > Thanks in advance.
> >
> > hk
> >
>

--
Andrew Turner
mobile: 248.982.3609
and...@mapufacture.com 42.2774N x 83.7611W
http://highearthorbit.com Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

http://mapufacture.com Helping build the Geospatial Web
Introduction to Neogeography - http://oreilly.com/catalog/neogeography

[huangkuan]

Thanks for both replies.

I think the registration question is more from the business
perspective. Say I want to put ads or some promotion on my widget but
the advertisers probably rather see i have a list of subscribed users
than seeing a list of DeviceIDs.

Thanks



On Apr 7, 1:44 pm, "Andrew Turner" <ajtur...@gmail.com> wrote:

> http://mapufacture.comHelping build the Geospatial Web

[Gil Cunningham]

From our experience, requiring the user to enter login info is a
barrier. We have removed the requirement to enter login info and auto
generate it instead. Later, if the user cares, they can go online and
fill out their info. Few do.

> >  http://mapufacture.comHelpingbuild the Geospatial Web
> >  Introduction to Neogeography -http://oreilly.com/catalog/neogeography- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Andrew Turner]

On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 3:12 PM, Gil Cunningham <gilcun...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> From our experience, requiring the user to enter login info is a
> barrier. We have removed the requirement to enter login info and auto
> generate it instead. Later, if the user cares, they can go online and
> fill out their info. Few do.

I'm wondering if there is a better mechanism for this since users are
already known through the general WHERE platform - making it easier to
optionally share login credentials across multiple widgets.
Essentially WHERE becoming a sort of "OpenID provider"

http://highearthorbit.com Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

http://mapufacture.com Helping build the Geospatial Web

[huangkuan]

Good thought. Thank you very much.

On Apr 7, 3:31 pm, "Andrew Turner" <ajtur...@gmail.com> wrote:

> > > > http://mapufacture.comHelpingbuildthe Geospatial Web
> > > > Introduction to Neogeography -http://oreilly.com/catalog/neogeography-Hide quoted text -

>
> > > - Show quoted text -
>
> --
> Andrew Turner
> mobile: 248.982.3609

> and...@mapufacture.com 42.2774N x 83.7611Whttp://highearthorbit.comAnn Arbor, Michigan, USA
>

> http://mapufacture.comHelping build the Geospatial Web