User Registration Issue on Multiple Site

Hi!

I'm running into an issue on the multisite project I've been working on and which I mentionned in previous threads.

The problem is that, when a user registers to one site then tries to register to another one on the network, the registration fails on the second site saying that the username and email are already in use. That may be true but it would be a much better option to either, just add the user to the current site automatically if they are already registered to another on the network or give them the option to register themselves to the current site (notifying them they are already registered on the network) or make it an option for the admin when the User Registration is created or edited.

Simply failing the second site registration is the worst option possible, especially since a user can be attached/registered to multiple sites on the network in WordPress. Registration should only fail if the user is already registered to the particular site they're trying to register to at that time.

Thoughts?

Hi Carl,

Thanks for the prompt reply!

From a UX perspective (I'm doing UX design too, not just WP site development), here's how I would handle it.

First, the base info item should be the email. If a user is already registered on the network and tries to register on another site using the same email and happens to use the same username and/or password, then I would just notify them that they are already registered to site "x" and do they really want to register to (current) site "y". They might get Confirm and Cancel buttons.

Second, if they do the same but use either a different username or password (or both), I would notify them that they are already registered to another site "x" on the network using that email address but tell them which of un or pw or both are different. Then I would offer them two options:

1- to re-enter the un and pw they used on site "x" and if it's a match, proceed with adding them to site "y". If not, I don't know if it's possible to trigger a password reset email programmatically and have that sent to the email they used and then they can try to register to site "y" again.
2- Offer them the possibility to create a new "identity" and tell them to enter a different email/pw/un combination.

Most people will probably go with option 1

Make sense? Doable?

Thanks again for being this responsive. You guys rock!

Hi again Carl,

I was describing what would be the best case scenario from a UX standpoint. From my point of view at this time, I would be MORE than happy with the very sensible solution you outline in your last message's second paragraph: if users entered an existing email and other creds don't match, then show a validation message telling them the email is already used in the network and they need to use the same username and password in order to be added to the current site. An awesome bonus would be to offer to send the creds to the email address in the account if they forgot the un and pw but that is absolutely not necessary for me right now.

On the other hand, if they did enter an existing email (site x) when they're trying to register to site y AND they used the correct un and pw from site x then I'd simply register them to the new site no questions asked. If some admins would like to have an option to present the user with a message notifying them that they are already registered on site x and they just registered on site y then it might be a great nice-to-have for some but absolutely not needed in this case for me.

I get your point about networks where each site is completely separate and visitors should remain unaware that the site they are visiting is on a network with several sites in it. In my case, it's the opposite and it's clear the "sub-sites" are on a network with the main site and share branding and all that. All the sub sites have the same look and structure (pages) and only the main site is different (much larger in terms of pages, etc). It's a completely gut feeling guess on my part but I would bet my situation is much more common than networks of isolated sites. I mean, even on wordpress.com users know their blog is on that one huge network.

So, would this be doable for 1.0 (or 1.x.x update soon after) :

On registration attempt to site y from user with existing account on different site(s) on network, either of these two scenarios would be covered:

Case 1- If user used entered an existing account's email but supplied incorrect un and pw then notify user of duplicate email and tell them to enter correct un and pw from existing account (would be nice to tell them what site(s) the account is already registred to)
Case 2- If user used entered an existing account's email and supplied matching un and pw then simply register them to site y without further hassle to them (that is basically what I expected to happen as I had entered the correct un and pw)

Thanks again very much for your responsiveness! Have you got any feedback from your Twitter enquiry on this matter?

Stéphane

Thanks for pursuing this.

I'm not sure the situations is so unique though. For starters, a super admin in a WP multisite network can add an exisitng user to any site very easily so this is already covered in the backend.

Secondly, with the release of WP 3.0, more and more WP developers use the multisite functionality and will be faced with this exact issue of how to handle users wanting to register on more than one site on the same network. I think that, if user registration is enabled in the WP network options, then users should be allowed to register to as many sites as they want unless admins do not want them to and that should probably be an option in the User Registration addon as WP itself offers no way to control this that I am aware of. In a WP multisite install, user registration is enabled or disabled network wide in the Super Admin>Options page but there's no parameter there controlling wether a user can register to more than one site and, since admins can already do it then users should too IMO.

More food for thought... :).